Virtual Control Room

Even though ICM is only in "phase one" of its plant networking plans, Schwear already sees paybacks through improved communication to the field and greater access to the plant for lab and maintenance personnel. This helps not only to increase the company's efficiency but also to improve the quality of its mix, since all of this can be accomplished without calling the plant operator and diverting his attention.

"The more constraints taken out of the tower, the more the operator can focus on making a quality mix. If you don't make a quality mix, you don't get paid. And that's what it is all about," states Schwear.

Mark Spicer has served as vice president of sales for the Terex Roadbuilding Plant Division since July 2003. He joined the former CMI Corporation in 1993 as a district sales manager and was promoted to regional sales manager with CMI/Terex in 2002.

Interchangeable components

When ICM is in the market for a new plant or plant component upgrades for its two existing Cedarapids drum mix asphalt plants, equipment options available to the company have been greatly expanded. ICM's existing QMA software will not only operate Cedarapids brand of Magnum counter-flow drum mixers, silos and baghouses, the controls will also accommodate the CMI brand of Triple-Drum mixers and plant equipment. So producers are no longer relegated to selecting only one brand of asphalt plant equipment, they can mix-and-match components and control systems from either brand.

In 1999, Terex Corporation entered the HMA plant manufacturing business with its acquisition of Cedarapids/Standard Havens. In 2001, Terex expanded its market share by acquiring CMI Corporation. Within a year, the parent corporation announced plans to consolidate all HMA plant manufacturing functions at its Terex Roadbuilding facility in Oklahoma City.

By combining the two product lines, Terex Roadbuilding has effectively doubled the number of options available to our asphalt producing customers, allowing them to pick the best component that matches their need. In order to accomplish this, both the Cedarapids QMA and CMI Impulse control systems had to be reconfigured in order to operate components from either brand of production plants.

Later this year, Terex Roadbuilding will introduce a new drum mix plant design geared towards asphalt producers who are always on the move.