Hot Mix January 2011

Crafco Acquires Deery
Crafco, Inc., an Ergon Company with headquarters in Chandler, AZ, announced in December it had purchased substantially all the assets of Deery American Corporation and its affiliated companies. The transaction was effective December 3, 2010.

Crafco said it will continue to market and supply these brands to the industry and will add Deery's two additional manufacturing locations in Cheyenne, WY, and Youngstown, OH, to its six other strategically located manufacturing facilities throughout the United States.

LeeBoy Licenses Blaw-Knox Name for Pavers
LB Performance Paving Products (a new division of LeeBoy) will launch a new line of Blaw-Knox branded equipment including three road wideners and two wheeled pavers based on traditional Blaw-Knox models. In collaboration with Volvo Construction Equipment, LeeBoy licensed the Blaw-Knox brand from Volvo and will design, manufacture, market, and support Blaw-Knox commercial paving products.

"We're using our paving expertise and understanding of the market to get back to the basics, an attribute contractors respected about Blaw-Knox," said Kelly Majeskie, president of LeeBoy.

Included in the new line are the new RW-80A road-widener, the RW100B, the mid-size unit with a 10-ft. material placement width, and the RW-195E with a 12-ft. placement width. Other models are the PF-150B and PF-161B rubber tired pavers which offer 15- and 17-ft. paving widths, respectively.

Schwarze Industries Partners to Develop Electric Sweeper for Air Force
Schwarze Industries, Huntsville, AL, has partnered with Enova Systems, an innovator of electric vehicle and hybrid electric vehicle solutions for medium and heavy-duty trucks and busses, to develop a fully electric green sweeper for the U.S. Air Force.

"We're excited about the partnership," said Raymond Massey, director of sales and marketing for Schwarze. "We'll be sending over an A7000 for the project, and the hope is that this sweeper will become the standard Air Force spec for all sweeping applications."

The fully electric green sweeper will be powered by the Enova 120kW all-electric drive system coupled with a hydraulic pump and will use hydrogen produced by a solar electric array. This drive system will be paired with Schwarze's regenerative air sweeper design.

Elgin Enters into Research Agreement with EPA
In what is reportedly the first agreement of its kind in the sweeping industry, Elgin Sweeper will share its background of surface cleaning information with the Environmental Protection Agency to improve understanding of the maintenance needs of three types of porous pavement.

The cooperative research and development agreement is between Elgin Sweeper and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development's National Risk management Research Laboratory.

"The partnership with the EPA furthers Elgin Sweeper's commitment as the leader in environmentally efficient street sweepers to develop, formulate, and distribute environmental solutions and implementation technologies that reduce air pollution and storm water pollution in cities and communities across the United States," said Brian Giles, sweeper product manager at Elgin Sweeper.