With the current boom in the overall US economy, the pressure has been on the construction aggregates suppliers to increase production. To keep up with demands, the sand and gravel suppliers have been expanding their plants to increase production with better efficiency. The trend in the past was to paint their equipment.....until now.

The current construction boom as put a lot of pressure as well as increased demand for various types of aggregate. Roads, Bridges, Freeways, building foundations, and concrete structures are just some of the types of construction where the demand has forced materials suppliers to expand their plants to meet current needs.

The heart of sand and gravel plants are the processing areas where the sand and stone are separated from the smallest to the largest by various size screens the sand and gravel pass through. These materials are moved by heavy duty conveyors supported by steel box truss sections that transport material from one processing area to another.

With the harsh conditions these plants are under each day processing sand and gravel, along with the very hard water in Texas the plants use to clean the aggregate, corrosion of the steel components is a concern. Down time cost money, so maintenance is sometimes overlooked or treated with a band aid to keep production moving.

In the past, most sand and gravel plants have bypassed galvanizing their steel in the plants for paint. They were fabricated, painted and erected into place. Paint in the short term was a factor in keeping overall plant cost down. As these plants expand and re-build, more owners are turning to galvanizing steel instead of painting.

Local Material suppliers have upgraded their plants over the past year. Multisource Sand and Gravel Company had decided to do things a little out of the norm by fabricating their own steel conveyor sections. By replicating the design of the older support systems, they used their own welders and equipment and bypassed the steel fabricator to achieve this. They also improved productivity by combining their fabricated conveyor support system with the latest drive systems available on the market. Multisource Sand and Gravel have several locations in South Texas and have future plans to expand those, with galvanized steel.

By fabricating their on steel, Multisource Sand and Gravel were able to cut cost and allocate the savings to galvanizing and other plant upgrades.