Two-Year Rebuild ALL POINTS COOP ELEVATOR BACK IN OPERATION AFTER 2008 EXPLOSION - Maxi-Lift, Inc.
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Two-Year Rebuild
ALL POINTS COOP ELEVATOR BACK IN OPERATION AFTER 2008 EXPLOSION
NEBRASKA
Gothenburg
All Points Cooperative
Gothenburg, NE • 308-537-7141
Founded: 1920s
Storage capacity: 5 million
bushels at two locations
Annual volume: 15 million bushels
Annual revenues: $180 million
Number of members: X,XXX
Number of employees: 120
Crops handled: Corn, soybeans,
hard red winter wheat, sorghum
Services: Grain handling and mer-
chandising, agronomy, seed, propane,
service station, convenience stores
Key personnel: All Points Cooperative’s 3-million-bushel grain elevator in Gothenburg, NE, as viewed from the
• Ed Foster, CEO State Highway 47 viaduct, dominates the town’s skyline. Photos by Ed Zdrojewski.
• Steve Costello, vice president-grain
• Mark Balmer, vice president-
agronomy
• Craig Saum, vice president-petroleum To the untrained eye, the All Points Coop-
• Mike Schrader, CFO/controller erative elevator that dominates the skyline of
• Craig Streeter, grain operations mgr.
Gothenburg, NE appears largely unchanged
Supplier List since it was built in the 1960s. The white
Aeration fnns .......... AIRLANCO slipform concrete workhouse rises more than
Bearing sensors ...... Rolfes@Boone 120 feet into the air, with the letters
Bin sweeps .......... The GSI Group
Bucket elevators .... Hayes & Stolz “GOTHENBURG” painted on the south
Ind. Mfg. Co. Inc., Intersystems side. The only recent visible change are three
Bulk weigh scale ..... Intersystems/ new steel tanks and a dryer at the east end.
John Deere Agri Services The 120 employees of the cooperative
Catwalk .. LeMar Industries Corp.
Cleaner ... Triple/S Dynamics Inc. know better. “For all intents and purposes,
Contractor/millwright ..... Frisbie it’s a new elevator,” says Grain Division Grain Division Manager Steve Costello.
Construction Co. Inc. Manager Steve Costello.
Control system ..... Kasa Industrial Gypsum, KS (785-536-4288), which
Controls
The changes have come as part of a two-
Conveyors ................ Intersystems year, $9 million rebuilding process follow- served as general contractor on the rebuild,
Distributors ........... Hayes & Stolz ing a Nov. 19, 2008 explosion severely had been on-site for nearly a year before the
Dust collection system .............. injured one worker, destroyed the explosion constructing a 1.2 million bushel
AIRLANCO steel annex at the east end of the facility.
Elevator buckets ....... Tapco Inc.,
headhouse, and severely damaged the rest
Maxi-Lift Inc. of the facility. The cause of the blast has The annex, intended to hold grain for
Grain dryer .. Brock Grain Systems never been determined. loading onto Union Pacific shuttle trains,
Grain temperature system Since then, the headhouse has been re- included three 420,000-bushel Behlen steel
Rolfes@Boone
Level indicators .............. Monitor
placed with an outside steel structure for tanks, a new receiving pit and outside leg,
Technologies LLC replacement grain handling equipment, and a 7,500-bph GSI grain dryer.
Magnets .. Bunting Magnetics Co. and perhaps more importantly, the entire The three tanks stand approximately 79
Manlift .. Schumacher Elevator Co. elevator has been automated. feet in diameter, 95 feet tall at the eaves, and
Motion sensors ...... Rolfes@Boone
Steel storage ..... Behlen Mfg. Co.
117 feet tall at the peaks. The flat bottom
Tower support system ...... LeMar Before the Blast tanks are outfitted with outside stiffeners,
Industries Corp. In fact, Frisbie Construction Co. Inc., 12-inch GSI sweep augers, 10-cable
76 GJ S/O
Rolfes@Boone grain temperature
monitoring systems, and Monitor
Technologies level indicators. A set of
four 40-hp AIRLANCO centrifugal
fans provide 1/7 cfm per bushel of
aeration on coarse grains.
A combination of Intersystems
20,000-bph belt and drag conveyors
take grain out to the annex, while
another set of 20,000-bph reclaim
grain in a below-ground tunnel and
take it back to a new leg.
That 20,000-bph Intersystems leg
is fed by a 200-bushel receiving pit
located between the concrete work-
house and steel annex. It is outfitted
with two rows of 14x8 Tapco CC-XD
extreme-duty buckets mounted on a
30-inch Goodyear belt. The leg feeds
into a six-hole Hayes & Stolz distribu-
tor that can reach the new overhead
conveyor, the concrete workhouse, and
New leg head sections, double distribu-
tor, and screener now are located on the
outside of the slipform concrete work-
house.
Response No. 771
S/O GJ 77
Three Behlen tanks make up a 1.2-million-bushel steel annex that was completed just
prior to a Nov. 19, 2008 explosion.
indirectly, the new dryer. outfitted with a single row of 20x8
The 7,000-bph Brock dryer is fired Maxi-Lift CC-MAX buckets on a 22-
by natural gas and has received a inch Goodyear belt. The head sec-
thorough workout since it was con- tions of the legs now terminate in an
structed in 2008. It is empties into a outside steel frame structure.
10,000-bph Intersystems wet leg. • Installed a 26-hole, 24-inch-duct
Hayes & Stolz double distributor in
The Rebuild the rooftop complex.
Frisbie was just finishing up a new • Installed a 20,000-bph Texas Shaker
AIRLANCO dust collection system at cleaner, outfitted with an optional hinged
the time of the explosion. The contrac- sidewall for easy screen changes.
tor agreed to stay on to serve as general • Replaced the damaged aeration sys-
and millwright on the rebuild. tems on six concrete tanks with a sincle
That was a lengthy process, since 20-hp AIRLANCO centrifugal fan per
All Points stipulated that equipment tank, set to supply 1/7 cfm per bushel,
was to be restored in priority order to and installed single-cable Rolfes@Boone
return the facility to operation as temperature monitors in each tank. Relatively new 7,000-bph Brock natural-
quickly as possible, and the rebuild • Performed repairs on an existing gas-fired grain dryer was built as part of
was to proceed with minimal disrup- Intersystems bulkweigher located in- the steel annex project.
tion to elevator operations. Costello side the slip and installed new com-
comments that getting the elevator puter hardware to link the existing fice building across U.S. Highway 30
back into operation within a couple of Agris control systems with the new from the elevator, at the west end of
months of the explosion minimized elevator automation system. the workhouse, and from the a station
the loss of business to competitors. • Installed a new Schumacher near the existing receiving pits.
The cooperative brought in C-Tec manlift. “You can switch any motor on and
Inc., York, NE (800-345-2832), to off from the workstation,” says Costello.
handle the extensive concrete repair Automation “It has a power management function
work required in the workhouse. C- All Points took advantage of the that allows the system to balance the
Tec repaired the structural damage to rebuilding process to completely au- load in the event of a power surge and
the concrete sidewalls, relined almost tomate the elevator using a software to operate certain systems to avoid peak
every concrete tank and interstice, system from Kasa Industrial Controls, hours. It also provides and operations
and rebuilt the workhouse roof. Salina, KS (785-825-7181). history, tracks hours of service, and
Other major repairs included: The new system allows all elevator alerts you when any piece of equip-
• Replacement of two inside legs functions to be operated from any of ment needs routine maintenance.”
with 20,000-bph Hayes & Stolz legs three workstations located in the of- Ed Zdrojewski, editor
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