Hi-Grade Materials Doubles Sand Production with McLanahan Equipment

Hi-Grade Materials is a supplier of ready-mix concrete, sand and gravel that has been serving the Southern California market since 1955. A division of Robar Enterprises, Hi-Grade Materials supplies aggregates both internally, for their concrete operations, as well as externally for ready-mix concrete and construction aggregates.

Internally, Hi-Grade supplies materials for its sister companies, including Smith Ironworks and Endura Steel. One of the company’s current external projects is supplying aggregates a major highway in California that connects Los Angeles to the Mojave Desert.

“Right now, we’re doing a big project on the Antelope Valley Freeway, which is the 14 Freeway . It’s been an ongoing project for us for quite some time,” said Brian Ouellette, Regional Operations Manager for Hi-Grade Materials.

Challenge

Before Ouellette joined Hi-Grade, the Little Rock site initially operated two fine material washers - one twin 36”and one twin 54”. The wet plant’s original throughput was about 300 tons per hour.

“I love to go into sites and set sites up. To me, this was a challenge,” explained Ouellette. “I've got multiple operations, but this was one of our bigger operations.”
His three main concerns for this new site were optimizing production, creating a consistent product and minimizing downtime.

Ouellette explained, “I recognized right out of the gate that we could make a vast improvement and bring a really large return on our investment.”

With inconsistent pit deposits, Hi-Grade Materials needed equipment that could process a variety of material and still produce a consistent product effectively and efficiently. Ouellette emphasized his goal of reducing overtime and runtime while still producing the optimal amount of product.

Ouellette had an existing relationship with a McLanahan equipment dealer in the region, Aggregate Crusher Specialists (ACS). ACS and McLanahan worked with Ouellette to design and install a solution for Hi-Grade Materials.

Solution

Ouellette was already familiar with McLanahan and decided to implement the equipment at the Little Rock site to increase the site’s throughput and improve efficiency.

McLanahan installed two twin 54” Fine Material Screw Washers and two UltraDRY Dewatering Screens.

Material is processed in a primary pit operation and is transferred via a tunnel system to the aggregate side, which consists of two crushing phases. After the primary and secondary crushing phases, material is ready for wet processing.

Material enters the twin Fine Material Screw Washers and is washed and dewatered as it is conveyed up the shafts of the Screw Washers. The material drops onto the Dewatering Screens and is further dewatered. Material that is discharged from the Dewatering Screens is stockpiled and ready for hauling and transportation.

“I started going back and forth consulting with people from ACS, and now here we are – we’ve made great changes,” Ouellette said, “It’s all a partnership. Friends working with friends, companies working with companies.”

Results

The McLanahan Fine Material Screw Washers and UltraDRY Dewatering Screens have helped Hi-Grade Materials increase site throughput and sand production.

“When I started here three and a half years ago, my throughput on my wet plant was roughly 300 tons an hour. Right now, we are pushing a thousand tons an hour range by putting in the Fines Material Screw Washers and the two McLanahan UltraDRY Dewatering Screens,” said Ouellette. “It took my sand production from 150 tons an hour up to 300 tons an hour.”

As well as increasing output, the McLanahan equipment helped Hi-Grade Materials better process the changing pit deposits on the Little Rock site.

“You have to be able to have the equipment, like we have here with the McLanahan equipment, to adjust for those pit feeds that are coming in that are more granular or have got a lot more clay in it,” explained Ouellette. “Now we have the ability to handle that, where before we could not.”

The combination of the Fine Material Screw Washers and UltraDRY Dewatering Screens has improved the site’s efficiency as well. The material coming off of the Dewatering Screens is around 12-15% moisture.

“It has allowed us to be able to take the product, send it off to the stacker. It doesn’t have to sit on the ground and mature as long. We can actually get it into a customer’s truck quicker and out to the jobsite,” Ouellette said.

Ouellette and his team were completely satisfied with the support both ACS and McLanahan offered for this project.

“We did consider other pieces of equipment for this operation,” Ouellette said. “But what led us back to McLanahan and ACS was the customer service.”

The wet plant has had minimal maintenance, but with what little maintenance it has needed, McLanahan and ACS were quick to aid Hi-Grade Materials.

“What I like about McLanahan equipment is it’s easy to work on. I can call my dealer and I get 100% dealer support, I get support from McLanahan,” Ouellette explained. “Just having guys that I can lean on to help me out makes all the difference. That’s where I tend to partner up with the people that we can support and they can support us as well. That, to me, is the partnership that I want to keep and cherish for as long as I’m still doing this work.”