Equipment can be optimized for specific operations.

Note the common root shared by the phrase customer service and the word customize. Is it any wonder then that the most satisfied customers are usually those that receive custom solutions? Businesses within the aggregates and construction industries deserve no less.

With screen manufacturers willing to invest hundreds of man-hours of engineering time and thousands of dollars in materials to create heavy-duty, tailor-made screeners, plant managers and operators can now receive equipment optimized for their specific operation, without sacrificing the ruggedness previously available only through one-size-fits-all choices. The payoff yields faster installation, increased throughput, less maintenance and longer equipment life – all of which points to a faster way to profits.

"Before we were running roughly 8-12 tons of dry sand per hour into our bins, but with our new customized screener we can run up to 50 tons," said Rick Hollenbeck, plant supervisor for Bixby, Okla.-based Mountain Creek Materials LLC, a division of Timco Materials. "We can now process the amount of sand we need to keep up with demand, thereby allowing us to satisfy our customers."

A growing demand for customized equipment

Smico provides customized screening and sifting equipment.

Despite the softening U.S. economy, the need for processing construction materials shows no slackening. For example, Cleveland-based market research firm, The Freedonia Group Inc., predicts that worldwide demand for cement is expected to rise at an annual rate of 4.8 percent through 2008. In response, the aggregates and construction industries' need for high-output processing equipment keeps rising in lockstep.

"Our old screener wasn't able to keep up with the amount of dry, bulk sand the dryer put on it," said Hollenbeck. "We couldn't keep up with demand and suffered monetary losses as a result."

Yet, settling for off-the-shelf equipment in the rush for increased throughput or ruggedness often entails extra expense and slowdowns in integrating such inflexible equipment into the operation. In contrast, customized screening solutions involving already heavy-duty equipment allows the most appropriate "set-up" for a long-term balance of efficiency and output. In effect, plant managers can get the best of both worlds.

Customization – a process unto itself

Creating a piece of equipment begins with research. A screen manufacturer must carefully collaborate with the plant owner or the operations manager to correctly qualify and quantify his or her needs.

"We needed a 50-ton, two-screen classifier that would sit on top of the bin," said Hollenbeck. "Since it handled dry sand, it had to be sheltered from the elements. But with the screen so high up in the air, building a house around it would have been a mess. However, the people at Smico were willing to customize a machine that would do this for us. They designed and built a cap that made it completely watertight."

Smico Manufacturing Co. Inc., Oklahoma City, provides both stock and customized screening and sifting equipment to various industries, including aggregate, mining, construction, stone, clay, glass and concrete. The company's product line includes: conveyors, separators, feeders, sifters and vibrating screeners ranging in sizes from 12 ft. x 1 ft. to 8 in. x 20 ft.

They begin by collecting pictures, drawings, blueprints and material samples – the latter of which is analyzed in the company's on-site test facility. Given its 70-year history of evaluating materials, the company passes along its non-recurring engineering savings onto the customer.