Ohio producer enjoying fruits of new wash plant

By |  January 31, 2022
Maverick Environmental Equipment and MWS Equipment designed the brand-new wash plant at Arms Sand & Gravel. Photo: P&Q Staff

Maverick Environmental Equipment and MWS Equipment designed the brand-new wash plant at Arms Sand & Gravel. Photo: P&Q Staff

Christmas came early last year for Dan Mann, a 46-year employee at Arms Sand & Gravel.  

Mann is enjoying the fruits of the brand-new wash plant that was installed last fall at Arms in Newbury, Ohio. Maverick Environmental Equipment erected the MWS Equipment plant, which is producing two spec sands and five spec gravel products.

The wash plant consists of a SandStorm 620 and an AggStorm 15XL, and it’s knocking the socks off of the old plant that was in operation at Arms when Mann started as a young man.

“The thing is we’re running at 35 percent with the new one,” says Mann, whose plant had been operating for about two weeks when visited in November. “If you look at the hour meter, 11 hours of that plant running at 35 percent is what I can make in a week with the other one.”

That’s unreal production for Arms.

“If it keeps doing what they’re saying it’s going to do and I can bump it to 50 percent once I get bigger loaders, I don’t know how I’m going to keep up,” Mann says. “It takes a bucket and a half every minute and 50 seconds.”

Mann recognizes this is a very good problem to have, though.

The right partner

According to Maverick’s Tim Smith, discussions about a new washing system between his company and Arms Sand & Gravel began in 2019. 

Arms made the decision in 2020 to pull the trigger on the MWS Equipment plant, and the plant components were delivered and assembled in 2021.

“Maverick and MWS designed the plant,” says Smith, director of business development at Maverick. “Maverick worked with civil engineering, excavating concrete and electrical contractors to build this.”

MWS Equipment representatives, including senior commissioning engineer Shane Mullen, supported the startup. MWS Equipment reps arrived in the U.S. late last year after COVID travel restrictions finally softened, allowing them to visit.

“These guys came in on the red-eye and stayed a week,” Mann says. “They gave me their personal cards. Shane tweaked everything he saw that needed tweaking and said: ‘You just call me, Dan, and I’ll figure it out.’”

That reassurance, coupled with the support Maverick has shown, is comforting to Mann and the Arms team.

“The only hiccup we had with building this plant is [MWS Equipment] couldn’t come in earlier to help build it because of COVID,” Mann says. “Maverick picked up. I couldn’t believe how great they were flying blind into this.”

A big reason why Arms selected MWS Equipment in this instance is because it could source everything from one place.

“MWS has their own factory and their own representatives and engineers,” Mann says. “So it was more of a one-on-one talk. I can call them right now in [Northern] Ireland, and they talk to me. They can communicate with my plant. I can get all my answers right away.”

Next-level materials

Howard Bates, the owner of Arms Sand & Gravel, was also instrumental in bringing the wash plant to life.

According to Mann, Bates bought Arms about 10 years ago and committed to making a number of key equipment investments. Mann, however, says the wash plant is the biggest investment made in his 46 years at the operation.

“[Howard] came to me one day and said: ‘I think we should come into the future of this place, don’t you think,’” Mann says. “The thing is this place has a lot of clay. The rock is embedded in clay.”

Kevin Yanik

About the Author:

Kevin Yanik is editor-in-chief of Pit & Quarry. He can be reached at 216-706-3724 or kyanik@northcoastmedia.net.

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