Episode 65: Smarter screening, stronger plants with Haver & Boecker Niagara

In this episode of “Drilling Deeper,” P&Q managing editor Jack Kopanski sits down with Karen Thompson, president of Haver & Boecker Niagara, to explore how smarter screening can transform an aggregate operation’s bottom line. 

Thompson breaks down key trends in screening efficiency and uptime, from predictive and preventative maintenance to the growing role of AI, automation and condition monitoring in helping producers optimize existing plants before making big capital investments. 

She details Haver & Boecker Niagara’s Pulse platform – including single-point vibration analysis and full condition monitoring – and how it delivers actionable, operation‑specific data that can catch issues such as misinstalled weight packages or failing bearings long before a catastrophic outage. Thompson also highlights the benefits of the company’s eccentric and F-Class screens, such as reduced structural vibration, constant stroke under surging loads, maintenance-friendly lock-bolted designs, improved energy efficiency and proven longevity. 

Along the way, she shares common screening pain points, what to evaluate when choosing screen media, equipment and diagnostic tools, and why talking to an expert and being open to new technology is the best way to future-proof your plant for the next decade of production. Listeners will come away with practical ideas to optimize their screening circuits today while planning for the next decade of production.

There’s plenty more in this episode of “Drilling Deeper” that you won’t want to miss. Listen now!

For 108 years, Pit & Quarry magazine has been the premier monthly aggregate processing information source. Through multiple platforms, we deliver the very latest in equipment and technology news and information that is critical for safely achieving the highest level of efficiency and profitability. Editors Kevin Yanik and Jack Kopanski cover the market in print, online and through e-newsletters. As respected industry insiders, they moderate the annual Pit & Quarry Roundtable & Conference and speak at industry conferences and meetings.
 
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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Hey everybody, welcome into this episode of Drilling Deeper. I am Jack Kopansky, managing editor of Pit and Quarry. Today we are joined by Karen Thompson, president of Havern Boker Niagara. In this conversation, we touch on how producers can elevate screening efficiency, reduce downtime, and make more informed decisions on their operation. We also dive into modern diagnostic tools like vibration analysis and condition monitoring, as well as the long-proven advantages of eccentric screening technology. Our conversation focuses on practical insights, real operational challenges, and actionable takeaways that will give a clear understanding of how smarter screen maintenance and design can improve overall productivity. A lot of good insights coming up from Karen. So without further ado, here is Karen Thompson, president of Havern Boker Niagara. Karen, thanks so much for making a little time for us today.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Thank you, Jack. Always a pleasure to join you guys.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

Our pleasure as well. I know we had a great conversation at ConExpo Con Ag last year. Looking forward to talking to you here again at uh at Ag One last year. I got got ConExpo on the brain. It slides by. It sure does, yeah. Uh looking forward to talking to you here again. And I know we know we got a lot to get into as far as you know screening goes, so we'll get right into it. Um, you know, obviously one thing that Haver and Boker really hangs its hat on is the idea of smarter screening. And you know, you've got that beautiful left class out on display here. Um just to talk a little bit, maybe maybe start from an industry perspective on the screening side, from your perspective, what major trends are shaping the aggregate industry going into 2026, especially when it comes to the idea of screening efficiency and uptime?

SPEAKER_01 1:40

Yeah, I mean, I think uh in all industries, quite honestly, everybody's looking for optimization of what they have. Whether it's an existing screen plant and you're looking to improve your production, reduce your recirculating load, anything like that, anything that we can bring to the table to help people with predictive maintenance, preventative maintenance, I think all of these things are really key to um making the most of an operation. And I do think there's a little bit of let's call it uncertainty in the market still for investments. Uh so whether it's new equipment or um, you know, upping the game with what you have, I think that's really important these days.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Yeah, that idea of preventative maintenance and predictive monitoring is something we've been following closely, seen it a lot at the show, and obviously, like you mentioned, something that, you know, the industry as a whole and hover really uh is focused on. And I'm excited to see that trend kind of continue.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Yeah, I mean, who every time you turn around these days there's AI, right? AI it doesn't matter what you're doing, AI here and there. Uh I think that if we are not on we're uh it's hard to keep up. There's no doubt that the that entire uh that entire technology is really taking center stage in everything that we do, and it's just gonna become a bigger and bigger part of making sure that the producers have everything at their fingertips they need to optimize their production. And I think a lot of that is gonna be in automation and in uh in monitoring.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Absolutely. Looking at screening, and and it, and it sounds like kind of a, you know, maybe maybe a silly thing to say, but you know, thinking about how important it is, but why is screening such a critical and often overlooked part of an operation's overall performance?

SPEAKER_01 3:17

I mean, I guess it's always been the workhorse, and let's face it, separating of material is not new. Right. It's been going on for I would say generations and and probably even centuries, but it is can absolutely be a bottleneck or a savior of a uh an operation. I mean, if you break down, oftentimes uh unplanned is a big, big cost. It can be a big cost. It can mean the difference between delivering or not delivering to your customer. And uh so I I just think it's I wouldn't say that they're overlooked. I would say they are possibly underoptimized. And that is something that I think with uh, you know, pricing, with the costs and a little bit of the economic uncertainty, people are not willing to live with any longer. I think they need to find better solutions.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Speaking of solutions, I know, you know, again, going back to the uh monitoring side of things, uh one of Hobber's, you know, one of the things on display, or one of the things that, you know, you guys hang your hat on is the pulse condition monitoring or pulse condition uh system. For operators that haven't used a diagnostic tool like that before, what options are out there and how do they help producers better understand their machines?

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Yeah, I mean, it there's a a pulse, let's call it platform of products. You can have pulse vibration analysis, which is basically a single point of uh monitoring on a piece of equipment. So if you've done some work on your machine, you've done repairs, it's your winter season, you're putting your machine back into operation after replacing a bearing or doing whatever, uh, you can get an instant uh reading on whether your machine's operating in good form, making sure it's not in residence, all the other things that are important to making sure their operation is running well. If you've decided to make a change out on screen media from a wire cloth to uh um an engineered product, the weight changes. You need to make sure that everything's running well. So this has been a great tool for service, for maintenance, for understanding and just checking that everything's running as it should be from an OEM perspective, and of course then helping the producers. If we look at condition monitoring, you do not even need to be an expert yourself as a producer to benefit from that. It is monitoring the screen, it is trending. It is really not about understanding intricately what every what every little measurement is giving you or what every piece of data is giving you. It's understanding that there's a trend issue. And that identifies problems very early on, much earlier than a physical inspection or listening to an issue can be. And I think this is where it's so important. It can be as technical as the user wants it to be, or it can be as user-friendly as the user wants it to be. But either way, if you can predict one unplanned outage, that system has paid for itself.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Mm-hmm. Yeah, and I think one of the, you know, and and I believe you were mentioning it uh a little bit, or we were talking about it a little bit yesterday, as far as some of that uh monitoring goes. I think, and and you just hit on it a little bit, that it's it's not it's not data for the sake of data. It's it's it's not it's not let's get as nitty-gritty as possible, and and the operators look in there going, this means nothing to me. Exactly. It's actionable, it's like you said, it's as either user-friendly or as detailed as they want. And I mean, having that having that capability to be sort of operation specific is you know, it kind of seems like a no-brainer, but you know, it it's a great way to again make sure that your maintenance and planning is as proactive as possible.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

Absolutely. And I mean, you know, everybody thinks, oh, is that something for mining only where you're running 24-7? Is it something? No, I mean, there are many, many aggregate producers where that piece of equipment is critical to their everyday production or the running of the entire plant. And we want to make sure that there's an opportunity for everybody to find a cost-effective but very effective way to do business.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Mm-hmm. Absolutely. You know, we we we talked about it, maybe touched on it a little bit here, but what kind of issues do vibration analysis and condition monitoring tools uncover that operators might not catch through just a visual inspection?

SPEAKER_01 7:12

Oh, for sure. I mean, if you think about a a bearing that's failing, or uh sometimes you'll get the the squealing or the noise or a temperature reading. These are all very good, but that is not catching it at the time before it's going to fail. You can pick up from a monitoring system indications that that bearing is is low on grease or that it is having a challenge while it's still fixable.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

And I think this is a big thing. It's not just identifying an issue that needs to be fixed and shut down. It's saying, okay, I'm getting to this point, I can do something different about it, or I can plan for this. I think that makes a big difference. I mean, I can give you an example of a customer who has condition monitoring on their machine and they were doing a exciter change out. So that's, you know, the um the motors are um on a bridge above the machine, so not a shaft through machine. And um they, you know, did everything right, they were they put the exciters back on, they turned on the machine, and they did not realize that the weight package had not been installed properly. Within a minute, we could tell that that machine was not running properly. If that had been left, and you could not tell in any other way, you could not tell that that machine was actually in a position to cause a critical failure and a whole lot of cost and money. So right away the monitoring system sends an alarm, something's wrong, and uh believe me, that has paid for itself uh in a minute at that point in time.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

So you know, and obviously a lot of the preventative maintenance and predictive monitoring is kind of looked at from the operator side, because obviously that's where you're saving the downtime, you're saving the money, you're avoiding potential catastrophic failures. But from the manufacturer side, I mean, how much, you know, I don't know if peace of mind is the right word, but how nice is it on the manufacturer side as well to know that your operators have this data and that they're not gonna be put in a situation where they're calling you scramble and saying, This just this just broke, this just fell apart, we need a new one as soon as possible, and you you know, try to make that work. But when you're able to kind of say, hey, you know, a week or two down the line, we're gonna need a new piece, part, this, that, and be able to work with them in that, how how nice is that as a manufacturer?

SPEAKER_01 9:14

It's incredible. I mean, we offer, I believe it's pr pretty much the longest warranty in the business, the three-year warranty on our vibrating screens. And um, as part of that comes condition monitoring, and it allows not only us but the producer to be very, very sure of what they've got in their hands. And I think this is just such a it's it's like a safety net. It really is. And to be able to give somebody that assurance that things are working well and to give us the insurance and things are going well is is truly priceless.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

Mm-hmm. Absolutely. So, you know, one of the things I wanted to talk about, maybe maybe a little less familiar than traditional screening, is the idea of eccentric screening. You know, many producers are kind of familiar with traditional screen setups. What is it that sends eccentric sc uh sets eccentric screening technology apart?

SPEAKER_01 10:01

Yeah, we're not just eccentric as a company, we're eccentric screeners.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

It's all the way down.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

All the way down from the top down. Um I would say first of all, it is uh unique in the fact that there is no vibration that goes into the structure when you've got an eccentric screening machine. So uh we have multiple producers that have 26 of our machines in one structure, and there's no vibration going into the structure. Um from a portable chassis perspective, imagine having that portable chassis without that vibration constantly going into your hydraulics and the uh the tires and everything else that you're you're working with. So aside from that, we are really talking about a machine with a constant motion. So if you have surging coming onto your machine, there is no slowdown while the machine recovers to take up the load, the increased load. So um uh let's just say I uh we would call them not only a um a machine for the aggregate industry, but truly even a mining, uh mining type of machine that is absolutely suitable for an aggregate industry that is looking for high production, high dependability, and something that really suits the fit of uh of the individual's needs.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Yeah, absolutely. So you may have already touched on this a little bit, but what operational challenges does or do eccentric screens help solve?

SPEAKER_01 11:19

Well, like I said, the structural one's a big thing. I mean that when you can put a glass of water on your base frame and that water is not moving, it gives you an idea as to just how effective this can be. Uh, I think again, is the is the constant uh the constant stroke. That is something that is is a huge issue. It takes away from a um, you know, the overloading, the overbearing weight that goes on those machines. I think the F-class that you see, but I would also say for our two-bearing screens, is the completely lock bolted design, which allows for very, very easy maintenance. That's really something when you don't have to have a you know uh a hot weld up there to do a change out on a bar rail or anything like that. It's just simply bolting and replacing. I think we've come up with a really maintenance-friendly option for for the producers out there. So I think it's uh I think you're getting a a real beast of a machine.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

100%. What have you been hearing from some of the producers that have been using uh Hover and Boker's eccentric screens as far as how they're seeing benefits in energy efficiency, uptime, longer machine life, just some of the benefits that, you know, again, you can sort of hear about it, but once they actually put it into play, what are you hearing about how they're benefiting from these machines?

SPEAKER_01 12:29

Yeah, I mean we have uh customers that have been using our machines for decades, and you know, we have a uh one large aggregate producer has 14 machines in one bank. Those machines lasted them for 15 years. They're just at their second go-round of replacing them again with with the new F-Class machines. So uh the longevity is there, there's no doubt about it. Um, you know, right now we have our our newest version, of course, the upgrades, an upgraded version of the F-Class. But there are F-Class machines out there just talking to a customer a week ago, and their machine's been running since 1954, and they're finally looking at a new one. So I think they got their money's worth.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

I would say.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

And uh we are hoping that they'll enjoy the new the new features as well.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

I don't think I'll be here when they buy the next one in 54 years, but fingers crossed.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

You never know.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Depends how the show goes.

SPEAKER_00 13:17

Absolutely, absolutely. So looking at some practical takeaways that that listeners can maybe um obviously take away or maybe implement, what are some of the most common screening maybe pain points you hear from producers and how can better diagnostics or the right technology help address those pain points?

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Yeah, I think pain points is really not getting the most out of your screen. I I think that's a huge thing, you know. And it's a combination of everything. We talk about, you know, a race car with the wrong tires. It's are you using the right screen media? Are you using a mixture of the right screen media? Not one size fits all, you know, are you getting the maximum throughput on everything that you're doing in order to, is it running right? Are you using the right media? Are you maintaining your machine correctly? Are you making sure that you have predictive and preventative maintenance? So I think all of these things are trends that save people money, save them time, certainly save them labor and resources, and we know that's a also a shortage these days. For sure. So, you know, I think the more that we can really be part of resolving our customers' challenges uh makes us a better player in the market, makes us a bet better design engineer and a better partner.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. For listeners making investment decisions, and you talk about making sure, you know, I I love that analogy, you know, a race car with the wrong tires. What should they evaluate when choosing screening equipment or diagnostic tools as far as making sure they have the you know the right tools in place?

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Yeah, I mean I think it's every individual or every producer's individual. There's no doubt. If you talk to one, even if they're making the same product, I think it's a a little bit different than the the neighbor down the street. Uh I think they really need to look at what is their production going to look like, not just in the next two years, but in the next 10 years. We're we're building machines that are not disposable.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

We're building good quality. As I said, you know, if we're running from the 50s, you want to make sure that you are you are designing your plant, you're optimizing your plant for what you want to be in the next number of years. So we really take what our customers not only are doing today and just replace it with something the same, we want to know what they're doing, what your hopes are in the next five years, where do you want to go, and how can we help you reach that goal in a price effective manner, and for efficiency's sake, what are we doing that can get you there the in the best route possible?

SPEAKER_00 15:38

Yeah, and that personalization is so important and obviously something that you know hover puts a lot of time into. So that's that's excellent to hear. Yeah. Big time. So we've covered a lot. I know we we've touched on a lot of a lot of trends, a lot of developments, a lot of hover offerings. Uh if you could give producers one piece of advice to improve screening performance this year, what would it be?

SPEAKER_01 15:59

I think I would say to them, stop looking at the way you've always done it or saying, I just want to do this again. I would say please speak to an expert. Have somebody come in, look at your process. It doesn't cost anything to look at your process. Listen to the recommendations and be open to changes because I think there's so many cutting-edge technologies out there now that to just want to do the same as is no longer an option.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

Absolutely. That's a great piece of advice. Well, Karen, uh, for our listeners here, if they if they want to learn a little bit more about Hover and Boker's offerings or maybe even just to learn a little bit more about screening in general, uh, how can they find you and how can they get in touch with Hover and Boker?

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Yeah, of course you can find us on the Hover Niagara website. Um you can certainly come and visit us for the next few days at booth 32616. And uh, we're always available to help you, so please reach out at any time. We have sales representatives across North America, the UK, actually worldwide, if you look at our global at our global scale. So um I don't think you'll have a hard time finding us. We're happy to find you.

SPEAKER_00 17:02

Fantastic. Karen, thank you so much for your time. A lot of great insights here, and uh best of luck to yourself in Hover and Boker Niagara the rest of the year. Thanks again to Karen Thompson from Hover and Boker, Niagara, for joining us on this episode and for offering some great insights into smarter screening operation. Be sure to stay tuned for our next episode of Drilling Deeper coming out in two weeks, and we will see you then.