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AGGREGATES

MANAGER

TM

pull-out guide

by Mary Foster, Contributing Editor

operations
illustrated

Building Blocks of Modular Plant Design

AGGREGATES

MANAGER
TM

Building Blocks of
Modular Plant Design

irst of all, lets define what a


modular plant is. When talking about stationary equipment, the term modular means
the plant is designed, manufactured,
and shipped in modules or sections that bolt together at the
producers site. The modules incorporate as many of the detailed
components as possible including
chute work, hoppers, cross members,
walkways, handrails, motors, drives,
and more. Because the modules are
self-contained and preassembled at
the factory, the installation requires
fewer bolts to attach each section.
Many of the detailed components are
already installed before the equipment reaches the site, and the modules lift off of the truck with a crane
and stack one atop the other. These
benefits serve to minimize assembly
time when compared to erecting a
traditional stick-built plant.
Of course, the convenience of installing a modular plant often comes
at a price. The initial cost of a modular system is often greater than that
of a traditional plant. Since more
work is done in the shop and less in
the field, producers must suspend
their sticker shock and evaluate the
total installed cost and the financial
benefits gained from the shorter installation time before they can fully
understand the investment.
But speed is often an issue for
producers, who avoid downtime like
the plague. So, the faster a new plant
can go online to produce revenue,
the better. Such was the case for
Smith-Buster Crushed Stones Sawyer, Okla., production plant, which
had peaked on capacity at its primary
jaw. After seeing a modular jaw plant
in action at another site, Hershel
Geeo and Eddie Smith, the companys general manager and partner,
respectively, chose to purchase a jaw

AGGREGATES MANAGER

plant on a modular structure for


Smith-Busters new primary crusher.
We were all right with the cost up
front because the installation time for
the plant was going to be so short,
he says. The get-up-and-go time was
the selling factor.
From our perspective, there are
several key advantages to the modular concept, says Jim Schreiner,
manager of product application
and marketing for Telsmith, Inc.,
based in Mequon, Wis. He lists
these benefits as the following:
Predesigned modules reduce engineering costs and manufacturing time;
Modular plant installation typically takes days, versus weeks or
even months, reducing crane
and labor costs;
Quick installation translates to
quick startup and revenue, versus ongoing costs;
Modular plant designs are already field-proven because the
bugs have been addressed; and
Customer feedback has resulted
in improved maintenance and
safety features.
Rodney Walker, general manager
for Wedowee Quarry in Wedowee,
Ala., an Oldcastle Materials APAC
Division site, shares this perspective.
Wedowee Quarry opened in 2002 as
a greenfield site using track-mounted equipment. By 2005, market
demands created a need for higher
production. Walker also wanted the
lower operating costs generated by
stationary equipment. He chose a
complete modular plant system in
three crushing and screening stages.
Speed of installation was a huge
issue for us, he says. But we also
looked at the plant from a growth
standpoint. Wedowee Quarry can
easily add or move stages if future
production needs require it.

operat

Doe

tions illustrated

es It Pay to Go Modular?

our
experts

Hershel Geeo recently


became general
manager for SmithBuster Crushed
Stone, based in
Sawyer, Okla. He
has more than 35
years of experience
in the aggregates
industry. Geeo has
pursued extensive
studies in electrical
and mechanical
engineering.

Rodney Walker is
general manager for
Wedowee, Ala.-based
Wedowee Quarry, an
Oldcastle Materials
APAC Division facility.
Walker opened
Wedowee Quarry
as a greenfield site
in August 2002. He
sold the operation
to APAC-Southeast,
Inc., in July 2005.
Oldcastle Materials
acquired APAC in
September 2006.

Jim Schreiner is manager


of product application
and marketing for
Telsmith, Inc., based in
Mequon, Wis. He has
worked in the aggregate
equipment field for more
than 25 years. Schreiner
has been with Telsmith
for 11 years. He holds
a bachelors degree in
business administration
(finance concentration).

August 2008

operations illustrated
Does It Pay to Go Modular?
Hershel Geeo

n 2007, when Sawyer, Okla.based Smith-Buster Crushed


Stone realized that its portable
primary jaw plant had reached maximum capacity, the companys general manager, Hershel Geeo, looked
at several options to replace the primary jaw. After weighing the benefits of both a traditional stationary
plant and one of a modular design,
Geeo and Eddie Smith, a partner in
the operation, decided that the ease
of installation for a modular plant
offset the initial higher cost.
Once the plant arrived on site,
as far as actually erecting it, we had
it up in six days, Geeo says. It was
faster to erect the plant than it was
to wire it. Id say, compared to a
stick-built plant, and depending on
size, that was probably 10 percent of
the time involved in erecting a traditional plant. Smith-Buster was able
to continue producing material with
its original primary jaw right up until
the new primary plant went online.
And after startup, Geeo says he
also noticed an unexpected benefit
of the modular design the lack of
vibration throughout the plant as it
runs. He says he believes this is because a traditional plant ties all components together. The (traditional
plants) vibration seems to transfer
from one portion of the plant to another. But with the modular plant,
each component is built separately as
an independent structure. It doesnt
seem to transfer the vibration from
one component to the next. The result is that the plant runs so smoothly, the operator hardly knows the
crusher is running.
Geeo says the modular design also
plays into Smith-Busters plan to
reach its material reserves. We have
a lot of reserves, and, someday, well
have to move the plant to follow the
source. The modular plant design
fits into our plan, he adds. Hopefully, the teardown and move will
go as smoothly for us as it went to
build the plant.
AGGREGATES MANAGER

Rodney Walker

he oft-used phrase time


is money might easily
come from the mouths of
producers who choose to install
modular equipment. When Rodney
Walker, general manager for
Wedowee, Ala.-based Wedowee
Quarry in an Oldcastle Materials
APAC Division site, realized that
increased sales required a matched
increase in production, the ability
to go online quickly with a new
plant was essential.
Wedowee Quarry had been processing granite using track-mounted
equipment since its greenfield inception in 2002. It was good equipment, but it was not built for what
we were trying to do with it in granite, Walker says. We needed a highproduction stationary plant that we
could build and start up quickly.
APAC agreed with Walkers decision to purchase a modular plant in
2005, not only because of the speed
with which the plant could be built
and running, but also with an eye
toward additional future growth.
Because the sections are pre-fitted,
they were easy to pick up off of the
trailer with a crane. The plant was
easy to put together, but it is also
flexible, Walker says. We knew if
we ever decided to change anything
in our flow or add more equipment, it would be simple to do.
In January 2006, the Wedowee
Quarry installed a 36- by 48-inch
primary jaw, 57-inch secondary
cone with a 6- by 20-foot scalping
screen, a 52-inch tertiary cone with
a 100-ton feed bin and an 8- by 24foot wet screening station all on
modular structures. Walker says
in the end, the price for Wedowee
Quarrys equipment was nearly
equal to a stick-built system.
When you add the erection
numbers into the cost, according to
my spreadsheet, the plant came out
to be the same price, or even a little
cheaper than a traditional plant,
Walker says.

Jim Schreiner

t can be hard for a producer to


quantify the total capital outlay
for a new crushing plant or system during the bid process, says Jim
Schreiner, manager of product application and marketing for Mequon,
Wis.-based Telsmith, Inc. When
producers are taking bids for plants,
often the only firm number they have
is the up-front price for the plant
from the manufacturer. Installation
costs are time-consuming to gather
and, ultimately, dependent on the
plant design.
The majority of time spent in a
modular plant sale is in determining
the producers real needs and, if a
modular plant is the right solution,
the education of where the value lies,
says Schreiner. In the case of modular plants, that means helping producers to evaluate total installed cost,
and also a realistic timeline for plant
startup. Often, the modular plant can
be in production well ahead of other
approaches. The benefit of early plant
startup is easy to see: if an 800-tonper-hour plant typically runs eight to
10 hours per day and finished product sells for $8 per ton, it can either
generate or lose $50,000 to $60,000 of
revenue each day.
With a stick structure, Schreiner
says the manufacturer may ship
loose pieces of pre-cut and predrilled structural members, as well
as motor mounts, hand rails, walkways, etc. At that point, the pieces
must be put together like an Erector Set, using perhaps thousands of
bolts. A modular plant section, on
the other hand, arrives welded and
preassembled. You set each section
in place, put in maybe 50 bolts, and
move on to the next level, he says.
However, Schreiner admits modular plants are not for every project.
Sometimes job requirements dictate another approach. Sometimes
the economics dont work out.
Sometimes our backlog wont allow us to meet the customers time
schedule, he says.

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