From Hercules® slab racks to 350,000 pound earth-moving titans, Astec Underground Inc. is fighting back against foreign competition with an arsenal forged from American steel and engineering ingenuity.
Workers at Astec's Loudon, Tennessee manufacturing facility use the same craftsmanship and the same high-quality materials in everything they build -from the company's largest surface miner down to the basic Hercules slab racks, offered by Braxton-Bragg.
"Astec's greatest asset is its workers," said plant manager Ben Campbell. "I'm proudest of our work force. We have a wonderful work force. They are very talented."
Marketing manager Glen Liford echoed Campbell's praise. "They take pride in their work and are really proud in what they send out of here. We have made some amazing strides."
Although Astec manufactures the Hercules line of slab racks and carts, the company's main focus is serving the construction and the pipeline industries and catering to companies that specialize in the installation of infrastructure. Its main products are the high-performance Trencor rock trenchers and road miners and the Astec brand utility trenchers and drills.
All these products are manufactured at the company's 360,000-square-foot facility, a former John Deere plant in Loudon, Tennessee.
"Personal attention and a willingness to customize products to meet the needs of its commercial customers is one of the many advantages that Astec Underground offers," Campbell said. It began manufacturing the Hercules products after an employee of Braxton-Bragg directly called the company's president to ask if it could take over manufacturing.
While manufacturers in China have the advantage of low labor rates and lower direct costs overall, Astec has one especially important economic advantage: lower transportation costs.
"We said `Hey, we can build this here,'" Campbell said. "We might be a little bit more on the material and labor parts, but we save on the freight cost. It's worked out great."
The request came at a good time for the company. "It was when the economy started slowing down a bit, and it seemed like a great opportunity for us," Campbell said. "We wanted absorption (of costs). We wanted to keep people employed here in Tennessee."
The Hercules brand racks are meant to safely hold thousand pound slabs of material. The quality of the product is vital to the safety of stone industry workers dealing with the heavy materials. Astec is not the first company to manufacture the Hercules range, but it has produced the best quality product.
"In the past, they have had quite a few issues with warranty," Campbell said. "Our product has been top-notch quality. All the racks are of some type that are used in the transportation and storage of granite slabs in the construction industry."
The racks are popular with customers. Noel Houze, owner of Preferred Surfaces in Morgantown, West Virginia, praised the Hercules products. "I think they're great. They seem to be well built. We bought three of them so we can stage complete jobs. When they are ready, they just pick them up, stick them in the truck and go. The fastening system seems to work really well. We really like them. ... They've really simplified getting a complete job from the work benches to the installers."
"The material costs for Astec might be higher than its Chinese competitors, but the quality of the steel used in the construction of its slab racks and drills and trenchers is also a big advantage for the company," Campbell said. "Here in the United States, the quality of steel from our mills is of much higher quality. It's pure steel without striations and mixing incompetency. Imported steel is often inferior."
Another advantage enjoyed by Astec products is the use of powder-coating techniques to protect the steel instead of the hot-dip galvanization process more commonly used by Chinese manufacturers.
Astec uses an electric charge to apply a freeflowing, dry powder to the steel which is then cured under heat, allowing it to flow and form a protective "skin." It is used to create a hard finish that is tougher than conventional paint.
Powder coating has several advantages over conventional liquid coatings:
-Zero or near zero volatile organic compounds (VOC).
-Much thicker coatings than conventional liquid coatings without running or sagging.
-Overspray can be recycled and thus, it is possible to achieve nearly 100 percent use of the coating.
-Powder coating production lines produce less hazardous waste than conventional liquid coatings.
-Capital equipment and operating costs for a powder line are generally less than for conventional liquid lines.
-Fewer appearance differences between horizontally coated surfaces and vertically coated surfaces than liquid coated items.
"The company will continue focusing on meeting the needs of the energy industry," Campbell said. "The advantage from a business standpoint is we've got to continue digging for oil and gas ... in the future, I don't see that work halting," he said.
The company has been forced to be flexible because of the nation's economic downturn. "In the timing of things - when you start a company you have that first five years when you
Above: Hercules® Slab Racks await a final powder coat finish. Noel Houze, owner of Preferred Surfaces of Morgantown, WV appreciates the quality of his Hercules® stone handling equipment. Commenting on his three Hercules® A-Frame Kitchen Carts, he said, "They've really simplified getting a complete job from the work benches to the installers."
Left: Astec's powder coating facility provides a higher quality and longer-lasting surface for equipment that will be exposed to extreme weather conditions. Each Hercules® rack and table gets a thick, protective powder coating for a final finishing touch.
absorb the ROI costs and your research and development," Liford said. "Then the economy failed. We've had a tough time for the going-on nine years we've been here."
"It's really unique how we've had to think about the business model just to keep up. Part of our 2011 business model incorporates trying to find something else that complements the business such as Braxton-Bragg did. We actually went out and grabbed some muffler business (painting mufflers for a local company)."
The Trencor line, used for heavy-duty rock trenching and milling, has a distinguished pedigree with a history stretching all the way back to 1945. The forerunners of the Astec machines were developed by Charles Davis in 1959. Astec's biggest trencher takes about 45 days to build. During its best year, the company was building an average of about two a month.
The Astec line of utility trenchers and compact horizontal directional drills uses the same technology as the large-scale Trencor machines. The flagship product is the Astec RT1160, which can be customized with a variety of attachments and options, including a trencher, cable plow, backhoe, tilt frame, cab and a rubber track option.
The company has seen profound growth in its international sales in the past two years, serving customers in Australia, Africa, and the Middle East. "The last two years here, we've been the number one exporter in Tennessee for that size equipment," Campbell said.
"There are just not many manufacturers of that type of equipment," Liford said. "It's very highly customized. We can meet a customized need for the customer in a lot of instances."
"We are known for the craftsmanship in all of our subsidiary companies," Campbell said. "We are known to customize things. ...Our engineering ingenuity is probably something more custom to Astec than any of its competitors."
In the end, Astec is pitting the craftsmanship of its American Hercules against the Chinese Dragon, the engineering sophistication of its earth-moving titans against competitors both foreign and domestic.
It's a long-term game, and one the company seems dedicated to playing... and winning.
For more information about Hercules® Stone handling equipment, call 800-575-4401 or visit www.braxton-bragg.com /stone handling to see the full Hercules® product line.
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