Sometimes, the smallest thing can make the biggest difference.
That’s been the case for Cliff Weigelt, plant manager at Peckham Industries’ operation in Pleasant Valley, New York. The company’s site there – which has been in operation since 1937 and under the Peckham name since 2012 – produces several products, including road base, concrete, asphalt, riprap and fill.
Several years ago, Weigelt was introduced to the VDG (Van der Graaf) GrizzlyDrive drum motor firsthand when a contractor came on-site to crush RAP. Weigelt was blown away by how the drum motor performed for the contractor.
“I was like: ‘Why don’t we have these things?’” he says.
Diving right in
In 2020, Weigelt installed his first two TM315 series GrizzlyDrives on belts next to cold feed bins. Originally, he planned to install conventional drives but he realized they wouldn’t fit.
Since then, Weigelt has added two more GrizzlyDrives to cold feed bins and two more on a wash plant. And he doesn’t plan to stop adding them anytime soon.
“Once we realized how wonderful they were, every single year we’re going to buy one or two and keep replacing a head section,” Weigelt says. “I have two inside that are done and two outside that are done. I just need to do the other three (cold feed bins), and then we’re good to go.”
As Weigelt describes, the cost of a GrizzlyDrive is justified by its output.
“The initial price is probably twice what a conventional drive would be,” Weigelt says. “But just one breakdown [of a conventional drive] – whether it’s a bearing that locks up, a gearbox that fails or belts that shred off – during a production season pays for the entire cost of a Van der Graaf drive.”
Sustained performance
Matt Lepp, heavy industry drive specialist at VDG, says the best feedback he can receive from a customer is, actually, no feedback at all.
“If a drum motor is spec’d properly and operated properly, you can basically forget it’s there,” Lepp says. “If our product works right, it’s really nice when I don’t have to hear from anybody about anything.”
This ability to “set and forget” the drum motor is one of several central selling points of the GrizzlyDrive. The compactness and space saving provided by the GrizzlyDrive is a key feature, as well.
“You can put in a conveyor drive system and for 80,000 hours, just leave it alone,” Lepp says. “We have no daily, weekly or monthly checks for these units. We [also] see about a 75 percent reduction in the amount of time it takes to install the drum motor versus a conventional conveyor drive setup.
“The entire drive package takes up no more space than an idler pulley,” Lepp adds. “It has allowed OEMs to get away from having to allow for the space for conventional motors, gearboxes, belts, chains and other components.”
Saving time on maintenance has been a huge advantage for Weiglet.
“I’m changing all of my cold feed bins to Van der Graaf so I don’t have to maintain them,” Weiglet says. “If you take a conventional motor and you run it really slow, the air flow isn’t there for the motor to cool down and you burn up motors or VFD drives. Having a Van der Graaf in there, we can creep that thing along and we don’t have to worry about anything because you’re already cooling off by the oil.”
Working together
Since Weigelt bought his first GrizzlyDrive’s four years ago, Peckham and VDG have enjoyed a strong relationship.
From VDG’s perspective, working with an operation that is not only open to change but excited about it has been a great experience.
“Historically, one of the biggest roadblocks we see as an OEM in the mining and aggregates industry is an overwhelming desire to avoid change,” Lepp says. “For thousands of years, mining has been about taking big rocks and making smaller rocks. In general, in the industry, in the past, there has been an aversion to trying or learning about different ways of doing things.
“When a company like Peckham comes out and says: ‘Hey, we saw [your product] and it looks pretty cool,’ [that’s exciting],” Lepp adds. “There is a very pleasant shift in the industry [in that regard].”
For Weigelt, working with VDG has paid off in ready communication and quick response times.
“We had one really slow [VDG drum motor] and one really fast one, so I was trying to rush a drive to our location,” he says. “I said: ‘You need to get me one overnight,’ and they were responding very quickly. I ended up finding [another fast] one so I didn’t need it, but I’m sure I would have gotten one really quickly.”
Related: Peckham Industries leaders reflect on 100th anniversary
