General Materials, Inc.is a full-service aggregates supplier based in Oklahoma City, Okla. Established in 1978, General Materials prides itself on building lasting customer relationships with honesty and integrity and on providing high-quality sand and gravel products with unparalleled customer service.
Case Studies
Challenge
For many years, General Materials operated a construction aggregate plant consisting of a Classifying Tank and Screw Washers. The company replaced the screws with a McLanahan Ultra Sand Plant to achieve a drier product coming off the belt, which decreased product moisture from 15-23% with the screws to 6-8% with the Ultra Sand Plant.
“We were able to replace the screws that we were going to have to replace anyway,” explained General Manager Troy Banks, “and put a machine in there that put a product out that we could almost sell the next day because the moisture level was so low.”
As the project evolved, General Materials also considered its frac sand product, the processing of which involved digging out the sand with an aging fleet of trucks, excavators and loaders and processing it through a different McLanahan Ultra Sand Plant.
Banks said that instead of replacing the aging vehicles, General Materials decided to implement a dredging operation and build a larger wash plant to handle the material.
Solution
In his various roles during his tenure in the aggregate industry, Banks has worked with McLanahan for nearly 30 years. He was first introduced to McLanahan at an industry trade show and was immediately impressed with the equipment displayed in the booth.
“I thought, ‘Wow, this is really some nice equipment. I’ve never used any of this,’” he said.
He struck up a conversation with the team at the show and the rest is history — a history that has proven to be more of a partnership through the years.
“The good thing about working with a group like McLanahan is that they recognize that myself and others out here have quite a few years of experience, so they tend to listen to some of our ideas, and then we do the same,” he said. “We’re able to communicate pretty well. There’s a lot of experience in McLanahan.
“They’re people who relate to my world and not just salesmen.”
When looking to upgrade the frac sand process to a dredge operation with a larger sand plant, it was an obvious choice to work with McLanahan again. Through McLanahan’s Oklahoma dealer, Crushing Equipment Solutions, General Materials purchased a McLanahan Sand Washing Plant consisting of a feed-regulating sump, two 12x10 Slurry Pumps, two 8x6 Slurry Pumps, 12 Separators™ and four Dewatering Screens.
The McLanahan plant washes, classifies and dewaters the 50 mesh material used for General Materials’ frac sand product.
Results
One of Banks’ favorite things about the McLanahan Sand Washing Plant is its flexibility to produce different sand specifications with a few quick adjustments.
“We can run different materials,” Banks said. “It’s just really versatile.”
The versatility of the McLanahan plant allows General Materials to draw in new customers and enter new markets with new sand products.
“We can pretty much hit just about anything anybody wants us to hit. We’ve even hit some products where we didn’t touch before because we didn’t have that capability,” Banks said. “We’ve gone back to customers who hit us up for a certain product and said, ‘Yeah, we can do that now.’ It’s opened up some new markets.”
Banks said consistency is important to customers, and the McLanahan Sand Washing Plant is putting out a consistent product.
“The McLanahan plant is working really well for us,” said Banks.
