Fred Gross is nearly a year into his post at IRock Crushers, where he serves as director of sales and business development.
Gross has made a number of career stops in the industry over the last 40 years, including stints with manufacturers like Weir Minerals, FLSmidth, KPI-JCI & Astec Mobile Screens, and Metso. He even spent five years at Power Equipment Co., gaining valuable perspective from a dealer’s point of view.
With several decades around portable processing equipment, Gross experienced some of the industry’s great changes. Portable plants continue to evolve, he says, and some of the most significant developments are underway right now.
“For a while it was track, track, track,” Gross says. “Now, we’re seeing interest from our customers and distributors in all-electric. That’s new within the last 12 to 15 months. Our next step is to make the conversion so we can make diesel-electric.”
The draw to electric is multifold: cost savings, higher production per ton relative to total cost, and environmental benefits. Gross recently spent some time in California, and the diesel-electric concept is all the rage in the West.
“We’ve hit the tip of the iceberg on the environmental concerns and regulations,” he says. “Everything is Tier 4 engines right now. One of the trends is for cleaner operation, yet the bottom line is that all recyclers and aggregate producers want the lowest cost to produce per ton.”
Plants fueled primarily by diesel aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, he adds, but there is good interest in electric options.
“The diesel portable plants are not going to disappear,” Gross says. “If we eliminate diesel power, our country comes to a screeching halt.”
Other plant trends
Automation and control options are growing in prominence, as well. Gross, however, believes there’s a unique factor driving developments.
“It’s driven by the fact that there’s a shortage of labor,” Gross says. “These plants have to be highly automated, and the automation has to be easy for people to understand.”
Still, some improvements to control options are needed in the United States and Canada, he adds.
“One of the large track leaders in the marketplace has highly automated plants,” Gross says. “They’re successful in Europe and Australia, but in North America I’ve heard people complain that they’re too automated. There may be one minor circuit board issue, and that brings the whole plant to a screeching halt.”
Plant automation developments are also driven by safety.
“If a plant is made safer by automating – in other words, less physical labor and input of arms and appendages – then that’s very good,” he says. “But I’m seeing a disturbing trend in that every week there’s a safety issue that comes up.”
Another trend Gross continues to see is aggregate producers branching into recycling. More producers are broadening their business approach so they can secure additional sources of finished product.
“I think this trend is going to be here for three or four more years,” Gross says. “That’s one of the reasons I joined IRock: to take advantage of this trend.”
While stationary plants still have a firm place in the aggregate industry, portability continues to trend as few brand-new pits are coming online.
“I just don’t think we’re going to see these huge regrowth static operation projects,” Gross says. “I think the continued focus in our country is going to be on portability.”
Eyeing growth
Now situated at IRock, Gross is eager to capitalize on some of these emerging trends. The company spent much of 2018 reorganizing, building up its dealer network and hiring new personnel.
“We’re going to have a dual focus on portable plants: the rubber-chassis tire plants and track plants,” Gross says.
IRock plans to enhance existing equipment while offering brand-new products to the market. Those who attend AGG1 Aggregates Academy & Expo in February can expect to learn about new IRock offerings.
“When IRock recruited me, I was very attracted for a couple of reasons: the phenomenal opportunity for growth based on state-of-the-art manufacturing outside of Cleveland and our tremendous ownership,” Gross says. “Our owner (Ken Taylor) is very well capitalized and has a strong commitment to grow this business.”
According to Gross, portable plant sales at IRock were good in 2018, and expectations are high for 2019.
“It’s been extremely healthy,” he says. “This group is young, aggresive and very well capitalized. The market that has consumed the most demand for portable plants is the recycle market.”