A CONTRACTOR’S TESTIMONIAL
“With Guys Like These Operating Our Vacuum Loaders, We Have to Have tough-Built Fast-Vacs.”

Smith Brothers Contractors of Middletown, Ohio uses three Fast-Vacs to clean up every type of spill you can imagine. From oil and water to lime, sand and coke. Cleaning up for everyone from steel and paper mills to roofing manufacturers and water treatment plants.

And they provide these services twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Pretty rough duty for the Fast-Vacs. But not half as rough as the guys who operate them. Tough, rugged contractors who don’t have time to baby these babies. Just as Smith Brothers doesn’t have time for downtime.

“We bought out first Fast-Vac in 1986 because it was the best machine for our operation,” says Bob Haley, Smith Brother’s Vice President/General Manager. “The other machines (Guzzler, Supersucker and Vactor) simply couldn’t stand up to the kind of rugged use we demand. Each Fast-Vac averages 4,400 hours of service a year and is operated by guys who don’t exactly handle these machines with kid gloves.”

When we asked him how the Fast-Vacs are doing, he told us: “Great! We’ve been able to maintain our work load with fewer units because we don’t have the downtime for maintenance with Fast-Vacs that we had with the other vacs.” Asked about the cost of Fast-Vacs, Bob said: Although the initial cost is more, we’ve found Fast-Vac to be a much greater value due to less maintenance, ease of operation and no major downtime. We’ve recovered the additional initial cost in the first year alone because the overall maintenance per-hour-of-operation is 30 to 60% less than our previous units.”

Would Smith Brothers buy more Fast-Vacs? “We wouldn’t consider anything else,” he told us. “We’re sold on Fast-Vac and will continue to purchase them as our needs grow for more units.”

If you want tough vacuum loaders designed and built to keep going long after the others have quit, take a good look at Fast-Vac. You’ll soon see why they’re called “The Money Machines” by contractors all over the world.

NUMBER ONE IN AUSTRALIA!
Why did a “down under” contractor come all the way up to the “States” to buy Fast-Vac vacuum loaders?

“We were looking for the most up-to-date design,” says Phillip James, Branch Manager of Gardner Perrott, a Division of Brambles Holdings, Ltd. “We wanted to provide our operators with the most reliable, easy-to-maintain and simple-to-operate vacuum loaders on the market. And we doubted any Australian manufacturer’s machine could meet this criteria.”

So, what vacuum loaders did he look at as he traveled across the U.S.?

“Almost everything on the market,” he continues. “Guzzlers, Supersuckers, Vactors . . . you name it. We even talked to customers who were using them. The Fast-Vac was far superior to the other vacuum loaders we saw. Not only because of its design simplicity and ease of maintenance, but also because of its loading performance. It can clean up large spills in less time.”

How are Fast-Vacs making money for Gardner Perott? “They’ve reduced our maintenance and downtime costs considerably.” Phillip James responds. “And Fast-Vac’s superior performance gives us an edge on the most difficult jobs.”

Would Gardner Perrott buy more Fast-Vacs?

“Absolutely,” boasts Mr. James. “Fast-Vac has a machine they should be proud of. And their back-up service and assistance is outstanding. Especially when you consider how far away we are here in Australia.”

If you want dependable vacuum loaders designed and built to make you more money through superior performance and less downtime, take a good look at Fast-Vac. You’ll soon see why they’re called “The Money Machines” by contractors all over the world.

THE ALCOA STORY: WENATCHEE BUYS WORLD-CLASS VACUUM TRUCK
An important piece of major equipment at Alcoa smelters is the vacuum truck. This truck, used to recover alumina and alumina dust for recycling (as well as carbon dust, aluminum cans and other materials), represents a large capital investment for company operations.

In June 1991, Massena Operations bought such a truck from Ormson Corporation, a manufacturer of industrial vacuum loading products in Hartland, Wisconsin. During that project, Massena’s Matt Coughlin and President John Ormson were concerned with the lack of an all-inclusive specification for the manufacture and purchase of such vehicles. Ormson necessarily purchases the specified chassis, compressor, hoses and accessories and fabricates the hopper installation according to individual plant specifications. “This reinventing the wheel,” says Ormson, “is a waster of valuable expensive resources as each custom built vehicle must be re-engineered.”

As a result, Doug Mahrer, Pittsburgh Procurement Specialist – Electrical, queried the plants and discovered that Wenatchee Works was in the market for a vacuum loader. What followed was a text book case in the proper way to procure a major piece of equipment.

In late September, 1992, representatives from Pittsburgh, Tennessee Operations and Alcoans Rod Stanton and Ken DeWitz from Wenatchee met at Ormson’s plant, along with Bill Gallagher of Alcoa Technical Center. (Stanton and DeWitz also visited a vendor in Alabama.) The purpose of that mini-symposium was to review Alcoa’s overall needs with regard to vacuum loaders and to look at Alcoa specifications covering such commercial mobile vehicles. Of paramount importance was the company’s requirements and specifications in the area of noise control.

From that meeting, Wenatchee drew up specifications for a vacuum truck to meet specific Alcoa standards for chassis, engine, transmission and vacuum pump. Dean Latvaitis and Joe Hazelwood of Tennessee Operations, and Tom Mayes, Warrick Works, contributed to defining these specifications. An exception to normal, generic specifications was Gallagher’s desire to meet Alcoa’s Engineering Standard 30.3.2 “Sound Level Requirements for Purchased, Leased or Rented Vehicles,” and attain a maximum noise level of 85 dBA at three feet from the vehicle’s control panel with the unit operating at full load. That requirement came to be referred to as “Gallagher’s Law.” “Properly,” Gallagher insists, “noise can and should be a pass-fail criterion on any major equipment.”

Ormson proceeded to meet all Wenatchee specifications, building a world-class vacuum truck and achieving the desired noise attenuation levels with carefully selected components, specially designed skirting, equipment mounts and placement, and strategic component enclosures. “In summary,” Ormson later noted, “… significant progress has been made to improve the state of the art associated with industrial vacuum loader sound levels.”

Previous to delivery, Ken DeWitz visited Ormson once more in inspect Wentachee’s new Fast-Vac. He found it A-OK. Stanton, Mechanical Engineer for the project, reports he has “… heard nothing but positive comments from operators. We have for a fact a world-class vehicle, perhaps one of a kind because of the performance and noise attenuation work done on it, and a benchmark which other plants may wish to investigate when making similar purchases. Much of the success can be attributed to specifying a larger-than-required Roots Blower to attain adequate suction at a reduced operating speed.” Additional concerns addressed during the project involved having adequate engine cooling, protection for engine and hydraulics from contaminants, simplification of the controls, providing a durable (Peterbilt) chassis, and a week-long training course for maintenance and operating personnel.

There is a moral to this story: Follow proper procedure when making capital investment in major equipment.

And there are lessons to be learned. This lessons were spelled out by Doug Mahrer and Bill Gallagher. (1) Know up front what you need and want in new equipment. (2) Refer to and follow all pertinent standards and specifications in preparing RforA’s. (3) Call on Alcoans for guidance and counsel who are expert in important areas such as procurement, design, engineering and noise control. (4) Prepare complete and definitive specifications for vendors in all areas so that all vendors are playing on the same field, and that vendors are weeded out who can not or will not meet Alcoa specifications.

Reprinted from the Alcoa “Standardization Digest” – Published by the Alcoa Engineering Standardization Staff – Number Thiry-Two, September 1992