Lafarge North America is the largest supplier of cement and concrete in the United States and Canada. The company’s sales volume totaled more than 18 million tons in 2003. Lafarge operates 20 cement manufacturing plants throughout the U.S. and Canada and more than 80 distribution facilities and terminals.
Lafarge’s Sugar Creek Cement Plant II in Sugar Creek, Mo. produces roughly one million tons of cement per year. The plant serves the Lafarge River Region, reaching from Red Rocks, Minn. in the north to Springfield, Mo. in the south.
Recently the Sugar Creek plant purchased a new loading spout to be used for loading clinker manufactured at the plant into trucks. The clinker manufactured at the plant is ground and used at the plant to produce cement, as well as sold to other locations. So the trucks being loaded are both the plant’s own haul trucks and over-the-road trucks used by customers and other Lafarge facilities.
The loading spout assembly purchased by Lafarge was designed by PEBCO, however it needed a heavy-duty winch assembly to meet the needs of the Sugar Creek plant and for this PEBCO and Lafarge chose a Thern Series 4HWR 4HWF Helical/Worm Gear Power Winch.
“PEBCO has worked in concert with Thern on a number of products for Lafarge,” says Rick Toedtman, new works manager for the Sugar Creek plant. “This just happened to be one in which needed to have a very robust hoisting assembly on this loading spout and PEBCO spec’d out this Thern product.”
The Thern Series 4HWR 4HWF winch the Sugar Creek plant is using has a load rating of up to 4,000 lbs. Standard features include TEFC severe duty brake motors, enclosed gearing and flange style roller bearings. Available custom modifications include grooved drums, special drum lengths and diameters, limit switches, roller pressure bars, and special finishes are available. Pneumatic, hydraulic and alternate motor voltages are also available.
The Thern winch is working well for Lafarge as an integral part of the PEBCO loading spout. “It provides us with the performance and reliability that we required for this particular application,” says Toedtman.
Thern, Inc. is located in Winona, Minn. and has been manufacturing a full line of winches, hoists and cranes for over 30 years. If they don’t have the winch or crane to meet a customer’s needs they will design the right tool for the right job. And every Thern product comes with a 2-year limited warranty, the best in the business.
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