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Day: September 29, 2017

Cummins looks to future with diesel engine footing, ‘energy-diverse’ products

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Cummins Inc. executives gathered last month at the company’s technical center, near Columbus, Ind., headquarters, to spotlight a trucking industry future where diesel power will prevail for decades in certain segments, while others evolve around packages coupling internal combustion engines with mild hybrid design, and battery or fuel cells. In the core truck business, they reflected on progress their new on-highway X15 engine has exhibited through eight months of production—42,000 units shipped thus far—and strides the X12 cousin is making in field trials toward a spring 2018 debut. At 600 lbs. lighter than any other 10- to 13-liter class diesel engine for North American on/off-highway vehicles, the X12 is poised for mixer, dump and other weight-sensitive vocational trucks.

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Solomon Colors plays fair

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Upward of 400 artisans, flatwork contractors, ready mixed producers and material dealers or suppliers assembled last month in central Illinois for the Decorative Concrete Fair. Solomon Colors Inc. staged the three-day event near its Springfield headquarters, packing the schedule with demonstrations of namesake and Brickform pigments, stains, stamps and other products involving staff and widely regarded craftsmen; business sessions conducted by industry experts and leading decorative concrete finishing technique trainers; plus, tours of its production and packaging facility. Concrete Products joined the crowd.

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MANUFACTURERS – SEPTEMBER 2017

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Clearwater, Fla., water and energy technology specialist Kemco Systems has appointed David Lemen as vice president of Sales and Marketing, where he will lead the team’s water reuse and thermal energy recovery sales force. He has spent the last 11 years in the water and wastewater industry with Evoqua, most recently as business development manager for North American service products.

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ORGANIZATIONS – SEPTEMBER 2017

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The National Precast Concrete Association Nominating Committee has submitted its slate of 2017-18 officer and director nominees, the vote scheduled during the NPCA 52nd Annual Convention next month in Atlanta. Nominees on track to join previously elected 2017-18 NPCA Chairman Ashley Smith of Smith-Midland Corp. are: Chairman-Elect Michael Hoffman of Lindsay Precast Inc. and Secretary/Treasurer Jon Ohmes of Champion Precast Inc.; plus Directors Jeff Malcolm of Norwalk Concrete Industries, Joel Sheets of Tindall Corp., Mark Wieser of Wieser Concrete Products, and Wes Dees of Seaman Corp. (Associate).

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PRODUCERS – SEPTEMBER 2017

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Wieser Concrete Products has promoted Andy Winkler to general manager of its Maiden Rock, Wis., flagship plant, tasked with leading safety, marketing, sales, administrative and service groups. Winkler joined the company 16 years ago and has been in the precast industry his entire career—completing tours of duty in production, delivery, installation and sales, while also playing a pivotal role in the safety program. Beyond the plant, he is Minnesota Onsite Wastewater Association president elect and National Precast Concrete Association Safety, Health and Environmental Committee member, and spearheaded an initiative that saw the Wisconsin Precast Concrete Association premier a boom truck certification class earlier this year.

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Concrete paver, slab sales climb steadily, return to 2006 peak in sight

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Sales of concrete pavers and slabs rose to a projected 721 million square feet in the U.S. and Canada during 2016, a 4.3 percent increase from the prior year’s 690 million sq. ft. According to the 2017 Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute Industry Sales Profile, based on a survey of producers representing more than 50 percent of U.S. and Canadian paver and slab capacity, last year’s estimated total was a) the highest since 2006, when estimated shipments hit 800 million sq. ft.; and, b) 35.5 percent above 2010, when the industry hit a recession-low sales point of 472 million sq. ft.

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Connections’ fire test results encourage mass timber building proponents

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A new report tied to the reThink Wood campaign details glulam beam-to-column connections’ fire resistance in Type IV construction, or buildings up to 85-ft. tall. Findings from three assemblies subjected to ASTM E119-16a, Standard Test Methods for Fire Tests of Building Construction and Materials, campaign proponents note, “support mass timber as a safe solution that meets stringent fire safety standards for U.S. building design and construction.”

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Beton Brunet barriers pace Montreal ePrix routing, safety measures

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The Lanxess Inorganic Pigments (IPG) business unit supplied nearly 37 metric tons of charcoal-colored Bayferrox 340 pigments to Beton Brunet, based in Salaberryde-Valleyfield, Québec, for production of 5.5 kilometers of precast concrete barriers that lined both sides of the inaugural 2.75-km Hydro-Quebec Montreal ePrix race course. The July 29–30 event capped the FIA Formula E circuit 2017’s third season, which kicked off in Hong Kong and toured eight other cities, including Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Paris, Berlin and New York. In motor sport, Formula E is a dubbed “sports platform for sustainability,” as the series features full electric-powered cars and uses city street courses.

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California stakeholders recognize concrete pavement’s seven-decade record

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Construction industry leaders, California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) officials, and state legislators assembled in late-August to recognize the performance, longevity and value inherent in a 10-mile stretch of concrete pavement along Interstate 10, linking Ontario and Colton and placed in 1947 with a projected 20-year service life.

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