In less than one year of producing dry-cast concrete drainage products for first time in its 36-year history, Dyer Vault Co. of Dyer, Ind., is already receiving high marks for the quality of its new products. Commissioned last November, the new dry-cast production line has increased Dyer's capacity ten-fold. Although still a small family-owned business on 7½ acres, Dyer Vault is a company in transition on the verge of becoming a far more productive operation thanks to the introduction of 21st century technology. “This is a big step for us,” explains 35-year industry veteran Tom Karvasale Sr., general manager at Dyer.

Two workers run the Big Exact 1500, a machine from Austria's Schlusselbauer company. The unit is capable of producing up to 60-in.-diameter manhole risers, 8 ft. tall. The plant also can produce a variety of circular-shaped catch basins and rectangular box units. With time and experience, the daily production rates will increase, according to Karvasale, who wants to expand the operation in stages coinciding with increased revenue. Plant operators now perform some of the functions to be taken over by robotics at a later date, and still meet significantly higher production and return on investment expectations.

Production capacity at the plant can be increased without a fully robotic installation by using semi-robotic technology. Currently, the plant can produce up to 70, 48-in. risers (84-in. high) per day, equivalent to about 75 percent of the plant's capacity. The catch basins and state inlets are cast upside down with bases, so that a second pour for the base is not required. The plant is equipped with a product rotator with a lifting capacity of 6,000 lbs. when products are rotated horizontally. When the product is still in the mold, the lifting capacity of the rotator increases to 18,000 lbs. since the trunnions of the jacket interlock with the rotator with no danger of the product slipping.

Karvasale indicated that one of the primary reason for selecting the equipment was that it was modular, that the manufacturer sent engineers and support technologists from Austria to facilitate training programs, help retrofit the old building features to accommodate the new plant, help assemble the machine onsite and commission the plant. Before taking the massive step of purchasing the plant, Karvasale visited comparably equipped plants in Canada and the U.S. to see how they fit into a small footprint. “We told them right off the bat that we're new to the dry-cast process, and that we've only done wet cast up to this point. So, we needed engineers who are willing to do whatever it takes to assist us,” he says.

Although vacuum and hydrostatic testing of the products in-plant is not required in Indiana, Karvasale did purchase equipment to test product before transporting it to job sites. Product is tested for leaks after it's assembled on site. About 10 percent of structures are randomly selected and vacuum tested before being shipped. Products leaving the plant are equipped with butyl rubber or rubber-compound gaskets. Schlusselbauer supplies riser forms used by the plant that can accommodate hole formers built into the jacket of the mold, as well as impressions for A-Lok lifting devices and step inserts.

The new dry-cast operation also includes a 7½-ton overhead crane used to demold products from a precision-engineered core. Thanks to the robotic technology, each piece is as uniform as the ones before it.

READY TO GROW

Jerry and Roy Austgen purchased a wet-cast operation that had existed on the site for about 20 years and formally established Dyer Vault in 1968. Ownership shifted in 1999 with Jerry as president and his daughter Susan Karvasale as vice president. “Our wet-cast operations now mainly produce custom and large-dimension bases from 5- to 10-ft. diameter. A monolithic pour is used to cast the bases,” explains Tom Karvasale. “Also wet cast are 4-ft.-diameter × 2-ft.-tall eccentric cones.”

The company initiated its expansion plan in 2001 with improvements to the wet-cast operation. Then, in 2003, it went through its first major expansion, which included the construction of an 8,000-sq.-ft. structure to house part of the new plant and increase production space for large structures. Also included in the expansion was a new coring building and a Mixer Systems batch plant with 3-yd. planetary mixer to feed the Big Exact 1500 and the older wet-cast operation. The new coring capability gives a value-added feature to Dyer's product line. “It helps because we can take a standard product and customize it quickly,” says Karvasale.

Aggregate storage is provided in three bins, each with the capacity to hold 2½ truckloads of sand and aggregate. The cement silo holds the equivalent of 2½ tankers, according to Karvasale. Although the aggregate stock piles are out in the open now, the plan is to extend and cover the bins before this winter.

While Dyer was expanding its operations, it also was growing its product offerings to include grease interceptors and oil-sediment separators for stormwater-quality projects. Most of Dyer's customer base is in northwest Indiana, with about 60 percent of its product going to private developments and city projects and 40 percent going to state highway projects. The new machine was instrumental in allowing Dyer to successfully bid the structures for widening the Borman Expressway and improving the I-80/I-294 toll road. These are the company's biggest state job to date. Although the plant is certified by Illinois, “we try to stay local,” says Karvasale. “I'm not interested in issuing passports to my products.”

“This has been a good year for construction,” he continues. “Business conditions are good thanks to a big boost in infrastructure work. In fact, thanks to the manufacturing investment credit and very appealing interest rates, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to expand at this time. The growth rate of this company is five years ahead of where we thought it would be.

“We haven't really been hit by some of the cement or steel supply problems that other parts of the country have seen. That's not to say those products didn't get a lot more expensive recently, but there have been no shortages. The best thing about having this new, more efficient equipment is that it's keeping operating costs down, so we're able to absorb some of the increases in raw materials.”

Karvasale believes that business will stay so strong that the second phase of expansion could occur as soon as next year with the purchase of new depalletizing and cleaning equipment. A year or two beyond that, he hopes that he can introduce full robotics to the operation. “After our initial investment, upgrading will not take nearly as much money or time,” he affirms.

This article was prepared with information supplied by Schlusselbauer.