What to expect at ConExpo 2020 from Superior Industries

Superior Industries president Jarrod Felton shared his vision for 2025 at Ignite18. Photo by Kevin Yanik.

Superior Industries hosted its first dealer open house Aug. 28-29 at the company’s corporate headquarters in Morris, Minnesota.

The event, dubbed Ignite18, attracted dealers from across North America to hear product updates, tour facilities and capture a sense of Superior’s vision for the future.

Superior also offered some product development details, sharing a few of its equipment plans for ConExpo-Con/Agg 2020. Among the equipment Superior plans to launch at the next ConExpo-Con/Agg are a new Liberty jaw crusher that expands the existing line and a horizontal shaft impactor (HSI).

“Our goal is three to five [new] products per segment per year,” says Jarrod Felton, president of Superior. “We launched over 100 at ConExpo [in 2017].”

A goal with the Liberty jaw is to build one that’s suitable for a portable chassis.

“We’re working on a bolted-frame jaw,” says Mike Schultz, crushing product manager at Superior. “The No. 1 reason: We wanted to build a jaw that we could put on a portable chassis that wasn’t overweight. We just completed the design. The first unit we’ll build is a 3444 portable-mount unit on wheels.”

According to Schultz, the HSI in development will be available in both primary and secondary designs.

“They’ll be available in both portable and static applications,” he adds. “The first machine we’re building will be a 5054 size machine.”

Additionally, Superior plans to launch another Patriot cone crusher. This crusher will be a 600-hp model that Superior expects to be readily available sometime in 2019.

“The new P500 will have a 33 percent weight reduction, coming in at about 75,000 pounds,” Schultz says. “We’ve maintained everything about the 500 that we like – the strength is still there, but we’ve lightened up and smartened up the construction to the tune of a 33 percent weight reduction.”

Also, Superior is developing a focus on modular plant systems, and it expects the first Helix portable wash plant to be built and made available within the next couple of months.

As revealed in a series of Superior presentations, equipment unit sales are up compared with recent years – and they’re projected to be up this year at the company, as well.

“We’ve anticipated that would happen and increased capacity,” Felton says. “Our lead times didn’t increase as much as other folks. We’ve kept up with it. I think everyone’s happy with how the market’s been.”