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Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame Profile: Bruno Nordberg
Draftsman set stage for modern-day crushing, screening equipment. Bruno Nordberg founded the Nordberg Manufacturing Co. in 1886, and he achieved his first recognition and success in steam engines. Born in Finland, Nordberg emigrated to the United States with little in his pockets around 1880, eventually settling in Milwaukee. He found work at age 22 as a draftsman concentrating on Corliss steam engines, but his career took off when he formulated the idea of a poppet valve engine and a cut-off governor. “Cut-off refers to the end of a cylinder stroke where you want to stop allowing high-pressure steam into the cylinder,” says Pekka Pohjoismäki, president of crushing and screening equipment at Metso Mining and Construction Technology. “At startup or during acceleration, you would want to continue to allow the steam into the cylinder until the end of the stroke to get maximum force for the full stroke.” But at a high speed, Pohjoismäki says, more efficiency is achieved if the flow of high-pressure steam is cut off and the high-pressure… Keep Reading
Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame Profile: Chuck Lien
‘Rock Chuck’ amassed reserves, shaped his company around family. Pete Lien & Sons, which started in 1944 near Rapid City, S.D., with Chuck Lien, his father, Pete, and brother, Bruce, has grown from a company that had $16,000 in gross sales in year one to one whose 2013 gross sales hovered around $110 million. Today, the company employs nearly 400 people at 30 different sites across South Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado. And Chuck Lien, now 89 and still chairman of the board, is celebrating 70 years as an employee. “I work every day and I’m interrupted a little bit with dialysis, but they still put up with me,” says Chuck, who continues to advise his son, Pete, the company president. From humble beginnings After serving in World War II, Chuck Lien and his brother joined their father in the quarry. Chuck says the three of them didn’t get a paycheck the first five years they were in business, taking just enough so the three could survive and the business could… Keep Reading
‘Dreducation’ class open to the industry
DSC Dredge LLC is hosting its 10th annual Dreducation Class, taught by Charles Johnson, on June 13. The class will take place from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Omni Royal Orleans in New Orleans. According to a press release, the class is industry-specific but not brand-specific. It's open to the general public. The class is designed to educate both industry newcomers and current dredge operators on how to become more productive and enable operators to work more efficiently, DSC Dredge says. DSC Dredge adds that the class will cover several topics, including how centrifugal pumps work; how to read a theoretical pump curve; dredge pump efficiency and how it affects HP requirements; types of excavators and their advantages and disadvantages; pipeline size, velocity, friction and production; and reading and interpreting gauges. Registration for the class, which is $425, includes lunch and program materials. Contact Linda DeFoe at lldefoe@dscdredge.com or by phone at 985-479-8032 to register. Keep Reading
Dodge Momentum Index slips further in March
The Dodge Momentum Index measuring the first report for nonresidential building projects in planning retreated 0.8 percent in March compared with February, according to McGraw Hill Construction. The March index is at 113.8 – down from a revised 114.8 in February and 118.3 in January. McGraw Hill Construction says uncertainty, perhaps related to weak employment growth at the start of the year, is the likely contributor to this short-term unease. Uncertainty weighed on both the commercial and institutional sides of the index in March, the firm says. New plans for commercial buildings fell 1.0 percent, as declines for offices and hotels offset an increase for retail buildings. Despite the pullback for offices, the most significant commercial building to enter the planning pipeline in March was a $250 million office building in Texas. New plans for institutional buildings dropped 0.7 percent in March. A decline in the volume of education projects was partially offset by the inclusion of two large amusement and health care-related developments – the $300 million E23 Casino… Keep Reading
P&Q Hall of Fame Profile: Howard Hall
Iowa-born man revolutionized road building with portable equipment. Ninety years have passed since the Iowa Manufacturing Co. got its start and more than 40 have gone by since its founder’s death. But Howard Hall’s legacy is still felt on every jobsite where portable equipment crushes rock today. After serving his country in France during World War I, Hall, an Iowa-born man, and longtime friend John Jay purchased the assets of a bankrupt company, Bertschey Engineering Co., in 1923. They shaped that company into the Iowa Manufacturing Co., which rose like a rocket after Hall and Jay discovered a young engineer, Guy Frazee, who had designed a rock crusher unlike any before it. “It was a fledgling company that was for sale,” says Ernie Buresh, 87, who served on Iowa Manufacturing’s board in Hall’s later years. “I think he put together the funds, and maybe his wife’s family helped him to borrow the money to buy the company.” The crusher Iowa Manufacturing developed combined crushing, conveying and screening into one machine,… Keep Reading
P&Q Hall of Fame Profile: Bernie Grove
Operations leader paved way for industry on social issues. Pioneer. Mentor. Class act. These are just a few of the words colleagues of Bernie Grove choose to describe the longtime Genstar leader and former chairman of the National Stone Association. “Bernie was a real visionary,” says Kim Snyder, the recently retired Eastern Industries president who at one time worked alongside Grove at Genstar. “He was so knowledgeable about the industry and the operational end. He was one hell of an operator.” According to Snyder, Grove was also an industry leader in a number of other areas, including community relations, the environment and gender equality during the 1970s and 1980s. As NSA chairman and through a number of the association’s committees on which he served, Snyder says Grove led a cultural shift for the industry. “If you look back at NSA, now NSSGA (the National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association), a vast majority of the past chairmen came through the government affairs division or the environmental end,” Snyder says. “The whole… Keep Reading
W.S. Tyler appoints new service manager
W.S. Tyler named Douglas Lima as its service manager. According to a press release, Lima has 34 years of industry experience. He's spent the last 16 years as a service technician with W.S. Tyler and its sister company, Haver & Boecker Latino Americana. W.S. Tyler says Lima will perform on-site inspections to prevent problems, and he'll be visiting customer sites on a regular basis to collect information on machines so he can develop customized service plans to help customers improve their efficiencies. Keep Reading
Lafarge, Holcim to merge into $50 billion company
Lafarge and Holcim are discussing a merger that would create one company whose combined annual sales are about $43 billion. The new company, which the Wall Street Journal estimates would be valued at $50 billion, would be called LafargeHolcim. The deal is expected to close in the first half of next year. "This proposed merger is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to deliver substantially better value to customers with more innovation, a wider range of products and solutions and more sustainability and enhanced returns to shareholders," says Rolf Soiron, Holcim's current chairman, in a press release. "LafargeHolcim will be uniquely positioned to take advantage of growth in developed markets and the world’s fastest growing economies by supplying the materials that will enable the construction industry to meet the challenges of the future." According to The Wall Street Journal, both Lafarge and Holcim anticipate selling as much as $1.3 billion in assets as part of the deal. Company executives, on a conference call, would not specify which of the companies' assets would be… Keep Reading
P&Q Hall of Fame Profile: J. Don Brock
Entrepreneuer built family of companies into a billion-dollar enterprise Five. That’s how many customers Don Brock, chairman of Astec Industries, tries to reach each day. It’s a daily goal for Brock, and one he encourages others within his company to achieve each day. “Don is an engineer and technical by background, but he has a great business acumen,” says Joe Vig, president of KPI-JCI and Astec Mobile Screens, one of 18 Astec companies. “His real love is selling the product to customers. I’d venture to say that of any corporation, no chairman talks to more customers than Don Brock does. He’ll ask each of us if we’ve talked to our five customers, and I’d be the first one to say I do not talk to five per day. I talk to as many as I can, but I guarantee you he does talk to five per day.” Brock’s passion and dedication to sales is one of many reasons why he’s been inducted to the Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame.… Keep Reading
