Tube Technologies Inc. opened in Minneapolis in July of this year. The company manufactures inertia-welded drill pipe, subs, casing, stabilizers and other accessories. The company sells products worldwide and services the water well, oil and gas, environmental, construction and utility industries.

Owner Tom Ronnkvist, who owned and operated LTA Corp., manufacturing inertia welded drill pipe and accessories from 1988-1995, saw an opportunity to return to the drilling tool manufacturing market.

"Some critical assets required to produce our products became available and we moved rapidly," Ronnkvist says.

Ronnkvist hired Tom Paulson, the founder and past vice president of Boundary Waters Drilling Supply Inc., as Tube Technologies sales manager. Paulson also brought experience from GEFCO in Enid, Okla., where he represented it in the upper Midwest. The two men combined bring more than 50 years of experience to the business.

"I immediately recognized the potential that an alternative to drill tool manufacturing could bring," Ronnkvist says, "I didn't have to think long about the offer that Tom brought me."

Tube Technologies' phone number is 763-536-5985