A look at products being made in Iowa for global users
Photos by Duane Tinkey, Story By Joe Gardyasz
Cemen Tech Inc., Indianola
From raw steel to finished volumetric cement mixers
Raw steel that’s delivered to the door of Cemen Tech Inc.’s factory in Indianola is soon rolling out the other side as shiny white, sophisticated truck-mounted volumetric mixing systems for concrete.
The 50-year-old Iowa-based company is the world’s largest maker of volumetric concrete mixers, and has about a 60% market share globally in that niche. There are at least 4,600 Cemen Tech mixers operating around the world. Cemen Tech’s equipment is used in 73 countries, and the company has dealers around the world. The majority of mixers it makes are 10-yard capacity machines, but it also makes smaller sizes.
The Indianola plant is currently producing about six volumetric mixing units per week, said Kris Moorman, Cemen Tech’s marketing manager. Cemen Tech is 100% employee-owned as an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) company.
The company last year purchased a state-of-the-art laser table that handles sheets of steel up to 20 feet long, which enables the company to cut very large parts for the volumetric mixers without having to weld smaller pieces together. The laser cutter is more precise and faster than a plasma cutter, cutting at between 200 and 300 inches a minute.
“This thing will cut faster than you can load the steel,” said Rich Smothers, industrial engineer manager at Cemen Tech. In about a half day, the machine enables a technician to cut all of the steel for one entire mixer unit. Company officials believe that it’s currently the largest laser table in operation in North America.
In 2015, Cemen Tech rolled out its Accu-Pour system that provides a sophisticated tablet-based interface enabling the driver of a volumetric mixer to precisely control, mix and track each pouring job. “The truck is doing nearly all the heavy lifting for the driver,” said Rob Peterson, technology sales manager. Accu-Pour has been “like a software startup within a manufacturing company,” he said. Many of the Cemen Tech trucks rolling off the assembly line are equipped with the system.
Currently at about 200 employees, the company has additional openings to fill and plans to begin operating a second shift this fall, the first time that it has done so in its 50-year history. A substantial expansion of its manufacturing plant is planned for 2022.
Operations Manager Brian Morgan stands in front of the FX Express system, a unit that NCS markets to car wash operators seeking a tunnel-like experience for customers.
National Carwash Solutions
Grimes-based manufacturer creates car wash ‘experiences’
The high-tech car wash systems that are made in Iowa at National Carwash Solutions are among some of the most sophisticated in the industry. The Iowa-based company produces about 400 car wash units annually at its production plant in Grimes, with production varying from 25 to 40 units a month. The plant manufactures three different Ryko-branded car wash systems — two types of soft-wash brush systems and a touch-free system.
“COVID actually helped us [increase sales],” said Brian Morgan, operations manager of the Grimes plant. After an initial lull in the spring of 2020, “we’ve been slammed with the most orders that we’ve ever had in our system.”
In late August, the company had 15 job openings — many of them new positions — for positions ranging from assemblers and welders to painters and material handlers.
The car wash systems’ frames are built from aluminum, steel and stainless steel parts that are all fabricated within the plant. As they’re built, the assemblies are rolled down twin rails that mimic the rails inside the bays on which the washes will eventually operate. It takes four to six days for a car wash unit to go through all seven assembly stations.
Before they’re shipped to customers around the world, each system is hooked up and tested through eight complete car wash cycles before being disassembled for shipment. From start to finish, the testing process can be completed within about four hours.
A feature that sets National Carwash Solutions apart from competitors is that the company has an in-house customer experience center with demonstration units of its car wash systems, which also provide a perk for NCS employees, who receive free car washes as a benefit.
