DAZIC speed switches can literally prevent 250 tons of problems
“It would be a nightmare if DAZIC didn’t shut the conveyor down”
Local businesses can’t spend a lot of money on safety equipment—and they don’t have to. DAZIC Zero Speed Switches are used by a wide range of companies—from those in the S&P 500 to small family-owned businesses.
Barnes Concrete Co., Inc. has been manufacturing and delivering ready-mix concrete for 50 years. It started out as a small-batch plant with just three mixers. Now, they have 12 mixers and supply to the Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey tri-state area.
Problem
The feeder loads up to 250 tons of gravel per hour. Any equipment malfunction or failure in the production line could lead to an avalanche of material. “It’s really a safety issue,” said plant supervisor Joe Kruzewski. “It would be a train wreck [to be] buried with that amount of gravel.”
Solution
But they never had that problem because of the DAZIC 4100 Zero Speed Switches (CI 4120/B) they installed on all of their 12 conveyors, years ago. The oldest one is 18 years old, and it is still working!
DAZIC Zero Speed Switches are interlocked into a conveyor system so that operations stop if any equipment runs outside of pre-set speed limits. It prevents material pile-up, and its disastrous consequences.
Kruzewski estimates that it would take three people at least three hours to shovel one ton of gravel. The feeder loads 250 tons of gravel per hour, or about four tons a minute. If a machine fails, any delay in response time means hours of backbreaking cleanup. Even just a 10-minute delay could result in 30 hours of downtime. “We would have to shovel for days!”
Results
The DAZIC Zero Speed Switches used by Barnes Concrete cost less than $900 each, and have not broken down after more than a decade of use. “They have never quit. The mounting eventually fails from wear and tear, but that’s more of maintenance on our part, not from the unit failing,” says Kruzewski.
But most importantly, the cement plant has not had a single incident of material pileup.
“It would be a nightmare if the DAZIC didn’t shut the conveyor belt down. I don’t even want to think about it,” Kruzewski said.
