Russell Sheaffer (R), Road Machinery & Supplies Co. president, checks out the new belt winder inside the company’s Savage, Minn., warehouse. (Road Machinery & Supplies Co. photo)

The production and efficiency of an aggregate spread relies on the constant production of all its equipment — when one element fails, it brings the entire operation to a halt. Getting your equipment back up and running is paramount to profitability.

Road Machinery & Supplies Co. understands this, which is why it recently purchased a belt winder for its Savage, Minn., warehouse. This addition allows RMS to purchase belting in bulk, giving it the ability to meet customer demand quicker and easier.

"Conveyor belt sales have been growing over the past three years, and we were using third-party vendors to try and meet demand. However, we felt there was an opportunity to be more competitive if we had more product on-hand," said Tom Burrows, PSSR manager. "We analyzed the potential revenue and margin growth potential by seeking volume purchasing discounts and having belting in-house. Now we have the ability to deliver belting to our customers without relying on a third-party vendor."

In addition to the winder, RMS designed and ordered custom belt stands along with a measuring and splicing table. The stands allow for safe storage and transport of the stock belting. The table allows for safe and ergonomic measuring, skiving, splicing and cutting of the belt ends.

"The goal was to give RMS the ability to have one person handle the belting and take it from a 1,000-foot slab to the requested length the customer orders," said Burrows. "We chose to initially stock the most common belt widths — 24 to 60 inches — based on our historical belt sales. We recently placed our first true ‘container order' for two full containers, which will have the more heavy-duty belting that ranges in width from 36 to 60 inches.

"Having this in our operation is going to allow us to fill orders faster and be much more competitive in pricing. That will be a major asset to us and our customers."

For more information, visit rmsequipment.com.

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