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Talbert Manufacturing names business development director
Talbert Manufacturing has appointed Jerry Rothwell as its director of business development and tasked him with creating and expanding markets for the company’s trailer lines. Rothwell most recently served Fontaine Trailer Co. in a variety of roles, including regional vice president and director of heavy haul business development, for the past 13 years. Keep Reading
Knife River names safety director
Sean Haggerty has been promoted to safety director at Knife River Corp. He will be based out of the company’s offices in Stockton, Calif. Haggerty joined Knife River in 2007 as safety manager for Hawaiian Cement and West Hawaii Concrete. According to the company, he led those operations to record-low injury and incident rates by focusing on safety awareness, defining accountabilities and building a positive safety culture. “We want to make sure that every employee on a job site – and every member of the public who passes through a job site – goes home safely at the end of the day,” says Dave Barney, Knife River president. “Our role in management is to provide training and safety programs that make a positive impact and really make sense in the field.” Keep Reading
Caterpillar makes wear coatings services available to outsiders
Caterpillar has been developing and applying wear coatings to extend the service life and performance of Cat machine components, both new and remanufacturered, for decades. Now, the same Cat custom services are being made available to other equipment manufacturers, as well as users of large industrial equipment. Shermco Industries will market the services, which include research and development, product development, turnkey coating and finish machining. “The marketing agreement with Shermco leverages their understanding of industrial customers to identify the best opportunities for Caterpillar technical capabilities to solve problems, and in the end to reduce costs for the end user,” says Tony Zampogna Jr., commercial manager of Industrial Solutions Advanced Wear Coatings for Caterpillar. The metal deposition wear coating processes performed by Caterpillar include laser cladding, twin-wire arc spray, high-velocity oxy-fuel thermal spray coatings, plasma transfer arc weld, cold spray and bore spray. Finish machining completes the process for each component. Keep Reading
Equipment suppliers weigh in on Hillhead
The producers of Hillhead 2012 released attendance numbers three weeks ago for their June 19-21 show, which included 17,083 visitors – a 9-percent increase over their 2010 show – and a record 459 exhibitors. Now, equipment suppliers who exhibited at Hillhead are weighing in with their impressions of the show. According to Hillhead producers, Sandvik Construction enjoyed its best Hillhead ever with nearly 3,000 people visiting its stand during the three-day show. “Hillhead has always been the perfect opportunity for us to showcase our product lines and meet our customers, but this year we were truly staggered by [the] vast number of potential new customers and general visitors who came to the Sandvik stand,” says Hugh Glandfield, Sandvik vice president for the United Kingdom and Ireland. “We launched three new products this year, as well as the latest upgrades from our tracked jaw crusher range, but the real star of the show was the stand itself. It seemed to act like a magnet to visitors to the exhibition.” Val Ledden,… Keep Reading
Power Transmission Solutions produces app for digital catalogs
Power Transmission Solutions has launched a fourth app that’s now available for use on iPhones and iPads. The Power Transmission Solutions free bookshelf app is downloadable on iTunes and allows users to browse digital versions of the company’s product catalogs and interact with the content. “The new bookshelf app enables customers to create a customized shelf on their iPhone, iPad or desktop computer and ensures users have the most up-to-date product information,” says Mike Suter, vice president of marketing for Power Transmission Solutions. This latest Power Transmission Solutions app joins the company’s HVAC Browning Energy Efficiency Calculator app, the HVAC Toolbox Technician app and the System Plast Food and Beverage Conveyor Solutions Calculator app. Keep Reading
Martin Marietta-Vulcan ruling explained further
Bloomberg reports that the Delaware Supreme Court has expanded on a May 31 ruling, concluding in a 42-page explanatory opinion that a lower court properly found Martin Marietta Materials Inc. could not proceed with a hostile takeover of Vulcan Materials Co. The justices wrote in the opinion released Tuesday that, “It is undisputed that the confidentiality agreements in this case were true confidentiality agreements [violated by Martin Marietta Materials].” As Bloomberg reports, the justices further write that the agreements “did not categorically preclude Martin from making a hostile takeover bid for Vulcan. What they did was preclude Martin from using and disclosing Vulcan’s confidential, nonpublic information.” Martin Marietta and Vulcan Materials sued each other over the hostile bid, and in a May 4 opinion after a non-jury trial, Delaware Chancery Court Judge Leo Strine Jr. decided Martin Marietta did not comply with confidentiality provisions and said it could not pursue Vulcan for four months. Martin Marietta eventually appealed, and the Delaware Supreme Court agreed with Strine after a May 31… Keep Reading
Transportation bill funding generated from variety of sources
Since Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed the transportation bill, NSSGA indicates a number of people have asked how the bill is being funded at $52 billion per year when that amount is significantly more than the total amount gasoline and other transportation user fees generate. The Senate Finance Committee, as reported by NSSGA, says the $52 billion per year is being funded by a highway authorization and revenue transfer to the Highway Trust Fund (HTF), which entails an extension of HTF expenditure authority, an extension of highway-related taxes, a transfer of general fund monies into the HTF and by Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) premiums. Multiple items are reportedly offsetting the new funds in the federal budget, including roll-your-own cigarette machines and PBGC premium increases. Keep Reading
Two-year transportation bill a win, albeit a short one
Lost in the shadow of the Supreme Court’s decision last week to uphold President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul law was the surprising, bipartisan passage of a transportation bill that will fuel more than $100 billion into America’s roads through 2014. Considering the presidential election, as well as the 33 Senate elections that will determine whether Congress remains split along party lines or the Republicans take over both chambers, it is surprising Congress managed to get a deal done. Neither party seems to be budging on any issue considering the political change that both parties long for this November, so the fact a surface transportation bill is sitting on the president’s desk for approval this week is a plus for the aggregates industry. Some transportation bill advocates wanted more than a two-year bill, but considering the do-nothing Congress’ inability to compromise over the last couple years, a two-year bill is better than yet another extension of two or three months. Since 2009, when the previous transportation bill expired, the bill… Keep Reading
Transportation bill passed in nick of time
With the transportation bill just hours away from expiring, Congress passed a $105 billion bill Friday that keeps transportation funding at current levels for another two years. Because the bill passed the House, 373-52, and the Senate approved it, 74-19, the bill moves to the White House for President Barack Obama’s approval. White House spokesman Jay Carney told Reuters the transportation funding would help put Americans to work fixing the crumbling U.S. infrastructure, an indication that President Obama will sign the bill into law. The bill is expected to create or save about 3 million jobs. According to Reuters, the federal government spends more than $50 billion annually on road, bridge and transit construction projects. The last transportation bill expired in 2009. Construction programs have survived since then through short-term funding extensions like the one passed Friday. The last extension expired Saturday. Keep Reading
