High Speed Robotic Bag Palletizing
Columbia/Okura's robotic palletizers are capable of palletizing 60-lb.
bags of concrete products at a rate of up to 28 bags per minute. It
simultaneously stacks various bag sizes and types (including paper, poly
and woven-poly) from up to four production lines. This is a
cost-effective palletizing solution that utilizes minimal floor space.
Every system is factory tested, UL 1740 certified and backed by
U.S.-based parts and technical service support.
www.columbiaokura.com
|
Welcome to CONCRETE CURRENTS, the electronic newsletter from
Concrete Products magazine.
For additional industry news, technology, and highlights from the latest
issue of Concrete Products, please visit www.concreteproducts.com
Submissions for upcoming issues of CONCRETE CURRENTS or Concrete
Products can be directed to Editor Don Marsh, don.marsh@penton.com or
312/840-8483.
|
IMI, Aggregate Industries pros take National Mixer
Driver Championship
Sources: CP staff; National Ready Mixed Concrete
Association, Silver Spring, Md.
Joseph “Ziggy” Zygas, a Lafayette, Ind.-based driver for Irving
Materials Inc., won the 4th Annual National Mixer Driver Championship,
staged amid NRMCA’s 2009 ConcreteWorks Conference & Expo, Oct. 17-20,
in Indianapolis. Second- and third-place honors, respectively, went to
Aggregate Industries’ Jeffrey Clark of Crofton, Md., and Irving
Materials’ Trent Slavens of Rossville, Ind. Click
here for full story
|
Trouble-making shareholder ramps up efforts to
fracture TXI board at 10/22 meeting
Sources: Shamrock Activist Value Fund, Burbank, Calif.;
Texas Industries, Inc., Dallas; CP staff
With TXI’s annual meeting in Dallas only days ahead, company
leadership admitted that in recent weeks it has had private settlement
discussions with its third-largest (representing a 10.2 percent stake)
and most belligerent shareholder, SAVF, with respect to proxy proposals.
According to TXI, despite “significant concessions” offered by TXI
to SAVF, the negotiations broke down. Click
here for full story
It’s the largest equipment and services trade show for the precast
concrete industry, and it’s headed to Phoenix, Feb. 18-20, 2010.
It’s The Precast Show, and it features the latest products and
services for precast and pipe manufacturers. Visit www.ThePrecastShow.org for
information. If you’re in precast, you need to be here!
|
|
Investor states weak case for messing with
Texas Industries
By Don Marsh, Editor
Texas Industries Inc. is approaching its annual meeting, Oct. 22 in
Dallas, poised to respond to a major shareholder’s flimsy argument for
board realignment. Between November 2008 and July 2009, Burbank,
Calif.-based Shamrock Activist Value Fund (SAVF) has acquired shares
representing a 10.2 percent TXI stake. Securities and Exchange
Commission filings suggest the bulk of shares were purchased in the
$29–$32 range, climbing in the market rebound to $40–45. Click
here for full story
|
J.W. Peters, Zignego help RexCon build massive
new base
Sources: RexCon LLC, Burlington, Wis.; CP staff
Set on 30 acres in southeastern Wisconsin, an all-concrete structure
— housing twin 75- x 600-ft. bays, each equipped with two 20-ton
overhead cranes — is the new home for batch equipment and controls
manufacturer RexCon. In a bold move underscoring confidence in the
future, the partnership that acquired RexCon from Rose Industries six
years ago has replaced a dated shop on a land-locked Milwaukee site with
a 130,000-sq.-ft. operation in Burlington. Click
here for full story
|
DOE grants Cemex $1.1 million for carbon capture,
storage tech development
Source: U.S. Department of Energy, Washington, D.C.; Cemex
Inc., Houston
Cemex USA is one of 12 recipients of first-round grants from a
$1.4-billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act pool funding
development of technology that will capture carbon dioxide from
industrial sources. Cemex’s project, designed and constructed with
partner RTI International using $1.14 million in DOE funding, will
demonstrate a dry sorbent CO2 capture and compression system, pipeline
(if necessary), and injection station at one of its U.S. cement plants.
Click
here for full story
|
EPA chief outlines stepped up Clean Water Act
enforcement
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington,
D.C.
The Clean
Water Action Enforcement Plan, outlined by EPA Administrator Lisa
Jackson in an Oct. 15 House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
hearing, calls for the agency to a) develop more comprehensive
approaches to ensure enforcement is targeted to the most serious
violations and significant pollution sources; b) work with states to
ensure greater compliance and water quality consistency; and, c) ensure
that states are issuing protective permits and taking enforcement
measures to achieve compliance and remove economic incentives to violate
the law. Click
here for full story
|
OSHA prods states to enforce record-keeping
accuracy with spot inspections
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety &
Health Administration, Washington, D.C.
On the premise that accurate workplace injury and illness reporting
is critical to an effective enforcement program, OSHA is initiating a
national emphasis program (NEP) on recordkeeping to assess the
correctness of such employer-recorded data. In a directive
establishing NEP, the agency pegged concrete pipe manufacturing among
approximately 20 industries the Bureau of Labor Statistics cites as
having the “highest incidence rates of nonfatal occupational injury
and illness cases with days away from work, restricted work activity, or
job transfer” in 2007. Click
here for full story
|
RMC Foundation updates guide for LEED 2009
NC
r Source: RMC Research & Education Foundation, SilveSpring,
Md.
The Ready Mixed Concrete Industry LEED Reference Guide –
Third Edition covers LEED 2009 for New Construction and Major
Renovations, plus guidance on how concrete may contribute to rating
points for candidate construction projects in the United States Green
Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
(LEED) green building certification system. Click
here for full story
|
Call for Abstracts: 2010 Concrete
Sustainability Conference
Source: National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, Silver
Spring, Md.
NRMCA and the School of Sustainable Engineering and The Built
Environment at Arizona State University are seeking abstracts for the
2010 Concrete Sustainability Conference, April 13-15, in Tempe. The
fifth annual conference will provide networking opportunities and
presentations addressing the latest advances in technical knowledge,
research, tools and solutions for sustainable concrete production and
construction. Click
here for full story
|
|
