A company operating in multiple states contacted Stansteel/Hotmix Parts & Service to help them buy a new plant. When our technical team started asking questions about the existing plant the customer said, “He ran very inconsistent mix and he’d been fighting it for a very long time.” He also mentioned his CMI Triple Drum had been repaired and cobbled a great deal and knew that it needed to be replaced. He had clearly decided it was time for a new plant.
Members of our technical team traveled to the site, looked over the equipment and found that the cold feed bins and RAP feeds were in very good condition. They also found that there was nothing wrong with the drum frame, burner and air pollution control baghouse. In addition, the liquid A.C. storage and pumping equipment were quite acceptable. On reviewing this information with the customer, the Stansteel/Hotmix Parts team asked, “Why do you want to get rid of some good, serviceable equipment?”
After hearing the information, the customer decided that he didn’t really want to spend $5 million on a new plant and he could use that capital investment money for other facilities or other strategic business endeavors.
The Stansteel/Hotmix Parts & Service Team came up with an analysis and a value-added proposal.
The drum shell with seals, trunnions and other items would be replaced with a Stansteel RAP Eater high-capability recycle drum. The Stansteel RAP Eater drum has the capabilities of processing virgin and RAP material and eliminated a great deal of the old combustion chamber and other problems experienced with the former design.
In addition, the control house was in good shape; it was mainly the control system that had experiences many changes and was no longer supported by the manufacturer. Stansteel/Hotmix Parts & Service recommended a conversion to the Accu-Track Total Plant Control. The Stansteel Accu-Track has been proven in all brands of asphalt plants throughout the country. It has decades of engineering that accommodate individual state requirements and also helps customers hit required specifications. Other valuable benefits of the Accu-Track Total Plant Control are that it allows customers to program a setpoint production rate and blending percentages and it tracks all of the key items such as motors and speeds.
The customer made the conversion in a scheduled downtime and was delighted with the results, not to mention the additional benefit of saving $3 million or more.
