Trailer manufacturing isn’t an industry most people associate with environmental innovation. Steel gets cut, welded, and coated at volume, and coating is exactly where Load Trail has made a change worth talking about.
Load Trail LLC, based in Sumner, Texas, has earned the National Association of Trailer Manufacturers’ (NATM) 2015 Green Manufacturing Award. The award recognizes a NATM member trailer manufacturer that has made significant contributions to improving the environmental impact of the trailer industry, and it comes with a $5,000 check, presented at NATM’s annual convention.
The nomination: EnviroServe Chemicals
Load Trail was nominated for the award by EnviroServe Chemicals, the Dunn, North Carolina-based chemical supplier behind the pretreatment technology now running on Load Trail’s production line. EnviroServe put Load Trail forward specifically because of the company’s efforts to reduce water and energy consumption, eliminate hazardous paint pretreatment products, and increase production output, all at the same time.
Trailer manufacturing isn’t an industry most people associate with environmental innovation. Steel gets cut, welded, and coated at high volume, and coating is exactly where Load Trail made a change worth talking about.
In 2015, Load Trail LLC, based in Sumner, Texas, earned the National Association of Trailer Manufacturers’ (NATM) Green Manufacturing Award. The award recognizes a NATM member manufacturer that has made significant contributions to improving the environmental impact of the trailer industry and included a $5,000 prize presented during NATM’s Annual Convention.
The Nomination: EnviroServe Chemicals
Load Trail was nominated by EnviroServe Chemicals, a chemical supplier based in Dunn, North Carolina, whose pretreatment technology was implemented on Load Trail’s production line.
EnviroServe recognized Load Trail’s efforts to reduce water and energy consumption, eliminate hazardous paint pretreatment products, and increase production efficiency—all while improving the manufacturing process.
The Technology: EnviroKote™ Zirconium Technology
The award centered around the implementation of EnviroServe’s EnviroKote™ Zirconium Technology on Load Trail’s pretreatment line ahead of powder coating.
The new process delivered several key improvements:
Significantly reduced water and energy consumption through a rinse-free pretreatment process.
Lower-temperature pretreatment, reducing the energy required to heat the chemistry compared to traditional methods.
Elimination of phosphate from the waste stream through EnviroServe’s Advanced Green Chemistry.
Improved finish quality, with salt spray testing demonstrating increased paint adhesion and corrosion resistance over the previous process.
Perhaps most importantly, the new system proved that sustainability didn’t require sacrificing durability. The environmentally friendly process also produced a stronger, longer-lasting finish.
The Team Behind the Achievement
The award was presented to Cornelius Thiessen, Owner and Founder of Load Trail, along with Bryan Geeslin, Load Trail’s Quality Manager, who helped lead the implementation of the new pretreatment system.
Representing EnviroServe Chemicals were David Jones, R&D Chemist; Marc Oprean, Technical Account Manager; and Jonathan Ballard, Technical Account Manager.
Why It Matters
The transition wasn’t driven by regulation—it was driven by a commitment to building better trailers. By reducing water and energy usage, eliminating hazardous waste from the pretreatment process, and improving corrosion resistance, Load Trail demonstrated that environmental responsibility and manufacturing quality can go hand in hand.
The NATM Green Manufacturing Award recognized that commitment, highlighting Load Trail’s investment in manufacturing processes that benefit both the environment and the long-term durability of every trailer that leaves the production line.
