Solution Gear Co. rebuilds industrial gearboxes for Louisiana refineries, chemical plants, and LNG terminals from our shop in Houston, Texas, about 2.5 hours from Lake Charles on Interstate 10. We are family owned and operated, we have rebuilt gearboxes for over 20 years, and every step happens in house: teardown, magnaflux inspection, gear cutting, and a test run before the unit ships back. Louisiana plants send units to us with free shipping both ways, or we arrange pickup along the Calcasieu Parish corridor. Free inspection, up to a 24 month workmanship warranty, and 24 hour emergency service on every job.
Few states concentrate as much heavy rotating machinery as Louisiana. The state's 15 oil refineries can process almost 3 million barrels of crude oil per calendar day, about one sixth of United States refining capacity and the second most of any state after Texas, and three Louisiana refineries rank in the nation's top ten by capacity, per the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The chemical side is just as heavy. Louisiana is the second largest chemical producing state in the country behind Texas, with major refining and petrochemical corridors at Lake Charles, at Baton Rouge, Geismar, and Plaquemine, and along the lower Mississippi River, per IEEFA. Louisiana Chemical Association member companies directly employ more than 27,000 Louisianans at an average wage of $84,451, and the chemical industry is the number one provider of jobs in the state's manufacturing sector, per the Louisiana Chemical Association.
Every one of those plants turns on gear drives: cooling tower gearboxes, pump and compressor drives, mixer and agitator reducers, conveyor and crane drives. When one of them fails, the math is simple. A rebuilt unit from a shop 2.5 hours down Interstate 10 beats a months long OEM lead time, and that is the gap we fill for Louisiana.
Our Louisiana hub. The parish economy reached $18.4 billion in GDP in 2024, one of the largest parish economies outside the New Orleans and Baton Rouge metros, per the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Start at our Calcasieu Parish gearbox repair page, or go straight to your city:
Gearbox repair in Lake Charles
Industrial gearbox repair in Sulphur
Plants in Baton Rouge, Geismar, Plaquemine, along the lower Mississippi River, and anywhere else in the state use the same model our Texas customers outside Houston use: we arrange crating and freight, the unit ships to our Houston shop free both ways, and it comes back rebuilt, test run, and under warranty. See all service areas for the full coverage list.
Louisiana's plants skew hard toward refining, petrochemicals, and LNG, so the units we see from the state follow that mix. From refineries: cooling tower gear drives, pump gearboxes, blower and compressor drives, and the crane wheels and hoist drives that move maintenance loads. From chemical complexes: mixer and agitator reducers, planetary gearboxes, and extruder gearboxes off polyethylene and polymer lines. Sasol's complex adjacent to Lake Charles alone includes an ethane cracker producing 1.5 million tons of ethylene annually plus six chemical manufacturing plants, per Sasol, and LOTTE Chemical dedicated a $3.1 billion ethylene glycol complex in the Lake Charles area in 2019, per Louisiana Economic Development. Plants like those run mixers, extruders, and pumps around the clock, and the gearboxes behind them are exactly what our shop was built to rebuild.
The full service list for Louisiana is the same one Houston plants use: industrial gearbox repair and rebuilding of any make, gear cutting with reverse engineering when OEM drawings are gone, pump rebuilds, babbitt bearing repair, crane wheel regrinding, and hydraulic cylinder repair. Every job gets a teardown, a magnaflux inspection, new gears where needed, reground journals, OEM bearings, new seals, recut keyways, and a test run before it ships back east.
We do not publish customer testimonials we cannot verify, and we will not invent them for a location page. What we can tell you is exactly how the work reaches us and what has kept Houston plants coming back for over two decades.
Solution Gear Co. has rebuilt industrial gearboxes in Houston for over 20 years, family owned and operated the whole time, across mining, oil and gas, power, paper, and steel. The same crew that quotes your job does the teardown, the machining, and the test run. For Louisiana, the model works like this:
If you want to judge the work itself, look at the rebuilds in our gallery. Every photo is a real unit from our shop floor.
Southwest Louisiana runs equipment that has outlived its paperwork. CITGO's Lake Charles refinery has operated on the Calcasieu Ship Channel since 1944, with a crude refining capacity of 479,000 barrels per day and about 2,400 employees and contractors, per CITGO. Plants that old carry gearboxes whose OEMs have merged, sold, or vanished, and whose drawings no longer exist. That is our specialty: we reverse engineer the gears from the unit itself and cut new ones in house.
The rest of the case is practical. We are one shop with one accountable team, so your quote, teardown, machining, heat treat, assembly, and test run all happen under one roof and one warranty. You can save up to 50 percent versus the OEM purchase price on a complete overhaul. We answer 24 hour emergency calls. And we are close: about 2.5 hours from Lake Charles on Interstate 10, which is near enough for pickup, for a rush rebuild, and for you to visit the shop and watch your unit go back together if you want to.
Straight down Interstate 10. Close enough for pickup on the Calcasieu corridor and practical emergency turnarounds.
Teardown, gear cutting, heat treat, assembly, and test run under one roof. No subcontracted machining, no split accountability.
Free freight both ways from anywhere in Louisiana, plus a free teardown and magnaflux inspection before you commit.
The Calcasieu corridor is one of the densest refining and petrochemical clusters on the Gulf Coast. Phillips 66's 249,000 barrel per day Lake Charles refinery sits in Westlake, minutes from Sulphur, alongside the CITGO refinery and Sasol's chemical complex, per NS Energy. Westlake Corporation, founded in Lake Charles in 1986, produces ethylene, styrene, and polyethylene at its Sulphur complex and employs more than 3,200 people across its Louisiana plant locations, per Louisiana Economic Development.
LNG is the growth engine. Louisiana is home to half of the nation's eight operating LNG export terminals, per the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Cameron LNG in Hackberry can export up to 14.95 million tonnes per year from three trains on the Calcasieu Ship Channel, and Venture Global's Calcasieu Pass facility adds more than 10 million tonnes per year at the mouth of the channel, per Sempra Infrastructure. Woodside Energy's $17.5 billion Louisiana LNG project in Calcasieu Parish, the largest foreign direct investment in Louisiana history, reached its final investment decision in April 2025 and will produce up to 16.5 million tonnes per year, per Louisiana Economic Development.
Statewide, about $160 billion in new chemical facilities or expansions has been announced since 2012, per the Louisiana Chemical Association. More plants mean more gear drives in service, more maintenance cycles, and more failures that cannot wait on an OEM queue. That is the demand this page exists to answer.
We serve the whole state. The Calcasieu Parish corridor, which includes Lake Charles, Sulphur, and Westlake, is close enough to Houston that we can arrange pickup on heavy units. Plants everywhere else in Louisiana, including Baton Rouge, Geismar, Plaquemine, and the lower Mississippi River corridor, ship units to our Houston shop with free freight both ways.
You call us or send the quote form, we arrange crating and freight, and the unit comes to our Houston shop at no shipping cost to you. We tear it down, clean it, magnaflux it, and send you a free inspection report with a firm quote before any repair work begins. After the rebuild we test run the unit and ship it back, and the return freight is free too.
Our shop in southwest Houston is about 160 miles west of Lake Charles, roughly 2.5 hours on Interstate 10, and Sulphur is a few minutes closer. That distance is short enough for us to drive over for pickup on heavy gearboxes, and it keeps emergency turnarounds practical for Calcasieu Parish plants.
Yes. We answer 24 hour crash and emergency calls, and we have rebuilt failed units and had them back on site in as little as 5 days. Call 713 270 6000 at any hour and we will start on logistics right away.
Yes. We rebuild cooling tower gear drives from makers like Marley, mixer and agitator drives from makers like Lightnin, and the pump and blower gearboxes that run beside them. These are some of the most common failures we see from refining and petrochemical sites, and all of the work happens in our own shop.
Yes. Refinery and terminal duty equipment is the core of what we do: gear drives for pumps, cooling towers, conveyors, and cranes, plus planetary and extruder gearboxes on the chemical side. When a unit is old enough that OEM drawings no longer exist, we reverse engineer the gears and cut new ones in house.
We tear the unit down, clean it, magnaflux the housing and gears, and measure every journal and bore. You get the real condition and a clear quote before you commit to any repair, so you see exactly what you are paying for.
Yes. Every rebuild carries the same up to 24 month workmanship warranty no matter where the unit came from, and free shipping both ways applies to Louisiana just as it does in the Houston area.
Free shipping both ways, a free inspection, and up to a 24 month warranty on every rebuild. Send photos and nameplate data and we will reply fast, often the same day, or call and talk to the people who will actually do the work.
