Shumate Industries, Inc. (OTCBB:SHMT), a technology-oriented energy
field services company, and its Hemiwedge Valve Corporation (HVC)
subsidiary today announced its progress with the adoption of its
Hemiwedge® Cartridge valve technology in the
marketplace.
The Hemiwedge® Cartridge valve’s
primary feature is its ‘cartridge design’
whereby all the valve’s internal parts are
affixed to the bonnet allowing quick and easy serviceability and
reducing expensive downtime during maintenance. An equally important
feature is the mechanical wedge seating which provides bubble-tight
shutoff at both low and high pressures.
The Hemiwedge® Cartridge valve’s
primary purpose is on-off control in production and process control
applications within the oil and gas and other industries. Applications
where the product is installed today include the following:
CO2 injection block valve for enhanced oil recovery in west Texas,
Drilling mud flow loop at a major energy services company,
Critical shutoff valve in a salt dome storage cavern for butane for a
major southwest-based company,
Block valves for gas storage wells in the US Northeast with a large
mid-stream company, and,
Block valves for sour gas gathering lines for a major gas pipeline and
processing company.
These applications and services have been identified by HVC as target
opportunities because the Hemiwedge®
Cartridge valve’s features are uniquely
suited for these applications. These features include a mechanical seal
in which a hemispherical closure member (the “Hemi”)
first rotates and then wedges into the seat to provide a positive,
bi-directional, bubble-tight shutoff every time the valve is operated.
The constant, fixed position of the core within the Hemi provides
protection of the seating surfaces and minimizes turbulence during
operation compared to other valve designs. In addition, the Hemiwedge®
Cartridge valve is a quarter-turn design providing low emissions and
quick operation in emergency shutdown and other critical shutoff
applications.
HVC’s sizes and pressure classes for the
Hemiwedge® Cartridge valve today include, 2,
3, 4, 6, and 8 inch full and reduced port in ANSI 150 through 600 Class
pressures, in both carbon steel and stainless steel. The 2 inch is also
available in 900 Class.
HVC’s extensive and aggressive development
program is currently focused on size and pressure class expansion of the
product line, enhanced seat designs, enhanced packing designs for
demanding fugitive emissions requirements, and high alloy material
options for the petrochemical and chemical industries. HVC is in the
process of applying a unique metal-seated, zero-leakage design recently
developed for its sub-sea high pressure valve to the standard production
Hemiwedge® Cartridge valve.
According to Stan Allen, HVC’s Senior Vice
President of Technology and Business Development, the combination of a
mechanically wedge feature of the Hemiwedge®
Cartridge valve and a zero leakage all-metal-seat provides a combination
which meets specific demands in both process and production applications
within the oil and gas and related industries. “We
are focusing on developing the features that meet our client’s
specific application needs,” Mr. Allen stated.
Ken Chickering, HVC’s President, stated, "The
industrial valve market in the United States and worldwide is enjoying
robust growth particularly in the areas of our focus. The process and
production applications that we target are those that our product
provides value in the form of reliability and serviceability.”
About Shumate Industries, Inc.
Shumate Industries, Inc. is a Texas-based energy field services company
that incorporates new technologies to bring products to market
leveraging its existing infrastructure, expertise and customer channels.
The Company operates through two wholly owned subsidiaries, 1.) Shumate
Machine Works, a contract machining and manufacturing division, and 2.)
Hemiwedge Valve Corporation, a proprietary new valve technology that
targets mid-stream process and flow control markets with its Hemiwedge®
Cartridge valve product line, sub-sea via a pending licensing deal for
Hemiwedge® sub-sea high pressure valve
product line, and Hemiwedge® down-hole valves
under development for drilling applications. For additional information
on the Company and its products please visit www.shumateinc.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This document contains discussion of items that may constitute
forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although the Company believes the
expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based on
reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurances that its expectations
will be achieved. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from
expectations include, but are not limited to, customer concentration
risk, difficulties in refinancing its debt, difficulties in
consolidating the operations of the Company's operating subsidiaries,
difficulties in accelerating internal sales growth, volatility of the
energy business and its effects on the Company's business, difficulties
in new technology acceptance within the energy industry, restrictive
covenants in our existing credit facilities, fluctuations in metals
prices, general economic conditions in markets in which we do business,
extensive environmental and workplace regulation by federal and state
agencies and other general risks related to its common stock, and other
uncertainties and business issues that are detailed in its filings with
the Securities and Exchange Commission. All information provided in this
release and in the attachments is as of November 19, 2007 and the
Company undertakes no duty to update this information.
Shumate Industries, Inc., Conroe Matthew Flemming, 936-539-9533 or Investor
Relations North Coast Advisors, Inc.: Craig T. Stewart,
585-218-7371 cstewart@ncainc.com