Episode 67: Superior Industries tackles 6 common conveyor problems

In this episode of “Drilling Deeper,” P&Q managing editor Jack Kopanski sits down with Superior Industries’ Riley Arndt and Joe Gibson to explore why the same conveyor problems keep coming back, and how a systems-based approach can finally break the cycle.

Arndt and Gibson walk through six recurring pain points – material spillage, dust containment, material carryback, conveyor belt tracking, conveyor component failure and conveyor belt damage – showing how they’re connected symptoms of a larger system rather than isolated issues.

They explain what to really look for during inspections, how to separate root causes from quick-fix symptoms, and what a strong daily, weekly and monthly conveyor maintenance routine should include.

Additionally, they highlight how Superior helps producers think beyond single components, with solutions and tools that address multiple issues at once and support better diagnostics instead of just part replacement. Listeners will come away with practical ideas to tighten up their conveyor systems, reduce recurring headaches and start building more reliable, higher-performing material-handling circuits.

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_01 0:06

Hey everybody, Jack Kopansky, co-host of Drilling Deeper here. On today's episode, we are going to be joined by Joe Gibson and Riley Arndt of Superior Industries to discuss the six conveyor problems that keep coming back. Most people fix conveyor problems one piece at a time, but that's usually why they keep coming back. Superior says there's a better way to think about it. In this episode, Riley and Joe break down what the better approach actually looks like, not only as individual components, but as one connected system where problems rarely stand alone. If you've ever fixed a conveyor issue only for it to come back a week later, this episode will help you understand what to actually look for when it comes to material spillage, dust containment, material carry back, conveyor belt tracking, conveyor component failure, and conveyor belt damage. Riley and Joe are a wealth of knowledge when it comes to conveyors equipment and conveyor maintenance. So you won't want to miss what they have to share in this episode. They get into all six of those topics and so much more. So without further ado, here is Riley and Joe with Superior. Today we are joined by Joe Gibson and Riley Arnd of Superior Industries. Joe is a veteran conveyor engineer whose career has focused on helping producers keep their material moving effectively. At Superior, Joe specializes in diagnosing conveyor issues and extending the life of critical components. If it rolls, tracks, or transfers, Joe's probably fixed at a time, or 12. He's the guy you can call when your belt won't behave and your idlers are tired of trying. Then there's Riley Arn. Thank you guys. Uh no, Riley. Uh Riley is a strategic account manager at Superior. He works closely with some of North America's largest operations to understand their challenges, share what Superior is building, and help them get more life and performance out of their conveyors. Riley has seen nearly every conveyor issue in the field and isn't afraid to get his boots dirty working through it. Gentlemen, thank you so much for making some time for us today.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

Thank you, Jack. Thanks for the lovely introduction. I appreciate the kind words.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Absolutely. Absolutely. Uh, you know, obviously you guys are uh, you know, uh very familiar with Pit and Quarry and, you know, we've we've worked together a long time and have a good working relationship. So I'm work looking forward to uh looking forward to to talking with you guys a little bit today. I know we're gonna be getting into some conveyor issues and and how operators can solve those. So um without further ado, I guess we'll just kind of dive right in, um, sort of into your areas of expertise, if you will. So, you know, let's just start looking kind of big picture, you know, something everyone or every operator, I should say, has experienced, fixing a conveyor issue, feeling good about it, and then seeing it come back a week later. You know, why does that happen so often?

SPEAKER_02 2:49

Great question. Um, I mean, number one, when you look at the world that we live in, it's it's not super glamorous, right? Pretty dirty, pretty rough. We're we're dealing with the easiest way to put it, we always say we make big rocks into little rocks. And uh, and that process can be a little bit violent, right? It's it's dealing with a with a system of of of crushing, screening, washing, you know, and then moving material from A to B. You know, that process is pretty rugged. So you're dealing with equipment that is a lot of lot of impact, uh, a lot of abrasive material and the world that we live in, it's not sunny and 75 every day, right? We get rain, we get snow, moisture, wind, uh, you know, all those factors come in to make the the process of making bigger octilla rocks, you know, abrasive and challenging.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Absolutely. Joke. Um, I agree a hundred percent with Riley there. Um, and you know, the biggest problems that we see throughout conveying in the aggregates industry tend to be in the transfer points and load zones. Um, you know, once the material's on the belt and traveling, it's not so much of a problem. A lot of the problems happen where the material is being transferred and where it's being loaded onto the conveyors.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

Absolutely, for sure. So, you know, Riley, you you mentioned that obviously this is sort of a uh a gritty, at times imperfect, obviously, industry. And, you know, Joe, you mentioned the transfer points being uh being a big area where these issues can occur. Having both seen a lot of operations as you two have, are these recurring issues more about does it come down to equipment limitations, is it maintenance practices, or is it just how people are sort of trained to think about conveyors?

SPEAKER_00 4:30

I think it's more of a more of a broad spectrum of all of those things. Um, we do see a changeover in the workforce coming through right now. So we're losing a lot of people with years and years of experience. A lot of the newer guys coming in aren't necessarily getting the training that they need to get them up to speed as quickly as they may need to get uh you know brought up to speed. Um, you know, and then along those same lines, you know, a lot of the equipment that's out there has been in operation for sometimes decades. And you know, it's well past its operational life, but people are still trying to make that stuff run. So, you know, a lot of what we see is a combination of multiple factors. Um, you know, I mentioned about the load points being a big portion of it, but just like Riley said, sometimes it's raining, sometimes it's dry. The environment uh and the conditions surrounding the conveyor also play a big role in everything that's going on with them.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

Yeah, that's that's a a very good point. Um that the whole environmental challenge, right, is a big deal, but the longevity of some of these plants that, like you said, have been around for years and years and years, you know, things have evolved. We've gotten uh better, people like to say more efficient in terms of how you can solve some of the problems, right? So accommodating some of the things that that let's say we at Superior have have invested in in terms of uh solutions-oriented products and just the education you learn along the way, uh you get to see a lot of the things that we've evolved and done differently that have been for the better. Then you also see the stuff that's been you know not for the better, and you can learn from those things, but you know, those something that makes us really unique, right? We're we're here talking about conveyor optimization, um, and we're uniquely fitted in the fact that we have a we have an equipment manufacturer just across the parking lot, right? So we put out thousands of conveyors, and so we get a lot of real-time feedback. So kind of pairing that with some of the you know, the the over 100 engineers that we have too, just the things you can learn through the process of being able to solve problems quickly and then help, you know, our customers and the producers in the field address the common issues that are happening anywhere and everywhere. You know, you can walk up to a plant and you pretty much already know you're gonna be dealing with some challenges like your belt tracking, the material spillage, um, you know, dust containment, you know, the whole refuge material thing is a big deal right now. So a lot of time under the belt and just getting able to see all these different places and see the commonality of challenges has helped us uh get in the forefront of solving some of those and helping helping people in the field.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

Yeah, for sure. No, that's that that that has to absolutely be a huge advantage again of having, you know, that the team of engineers you guys have, having that manufacturer sort of right there across the street, like you mentioned. Um, you know, another thing that kind of sticks out about superior and that I know you guys pride yourself on is the idea of taking sort of a systems-based approach instead of a component-by-component approach. What does that really mean in practice?

SPEAKER_00 7:19

So, in practice, when you're looking at a conveyor, uh, the thing that you have to keep in mind is even though you know it may be a mile long, two miles long, or it may only be 16 feet long, it's all one machine and all the components function together in unison to move material from one end to the other. So when you're looking at a problem on a conveyor, it may not be as simple, you know, for instance, tracking the conveyor belt. A lot of guys will just say, go out, adjust some idlers, track the belt. But the root cause may be some other issue. It might be material getting trapped under the skirting, it may be a pulley that's worn out on one side more than the other. There may be something that's causing that problem to occur. And so uh we'd like to focus on solving the root cause of the problem and not just putting a band-aid on to fix it.

SPEAKER_02 8:11

Yeah, so you yeah, you mentioned a couple key things there that I'm glad you said you said that word root cause. And um our even our sales team, you know, we work through kind of a um, you know, a process of call it root cause analysis, right? So when we're walking these plants, um, some people around the world, I mean there's different types of root cause analysis training. Um, but that whole thing of finding out the true root cause is a big deal because we'll oftentimes will see a symptom, which in Joe's example will be like the belt tracking, and say, well, that's the problem. But then you got to go through that process. And I think people probably heard somebody say, well, ask ask why five times, and you'll probably get to where the root issue really is, right? So Joe's example of the belt tracking, can the belt tracking's off. Well, why is the belt tracking off? You can see there's material built up on the return roll. Why is there material built up on the return roll? Oh, you can see there's a there's a groove down the belt and it's it's holding material. Why is there a groove? Well, there's a gap in the skirting, so you're getting material stuck in your skirting. Why is that happening? Well, you're transitioning with an impact idler and it's lowering your belt to the skirting. Like you dial that all back to find out the root issue isn't really the the belt tracking or even the material built up on the return roll. It's that first idler, that little $200 idler that's causing you all that damage that's carried throughout the entirety of the conveyor. So, you know, that that whole process is when you take a step back and look at it as a system and not just as an individual component or a one little thing that you think is the problem, you know, dialing it back, asking the five whys, you'll really start to see where the root issue comes into play. You can solve that and then obviously save a lot of money down the road.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Yeah, absolutely. And to your point, you know, um, a lot of what we call problems on the conveyor are actually symptoms of the true problem. You know, belt tracking is a symptom, um, carry back is a symptom, spillage is a symptom. Something causes those things to happen. So that's you know, that's why we want to look at the root cause.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

Sure, sure. And and I'm sure that idea of of sort of that continuous why Riley is um I'm sure something you're familiar with having having a couple young ones yourself that you know they just always want to know why. It's why is this, why is this? And eventually, like you said, you get to that root cause, and that's it, it that's a that's a great way of thinking about it.

SPEAKER_02 10:19

Have you been hanging out at my house and listening to to our kids? Are you been hanging around more than I know you've been in town?

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Well, you know, listen, I it that's that's that's for me to know and for you to find out. But you know, listen, I just I just I I I know people, I know things. It's all right. No, no, no worries, it's okay. Uh yeah, right. Um, you know, you you guys talk about getting to that root cause, and that's obviously so important. And the way that again, you know, something can be so many steps away that leads to a problem elsewhere. Um, can you kind of, you know, maybe from a from a bigger picture standpoint, what's a good example of how one small issue on a conveyor can cascade into bigger problems elsewhere in the operation?

SPEAKER_02 11:01

Joe, you want it?

SPEAKER_00 11:03

Well, uh, you know, I was just you know thinking about what he said about it, you know, cascading into other problems in the operation. You know, one of the things that we frequently see is, you know, we'll see um dust liberation or carry back that's falling onto other pieces of equipment or you know, falling and you know, being carried by the wind and affecting other pieces of equipment. I've seen you know, conveyors that are receiving dust liberated by another process, and that affects the belt tracking on that conveyor. You know, so everything that happens on that conveyor not only affects the conveyor, but it affects other parts of the plant and it affects other things happening, you know, around that plant. So, you know, dust, of course, being carried by the wind is a big problem. But you know, once you start having, you know, carry back that's raining down through a tower onto multiple pieces of equipment, it can affect the life and the longevity of, you know, say, for instance, a tail pulley on a conveyor that's mounted underneath it, that sort of thing. So there are there are a lot of examples where it's not only affecting the conveyor itself, but it's affecting the operation as a whole.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

Sure. Yeah, yeah, that absolutely makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 12:13

Yeah, if I were to give a if I give you another example, um, I mean, uh it uh I'll tile it into a little bit of a of a financial thing that that people who have you know financial responsibility at their plants would see. Um we started doing this more and more, and it's been uh I'll say rewarding and and and good to see the commonality between what we've seen as well as what some of the producers have seen. Um we do some training all the time on these types of events. Uh we call them conveyor optimization workshops. And kind of towards the end of that, we work out what we can try to get from the producers that are in the room, kind of their cost per ton, we'll call it right. Everybody's got some level of knowing what that is. And so when we actually measure the cost of spillage is a big one that we focus on, where, I mean, again, you got a range depending on the company, but you're generally speaking, it's pretty easy to find your way to $100 a ton of lost material sitting on the ground by the time it's on the ground, having to reprocess it, the labor costs, you know, your your fixed, your fixed cost just to operate and everything. Um, so that's one thing that we've seen pretty common, where if you can manage the material, keep the material on the belt, which is what Joe was talking about with spillage, dust liberation, everything, you can see even at a simple $100 or $200 a day or $100 or $200 per ton, you know, just a ton of material a day can end up to be $24,000 at the end of the year for that one conveyor, that one site, right? Now, I know in the grand scheme of things, that may not seem like a lot of money in the grand scheme of the whole industry, but if I was walking on the sidewalk and I seen 24 grand, I'd be I'd be pretty quick to pick it up. I'd be quick to pick up at $100 a day, right? So um just another thing, too, of when you start looking at the the small issues that can lead to a larger financial result result down the road.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. So, you know, I know coming into this that you know there there were sort of six six sort of key problems um in conveyor, you know, in conveyor operations and conveyor maintenance that you guys wanted to hit on. Um, you know, we've we've already touched on several several of them, those six being material spillage, dust containment, material carry back, conveyor belt tracking, conveyor component failure, and conveyor belt damage. So I guess just kind of maybe maybe taking those those step by steps, starting with, like you said, probably you know, one of the one of the more important ones, material spillage. Um, again, you use the word root cause. What what are maybe some of the most common root causes of material spillage that you see? And how often is the real issue, kind of like you mentioned before, somewhere else in the system?

SPEAKER_00 14:40

So do you want to take it around to go ahead?

SPEAKER_02 14:43

I was just gonna say, uh, I was gonna dial it back to what what Joe Joe actually mentioned earlier. He talked about um load zone setups, or he maybe said transfer point setups. You know, that that whole that we'll just call it the first 10 to 20 foot is often the area where you're having material loaded from whether it's another conveyor, could be coming out of a crusher, coming out of a screen, whatever the case is. That area is generally speaking where most of the root or the uh I'll call it the root issues start, right? And that that belt, you know, the big expensive piece of belt that carries material, that's carrying the problems more or less throughout the entirety of the conveyor. So if you looked at the material spillage portion just in that load zone, um, you know, you got conveyor dumping onto a conveyor. And with that, you know, you try to, if you can, granted, it's it's hard to accomplish this all the time. You want to be able to load that material in the same material or direction that the belt's moving instead of versus side loading, right? Because when you side load, you end up pushing the belt one way and it'll cause you belt mistracking, but it also pushes all that rocket material up against your skirting and your liners, which wears it and you get the material that spills off the sides. Very common one. Uh, the second part of that is in that load zone setup, um, we'll a lot of times see um rolls, idlers stacked in those load zones, right? Well, as you as your belt sits in between those rolls, you can get call it a minute gap that's in between the rolls. Uh, we just call it a roll gap, and it allows material and dust to come out that way as well, right? So we've we've gone towards in areas where it's where it's uh very visibly present, trying to get more of a flat seal between your skirt rubber and your belt. And you can accomplish that by either having a system of flat like UHMW pads, or sometimes it's an impact batter or our superior impact cradle, to where you can get a good seal that really helps your material containment. And so that's a big one that we see often is the skirt board rubber um placement, meaning tension properly, uh is touching and it's being routinely maintained to where it's continually touching the belt. Um that's definitely a big, big issue. But uh, Joe, what would you add on to that?

SPEAKER_00 16:47

Um, yeah, right along those lines, you know, throughout the load point, you want to have zero belt sag anytime you're underneath the skirt boards. Um a lot of the stuff that can be really damaging isn't necessarily the spillage that makes it all the way off the belt, but it's the stuff that gets underneath the skirt board and then gets jammed when it comes up against an idler. And that's what cuts grooves in the belt. So maintaining zero belt sag through there is most critical in containing spillage and increasing the longevity of the belt. Uh, and then backing up also to your point about uh loading in the direction of travel of the out by belt, you want to be loading in the direction of travel and at a very similar speed to what that conveyor belt is. So oftentimes we'll see in uh I mean, often it's in portable setups and stuff like that, where they're moving their conveyors a lot, they don't allow themselves enough vertical height in that transfer to redirect the material. So they're coming right off of one conveyor, maybe a two-foot drop, and they're coming on at a 90-degree angle, creating that um angular loading that you were talking about. You don't have enough room to turn the material before it hits the belt, before it comes down and induces that excess wear and causes the spillage. Um, another place that a lot of guys don't look at, you know, on the bigger setups, if they're loading a stacker conveyor, they're vertical loading onto an incline. And if you look at that, that's actually reverse loading the conveyor by installing a simple rock box or something like that to deflect the material into direction of travel of that out by belt. That's going to um, you know, eliminate a lot of swirling, a lot of turbulence in the load zone, minimize the dust being liberated, and reduce the amount of um material entrapment down there. So getting material traveling in the right direction before it hits the belt is critical. And then giving it sufficient support to where you can actually seal that belt and seal that skirting down against there without trapping material, that would be your second thing. You do those two things, and then you're uh you're basically looking at keeping material on the belt, and if material's on the belt, it's going to the stockpile and it's getting sold.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, you know, it it's interesting. Obviously, this is this is stuff you guys work with and see on a daily basis. As someone who didn't necessarily come from, you know, aggregates or come from construction, it's easy for me to kind of look at you know a conveyor and say, oh, well, you know, you just got to put put rock on it and let it go. And here and all, you know, the all the different you know steps and intricacies of it is is really really highlights, you know, one, how important it is, and two, just you know, uh how much goes into something that can look so simple from the outset.

unknown 19:27

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

Um, uh another one that that we've that we've talked about a little bit, um, and sort of looking at more on maybe a safety and compliance side of things is dust containment. Um, how does dust tie back to overall conveyor per overall conveyor performance and not just sort of a housekeeping issue, if you will?

SPEAKER_00 19:48

So historically, um the industry has kind of looked at it mostly as a housekeeping issue. Um, you know, it's not considered a uh you know an environmental hazard to any extent or anything like that. Um, but with current legislation, they're looking more at the silica content and that sort of thing is a health hazard. Um but really when it comes to you know dust control, dust containment, the big thing is controlling airflow. If you control the airflow, you control the dust flow. And once you control that airflow, you're able to put that dust back into the load and keep it moving with the uh material going out. So you don't necessarily have to have a whole lot of sprays and you know foggers and uh you know bag houses and all that kind of stuff. If you control the material as it free falls through your chute and control it when it loads onto the belt by minimizing impact, you can reduce the dust a lot. Coming out of ancillary equipment, you know, your crushers, your screens, stuff like that, you do have a lot of material turbulence. You do have a lot of dust being generated. So those take a slightly different uh approach. Um, but it is controllable just by controlling the air.

SPEAKER_02 20:57

Yeah, kind of that's kind of the encouraging thing looking at uh, as Joe mentioned, like the legislation side, right? We're seeing a lot of uh changes that we probably didn't have to worry about as much prior. And so and so now we we kind of took the step of being prepared a little bit in advance, right? So um, you know, it's the the technology that that we've actually chose to implement on a on some systems to help with dust mitigation. Um, yeah, it's Joe said it's it's no water usage, no electricity. It's simply all about airflow mitigation. Um so the positive thing that they'll say in our industry as it comes to like belt-to-belt transfer, it's a very simple setup, and we've kind of pre-engineered a modular, call it a dust containment system, or we call it a skirting system, uh, to help with the dust mitigation, to be prepared for any potential um challenges or or just um um um the the dust liberation um now just challenge we got to face with with people who are especially close uh in in neighborhoods and communities and and you know, some of these larger cities, obviously that they need rock a lot, right? So a lot of the quarries are are based in larger commit or larger communities where having a good community relationship with. With the producers helps helps a lot, right? So even just seeing those dust clouds up in the air can sometimes throw somebody for a loop and start wanting to know about you know you know uh air quality and and all that the dust mitigation. So um having a good just option for maintaining employee safety with the silica dust inhalation, um, keeping, you know, our our kind of rugged abrasive industry, you know, in the eyes of our communities to it to be a necessity and also very good for our community. So um just those things to help with the community involvement, you know, the health and safety thing is is definitely important, more important now than I would say it has been in years past.

unknown 22:35

Yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

And I would also like to add in there, you know, that uh, you know, we talk about the safety, we talk about the environment, but that dust is an abrasive material, and once it's airborne, it starts getting into other pieces of equipment. It goes into electric motors, it goes into tail pulleys and you know, drives and things like that, and it causes abrasive wear on components. So it is reducing the life of the components in the system.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

Yeah, yeah, no, that's that that's an excellent point, Joe. And and Riley, to your point from the you know, with the uh uh relationship with the community, you know, I'm I'm I'm sure that's that's that's probably got to be the easiest part, right? I mean, every every aggregate operation has phenomenal relationships with all of their neighbors. So uh certainly, you know, certainly glad to hear that that's you know, it uh sort of an easy fix, if you will, for sure. Um sorry. Um you know, moving on to material carry back. Sorry if I'm having you guys repeat yourself here, but you know, what are some deeper problems that material carry back can signal um in a conveyor, you know, in a conveyor plant, in a wider operation, etc.

SPEAKER_00 23:44

So a lot of carry back um isn't the fault of the belt cleaner. Okay. Um a lot of guys will put on a belt cleaner and they won't maintain it. If the blade's not contacting the belt, it's just not going to do its job. Uh the other thing is, you know, oftentimes people will put belt cleaners on belts that just can't be cleaned, you know, because of the condition of the conveyor belt. If it's coming out of a primary crush or seeing a lot of impact from large rocks, the cover might be beat up to the point where you can't really clean it. You know, so you need to look at your load conditions. You know, how are you loading that belt that's causing that damage in order to solve your cleaning problem? Uh, another thing a lot of guys, you know, do is they'll put a belt cleaner on and think that that cleaner is going to clean their belt 100%. No cleaner on the market, regardless of the manufacturer, will clean a belt 100%. They'll normally do about uh 75 to 80 percent of the material that's adhering to the belt will come off with the cleaner because the cleaning action happens in a very fast, you know, tenths of a thousandth of a second as the belt's traveling over the blade. So we do recommend, you know, for more aggressive cleaning applications, harder to clean applications, put multiple cleaners on. Um, a lot of my history is in the coal fields, and it's not uncommon in a coal mine to see multiple cleaners as much as two or three primaries and five or six secondaries on a conveyor belt to eliminate that flammable dust that might be coming off. So in the aggregates industry, you don't need to go to that extent. But keep in mind if you're getting 75 to 80 percent, then the next cleaner that you put on is going to get 75 to 80 percent of what's left. So just having a primary and a secondary really reduces the amount of carry back that you'll have. And then if you have a really wet, sticky material, maybe a lot of clay contents, you know, things like that, you may even want to go to a tertiary cleaner, a third cleaner, and get another 75 to 80 percent. Every little bit adds up when you start looking at how much accumulation you have, you know, and then also look at you know, critical applications. Are you going over top of a roadway, over top of a travel way where that material can build up and fall? Um, you know, you want to pick and choose your you know, your more critical applications.

SPEAKER_02 25:57

Yeah, yeah. And if I could throw one more nugget in there, because I remember it took me a while um to catch on to it. I mean, I'll say like Joel's history, way more expansive than mine, right? I mean, we're we're wearing collared shirts today, but most of our days are spent, you know, uh kicking rocks and getting dirty. But um one thing that that I've noticed is a lot of people, and part of it I think is us even as as OEM companies or people who are building conveyors, kind of the standard for many, many years has always been to have a belt cleaner that is just shorter than your belt. And a lot of times with that, um, the belt when they're trough is generally speaking about a 35 degree trough. So that's putting the majority of the material in the center of the belt. Now, when you start cleaning your belt, you want to only be able to clean where it's dirty. Now, that seems like a like a weird concept, but when you focus on cleaning just the dirty stretch of belt, you generally speaking, because all the material is in the center, you generally speaking will have somewhere in the neighborhood of let's call it two to maybe four inches on each side of your belt that are relatively clean. So when you're running that belt scraper and you tension it, you're maintaining it great, but it's only wearing in the center where it's dirty on the belt, that wears faster, right? So then when you go to tension your scraper the next time, and on the outsides, when it's not hitting anything dirty, it doesn't wear as fast. So now that's where your tension's going. And if you look at your scrapers at all when you're walking your plans, and you see, we always call it a smiley face because you can see the outsides are higher and the center is worn in the middle. Yeah, the middle's not, it's not, it's not touching a lot of times. You can see daylight sometimes through it if you're standing underneath it. So you're not getting the appropriate cleaning because it's only touching on the ends. So we've encouraged a lot of people, especially if you have that narrower path of dirty belt, to go. Uh most manufacturers will have a belt with minus two, they call it, or a minus eight, or customized options as well. Get the smaller one or get one that's only cleaning the dirty part. And your your cleaning will be enhanced, and as well, you'll probably see a little money because you're doing less material in your blades as well.

SPEAKER_00 28:00

Exactly. Exactly. By eliminating that center wear, it maintains better contact throughout the life of the blade, and your blade will actually last longer.

SPEAKER_01 28:09

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. No, that that that that's a great point to make, and um certainly something to consider again that that uneven wear definitely being uh definitely being a big a big impact. Looking looking now at conveyor belt tracking, again, one of the sort of one of the key issues we wanted to touch on here today. Something operators are constantly adjusting. Why is it something that is so difficult to fix, you know, maybe not permanently, but sort of you know, long term?

SPEAKER_00 28:38

Well, on it depends on the conveyor. Okay, a lot of conveyors are rigidly mounted, set on firm foundation, they're relatively short. Those conveyors should be able to be tracked and maintained for quite a while. But you start getting into some other conveyors, um, rotary stackers that are traveling, okay? And if they're on a pad that's not perfectly level, sometimes it'll put some twist and some movement in that conveyor. As soon as you start doing that, you start affecting the tracking. If you have an overland conveyor with multiple footings where it's just sitting on the surface, as the ground gains or loses moisture, it'll swell, it'll lift, it'll move, it'll twist, it'll turn. Um, anytime that you have your structure changing position, that's going to affect the tracking of the belt. So in those instances, we recommend, you know, put on a tracking device, you know, put on some type of a training idler or something to that effect to help maintain that because you can't have somebody out there training your belt every time it rains. You know, you can't have somebody out there every time that it freezes overnight and then thaws during the day. You can't be training it twice. So you want to have something automatic to handle that. Now, when you get into the rigid fixed conveyors, um, oftentimes it's a simple matter of people honestly not being trained to be able to train their belt effectively. Um, in the you know, we've run into a lot of people out there who will train the belt by adjusting the screw takeups on the tail, and that's not the best way to do it. You end up driving a lot of tension to one side, inducing uneven wear, um, increasing the uh tension on one side of the conveyor, drives more tension into your splice, causing splice problems. There's there are just a lot of problems that arise from that. You should be training it by adjusting the idlers, making sure your pulleys are always square. So as long as your pulleys are square and your structure's straight, you can train it using the idlers, and it's uh, you know, not that big of a deal. It's just a matter of people learning to do that, I think. Sure.

SPEAKER_02 30:44

Yeah, that's uh that's a good question because there is, you know, we talked at the beginning of this of a of the podcast, and there's so many factors that go into the environments we work in. Where you know, we're talking about things that have been installed for years. I'm not saying guys hit stuff with loaders every now and then. I'm not saying that, but I might I may have seen in the time or two.

SPEAKER_01 31:04

Of course not, of course not.

SPEAKER_02 31:05

Yeah, I know. It's yeah, we'll leave that where it sits. But the rain, the shine, the snow, the ice, the the age of the belt, maybe it's reached its its its light. You know, there's so many factors that go into it. You're how how your components are installed, it's the perfection of belt tracking may or may not ever exist in in the world we live in with making big rocks to little rocks. Um, but we know if we can if we can start out of the gate and help teach and coach the best practices for belt tracking, you know, Joe alluded to having everything square. If you can at least start, if your structure's square, great, you're you're on the right track. If your pulleys are square, you're good, right? And then from there, you're just fine-tuning by moving your returns and your troughing either. And if you can get it going straight, you know, then then generally speaking, you're you're you're good. And then when you put your load on it and you're loading it even, you're generally pretty good. But we all know that that's that's an ideal world. We know that uh um some of our equipment's older than others, right? So there's just things that happen over time. So having a good um partner and who can have good tracking devices too, you know, that's something that I would have said our I'm really proud of the engineering team at Superior that they've done is with the tracking device that they've made for the return side, we call it a navigator. Um, it works extremely, extremely well, gives a lot of flexibility to the user in terms of where they need to place it and where the tracking has to be corrected. Um, but it's something that just having having something available like that to where when you're in that situation, it's like, man, this belt's old. We're not replacing it till next year, but we got to get through this season. We don't want it cutting into our structure or cutting off our return brackets. You know, we got to do something temporary, or it's just one we're fighting and we can't fix. Have a good partner, reach out to. I mean, Joe and I are happy to come help look at any of those things too. Uh, it's part of what Joe does pretty much every day, right? So um, you know, all those things lead to problem solving, best practices. Sometimes you gotta throw uh you gotta go to throw some extra resources at it to help get that belt running true.

SPEAKER_01 33:01

Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. Uh looking looking at you know, sort of the next issue we want to talk about here, component failure. Um, Joe, you know, I I believe it was you know I believe it was you earlier in the episode who mentioned that you know a lot of things are actually sort of the the symptom of the problem rather than you know the root cause or the problem themselves. Um when it comes to component failure, how often is the failed part actually the symptom rather than the root cause, like you talked about before?

SPEAKER_00 33:29

More often than not, um, you know, uh a lot of the components that are on a conveyor have a wear life. They're built with wear surfaces. The belt itself has two wear surfaces, top cover and bottom cover. Um, your pulleys, the entire face of that pulley is a wear surface. Your idlers, each roll is a wear surface and it has bearings in it that are wear, you know. So, you know, cleaner blades, the blades themselves are a wear surface. Everything's a wear surface, it all has a natural wear life. Um, so what we're looking at really is we're talking about premature wear or uneven wear. Okay. If you have material that's going through a pulley, you know, whether it's a tail pulley or a bend pulley, and it's building up and it's wearing down the surface, that's a problem. You know, that's it's not a problem, it's a symptom of a problem because that material's coming from somewhere. You know, it's either spillage or it's carry back or something to that effect that's getting into that pulley and damaging it. So that's what we want to eliminate. We want to try and make it so that it sees the full natural wear life that you know that it's anticipated. I mean, I've seen idlers out there that have been recently I saw some idlers that were manufactured and installed somewhere around 1990. They were from us, and we know that because of the seal that was on them. It was only used for a few years back at that time. So those idlers, you can see the physical wear of the steel, and they've seen a full life. Okay. If you see a pulley out there that's been in service for, you know, seven, eight, nine, ten years, it's seen its full life. You know, it's wearing through. Um, I always tell people there's, you know, there's no better belt out there than one that's been on there for 15 years, it's age cracked and it's worn to the plies. It has run through its normal life without failing prematurely. So that's what we really strive for is to get the most life that we can out of the components, knowing that they do have, you know, an expected, an expected functional life.

SPEAKER_01 35:34

Yeah, and you and you and you guys want to be able to make them sort of live out that full life.

SPEAKER_00 35:40

Exactly, exactly. Yep, yeah. We want to see things wear out in the fashion that they're intended to wear out, not prematurely.

SPEAKER_01 35:48

Sure. Yeah, absolutely. Riley, anything to add?

SPEAKER_02 35:53

No, I think he answered really well. I just say again, as the as our our approach to helping be the best partner we can for in the industry, for our partners. Um we've really shifted towards focusing, we keep saying internally, like performance counts, right? We're not you're you don't need a hundred-year light bulb, but I'm happy to get it if I can, right? And so that's that's something that we're we're focused more on trying to be be sure that and the avenues that we can help participate in working with with our partners is that we're there to provide a performance that is meeting up to customer expectations, right? And that varies based off the customer, the application, everything, right? Um, so everything when it comes to component failure, as you as we've heard, as we've talked through this systems approach, most of the component failure is generally speaking caused by the problems that are carried throughout the system. Yeah, you get sometimes there's a design failure or an undersized failure for whatever the case is, right? But generally speaking, most of the problems are caused by the the day-to-day abrasive contents that we work in, right? So uh doing everything we can up front to keep preventative maintenance on the on that material carry back thing, the spillage, the dust coming out everywhere that's getting into all the components, uh, and then just managing exceptions, which are like your rain, your s your snow, your shine, those are things you you factor in up front. But that's part of where, you know, and I don't want to build up Joe too much here. I mean, he's don't want to get him a big head, but um that's part of like why having Joe on our team and some of the stuff that he does with with site surveys and uh doing our conveyor optimization workshops. So much of it is around um teaching, educating, and actually showcasing at the given uh plant if you're doing a survey. You know, these are some small tweaks you can do that you're gonna keep your material on the belt, and it's not gonna be a large investment, but it's gonna help you keep your product going to the money pile, and it's gonna keep your your conveyor component maintenance um uh minimized because now you're eliminating a problem that is that is causing a downstream effect, right?

SPEAKER_01 37:49

So yeah, for sure. So finally, you know, coming to kind of the last key problem we want to touch on, and I know a lot of a lot of what we've talked about before might kind of feed into this, you know, just sort of conveyor belt damage in general. Um, you know, I know we've kind of touched on again some different things that might cause conveyor belt damage, but what are some of maybe the early warning signs operators should be watching for to address before it becomes a major issue?

SPEAKER_00 38:16

So if they start seeing any kind of cover damage, they should be looking at their load zone to see what's causing that. Or, you know, depending on the damage, you know, if if you're seeing cover being scalped off, you may maybe you've got some locked-up idlers or something like that that are worn through. But if you see nick marks, cut marks, gouges, things like that, you want to be looking at your load zone. Um, if you're seeing any type of premature wear in line with the skirting, there's a good chance that you're getting a little bit of belt sag, or maybe your idlers are spaced out too far underneath your skirting and stuff's getting trapped underneath there. Okay, so you want to make sure everything's set up properly to eliminate that wear. And sometimes that wear will show up. If you're running a mechanical splice, it'll actually show up on the steel of the splice before it'll show up on the rubber of the belt. If you notice that you're wearing clips right in line with the skirting, um, that would be a real early signal that you're getting some material entrapment. You might be getting a little bit of spillage, you want to be taking care of that. Um, you know, beyond that, uh you want to be looking at your slice for any amount of stretch. You want to be looking at sag also. A lot of guys don't know how to properly tension their conveyor belt. Um, so you want to make sure that you have the proper amount of sag on your returns between idlers. Make sure you don't have it over-tensioned to where you're cupping it, make sure you don't have it under-tensioned to where you're getting slippage and you know things like that. If you start seeing marks on your belt where it appears that the pulley has slipped, you're probably under-tensioned. So those would be some of the initial things to look at. Um, any type of can any type of marks on the cover, whether it's top cover or bottom cover of the belt, that's gonna be the first thing that signals you that you need to make some changes.

SPEAKER_01 40:08

I'm sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 40:10

I was gonna say another one you'd see too. It's not a direct thing because of your belt necessarily, but as you get belt tracking issues, too, it'll a lot of times I mentioned it'll ride off and it'll hit your return brackets or it'll hit steel structure, and you'll see strings of rubber that are sometimes laying next to the conveyor, or um, just you'll see them either hanging off the belt, too. That's more of an indicator of a tracking issue, but it is a belt maintenance thing where um sometimes you might have started with a 36-inch belt and now we're down to 33 inches, right? So that that does have an effect on on how much material you can carry. Obviously, uh, I don't know if a lot of guys have paid attention to, but rubber will cut through steel. That sounds kind of opposite, but it will cut through steel. It's one of those uh safety things as well. But um seeing the strands of rubber uh is one thing you can pay attention to as well, which is more again of a belt tracking thing. Um and then another nugget I was gonna throw in because it has to deal with um I'll call it tail pulley maintenance uh or tail pulley longevity, but as well as your belt maintenance is it's one of the cheapest things you could probably buy um regardless of what it is. But having a plow, we call them a V plow, there's single direction diagonal plows on the return side of your belt just before your tail pulley will save you a ton of damage if you get uh larger rocks that are coming back uh in the load zone that land in the return side and they get stuck in your tail pulley. Um, it's one of the easiest things you can do that'll help protect the tail pulley from becoming a high-speed belt punch, is what we like to call them, where you get a rock stuck and it's it's continually turning and just putting holes or beating that bottom cover. So um just a nugget of a quick thing if you're seeing that, um that's a that's a very super cost effective thing. Uh as well as if you if you pair that with with uh a chevron tail pulley that we make at Superior keeps all the material from getting stuck in the stuck on the tail pulley and puncturing your belt too, which is a which is a common issue we see.

SPEAKER_00 41:57

Yeah, absolutely. And just to just to expand a little bit on something that Riley said about the belt tracking there, you don't have to wait until you see the strings hanging on your idlers. Um all the idlers, regardless of who makes them, are a little bit wider than the belt. If you're polishing the paint off of your idlers all the way out to the edge, then your belt's tracking off at some point throughout the course of the day. You always want to have a little bit of paint on the edges of your idlers that tells you your belt's not getting out to the edge, not getting into the brackets, not getting into the steel.

SPEAKER_01 42:29

Sure, sure. Yeah, and I think I think probably my biggest takeaway from from from all of that is that it sounds, you know, in I I would probably call it up in a positive light. It sounds like a lot of these issues are things that can be spotted just by, you know, sort of paying attention, keeping your eyes open, and doing some checks and inspections, and you can spot it before they do become a major issue.

SPEAKER_00 42:53

Yep, absolutely. And I think one of the keys to that is one of the things that we strive for is to try and make uh we try and make our customers' maintenance guys as bored as possible. Because if they're not constantly reacting to emergencies, they have time to go out and walk their conveyors and see those little things and catch those little things before they become an issue. So the more bored that the uh maintenance guys are, the better, as far as we're concerned.

SPEAKER_01 43:18

I love it. I love that. That's awesome. So speaking of maintenance here, just just kind of you know, as as we as we wrap up talking about some of these issues, um with the with the approach that again, Joe, you mentioned and with the uh you know connected system approach, and Riley, again, you talk about asking the why, why, why to get to the root, root issue, root cause of things. How should taking that approach change the way operators approach inspections and maintenance? And what does a strong conveyor maintenance routine actually look like on a daily, weekly, monthly, et cetera, basis? And where do you see most operations fall short when it comes to preventative maintenance?

SPEAKER_02 44:02

I can start, Joe. I'll let you chime in for sure. Because I think one of the one of the one of the best things for me is I was learning coming up in this industry too. And it's I'm going to go back to the part of the systems approach, right? So ideally, if you are putting in a best practice, uh, I'm going to do broad and I'll nail it down just briefly. But if you can, if you're walking your plant, start where rock's coming in. You know, loaders dumping it into a jar or gyratory, whatever they're loading into that first part of the system, follow it from where the rock is coming in and walk it to where it's being stockpiled or loaded out in a barge, whatever the case is. Um because you'll see how that progression works and how you go from big rock to little rock, how the how the how the issues change, right? So when you're doing that, you're starting at the tail of a conveyor in this example, and you're working to the head, right? So when you're in the tail section, I mean, some of the quick things you you look at, I mean, the easiest ones, look at your tail pulley, just inspect the condition, um, see if you have any bent bars, you know, bearing grease that's leaking everywhere, uh, and kind of follow it up, right? So, like common things to look for. If your first idler is a is a generally a 20-degree, if it's impact, you probably want it to be steel because that's a higher tensioned area coming off the flat tail pulley. Um, that's one we see a lot of times where it's an impact because it's in the it's in the load zone, right? So it needs to be shock absorbing. But see if that first idler uh is steel, and ideally you you want to have um, Joe, you might have to correct me, it's either one and a half or two times the width of the belt you need to have as a distance from your tail pulley to your first idler to let that belt trough properly. Uh that's a common one we see. Um but then once you get into that load zone, being able to look at your skirt board rubber, properly having your skirt board rubber tensioned and installed is a big one that helps a lot with spillage. Um, one of the overlooked things we see in the aggregate side too is not having uh some type of a liner on the inside. So uh at Superior we have it, we have rubber and urethane liners, we call them rock guard liners, very often overlooked, but those can help protect your steel, any steel structure as well as containing your material. So seeing if there's skirt rubber in there, liners is a big thing, um, making sure that you have proper load support, which Joe talked about earlier in the material containment portion. So see that you have proper load support. Uh, and then honestly, once you get through the into the we call it the main section of the conveyor where it's just say riding the train down to discharge, you know, that one's fairly simple. You're really just looking for belt tracking or uh listening for we call them squeakers and growlers, right? Any rolls that are you can hear a bearing squeak or you hear some uh a ball bearing or something rolling around in the can. Like you can listen and see those things pretty easy, a lot less maintenance issues there. And then as you get to the discharge, man, the biggest thing is just taking a quick look at your your head pulley. How's the lagging doing? Is it bare steel? Is it still a lagging or not? Uh and then checking, checking the belt cleaner because that that belt cleaner at the discharge is often the uh can be harder to maintain because a lot of our conveyors too are elevated, they might not have catwalks around the entirety. So having uh having a good visibility or a good um uh what we call them a set for life, set your tent your your scraper once and forget about it until you have to replace the blades, you're not up there continually having to maintain it. Um, that's a really good one to look at too, because then you can set it and forget about it, and you don't have to continually go maintain that scraper. So, you know, from the overview, you know, those are the quick things that I know we look for a lot. Joe, what would you throw into that mix?

SPEAKER_00 47:28

Um, no, I agree. Doing a uh thorough inspection, um you know, pre-shift, do a thorough inspection. And you know, when you're talking about, you know, a site before they start up, oftentimes you've got a few extra guys. You've got your operators, you've got your maintenance guys. They can break it up and do a half a dozen conveyors each, something like that, knock it out in a half hour because they don't have to, you know, spend a whole lot of time measuring everything, just looking for their problems. That's a good start to the day. You know, do that every day if you can, or at least once a week to be sure to be certain. Um, and then the other thing that I wanted to throw in, you know the our customers they're in business to crush rock and sell rock. Um, so there are going to be times where things are going to break and they're going to do a quick fix on it to keep running. But they need to keep in mind that that quick fix was done and as soon as possible make it a permanent repair. Um if you're running your plant on a lot of quick fixes, that's where a lot of guys get into trouble. They have little things that just keep snowballing over time, and then you end up going back and repairing your repair job over and over. So I think being proactive to make those changes and make those fixes as soon as possible are going to help minimize the amount of maintenance that they have to do. Um, I think those are the big things, just you know, staying on top of everything. I've been in plants where they had over a hundred conveyors and they had a maintenance crew of one man, but he was very proactive. He stayed on top of things, and as soon as there was the slightest bit of spillage, the slightest bit of carryback, he fixed it and they didn't have problems. That's what kept him bored. He kept things running smoothly. I've also been in plants that have, you know, 20 or 30 conveyors, and they have a four-man maintenance crew that's chasing their tail all day long. So you have to take a look at what you got, keep things running smoothly, and make permanent repairs every time you have the opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 49:26

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely, Joe. So we've covered a lot of ground here, guys. You've been super generous with your time. I really do appreciate it. Um, with all we've talked about, how what kind of solutions or are how can Superior help operators address these challenges? Be it be it through your you know, service and maintenance uh capabilities, with you know, like you two guys being out on sites, or be it through the equipment and pieces you guys offer, what does superior bring to the table to help operators solve these problems?

SPEAKER_02 50:04

Great question. Um, glad you asked. That's that's something that you know we we've touched on a few things, but again, the uniqueness of our company again, with being what I'm gonna call conveyor experts, our our roots in in this industry came um as as initially as a conveyor company, right? So we have a lot, a lot of history on the conveyor side, and that has transitioned to help super um super well in our conveyor components division because a lot of that expertise and the things we learned comes through that. So um at Superior, you know, this the ability to be able to call, you get to get to talk to somebody anytime. Um so it's having the the contact with us, but also our our dealer and distribution network. I mean, we we partner with industry experts. You know, it's not it's not it's not something where um you it's not it's not a Walmart approach where you're just going to buy and then uh I'm I'm stuck on my own by installing it and doing something like that, right? So we we have partners that work extremely close with us to become experts in the field and know our product super, super well. Um that that's very, very important to us because um even though our scope of supply is really unmatched in the fact of it's it's everything from if you need a crusher or if you need an idler can or a scraper, like it's it's everything in the gamut at your at your quarries for the material processing side. Um, you know, that that's a big important feature for us. Um we want to be able to be the people that that that they can call when they need something, regardless of what the issue is. Um so just having the expertise you know across our organization is super helpful. Having good partners helps a lot. Uh and then the last point of it, again, we talked, we have 100 engineers at our company, that gives us a lot of availability to have solutions-oriented and performance uh advantages because we get time to build a line that is um based on performance. Performance and availability, meaning they need it quick. It's not like they can usually wait, right? If something breaks, it's man, I need it, I need it tomorrow or I need it yesterday. You know, having inventory on those on those products helps a lot. Um, but being able to be flexible in terms of solutions-oriented things, you know, we talked about you know, the set for life belt cleaner that we make, um, the rock art liners to help with with the with the load containment and our dust containment system, um, the tr the belt tracking devices, like our navigator, just things that we've been able to develop and I'll call it perfect over time through some trial and error, through RD, through you know, partnerships with end users to try product, um, you know, that whole caveat, just being close to our customers, being able to hear their voices, not just uh working to say, hey, it's sold, it's yours, you know, hope everything goes good, but just being there for the service and support from initial install and purchase all the way through the life of the of the product is very important to us. It's one of our core values, actually, is serving others as a company. So um, you know, those things, you know, I just would encourage every anybody in who's interested in either learning more or wanting to get more educated. We do sessions that are that are these conveyor optimization workshops all the time to help groom and teach people who are willing to learn um as we're coming into this this workforce that is uh is younger, which is great.

unknown 53:03

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 53:04

Yep, I would agree with that a hundred percent. Um the main things that I would add in um you know, we have a lot of products and um, you know, we do a lot of specials. Um I think that the most value that we bring, though, is we are the only company out there that builds conveyors as well as conveyor components. And uh, you know, everything that goes on the conveyors that we build is the components that we use. We wouldn't use them on our conveyors if they didn't perform. So, you know, that's something that's really big in my point is uh, you know, not only do we build the components, we build the conveyors that they go on to, and we prove them out in the field in a lot of industries, not just aggregates. You know, we do a lot of shiploading, heavy mining, um, you know, pulp and paper just across the spectrum. So we have products out there that other custom other companies may or may not have just because we're in so many different fields and because we do use the products in our own equipment. Um, you know, the most valuable thing that I think we offer is the knowledge base that we have. As Riley said, we you know, we've got over a hundred engineers, all of them are you know specialists in certain areas. You know, if you have a question about conveyors, we've got people to talk to. If you've got a question about screening or crushing or how the conveyor feeding into those affects things, we have people that you can talk to. We have a very broad base. Um, you know, and along those lines, you know, like you said, we do the conveyor optimization workshops where we'll come out and work with your people, whether they've got one year experience or 30 years experience. We've had good feedback from the full range of experience levels to where they're getting something out of it. Um, and if you don't have time for that, we have the optimize you, the online training for, you know, I think there's what over 80 modules in there now, just uh running the gamut on everything from conveyor belt to crushing and screening. It's all out there. So I think the big thing that we bring is experience and knowledge and a willingness to work with our customers.

SPEAKER_01 55:13

Yeah, that's fantastic. And I'll tell you, as a customer, being able to talk to uh being able to talk to a real person nowadays would be a would be a huge bonus over than having to deal with those uh having to deal with all the machines and uh and robots you're talking to when you try to when you try to call someone to get some support nowadays. So that's that that's awesome that you guys prioritize that.

SPEAKER_00 55:33

I promise that neither me or Riley are AI generated.

SPEAKER_01 55:37

Good, good. I was I was a little I was a little worried about you, Joe, but now now that I hear you say that, my my uh my concerns are quelled. So that's that's that's awesome. Um, you know, just finally, guys, for for listeners who are maybe ready to you know address some of their conveyor problems or want to learn more about maintaining their conveyors, learn more about the problems we talked about, what would be their first step in engaging with Superior as a company, getting in touch with you guys, or or um just you know, anyone who wants to learn more about what Superior has to offer? How can they how can they reach out? How can they get in touch with you guys?

SPEAKER_02 56:13

Yeah, for sure. Um, I mean, number one, again, we're talking about talking to people. I mean, by all means, you know, the phone's always on. Um, our main phone number here is 320-589-2406. Uh, alternatively, our website and our marketing team is wonderful when it comes to building out um literature, uh, online uh support, you know, all the stuff that goes with that. Our website is a great place to go as well. Uh, it's just www.superior-ind.com. If you're looking for a quick gamut at the at your fingertips or at your computer someday, that's a great place to start. There, you know, there's there's contact um availability in there as well. If you do want to send an email through that, you're more than welcome to. Um, so that that's definitely a good place to start would be our website. Um, feel free to reach out to me as well. Um my my cell phone's 320-815-5381, or you can send it to riley.arnt arn d t at superior-ind.com, and I'd be happy to coordinate connections too with uh other people in our company or more information and things like that.

SPEAKER_00 57:13

So any other path would also be to go through the uh distributor that you're currently purchasing superior products through. Uh we do a lot of events with them. There may already be something scheduled, and uh you may be able to join in on one of those.

SPEAKER_01 57:27

Excellent. Yeah, yeah. I I I know after you know, after working with you guys for several years, I know how proud you guys are of your distributor network, and it's definitely uh a very strong core you guys have. So, yeah, anybody who's uh anybody who's working with a superior dealer, definitely get in touch with them for more info. Uh, Riley, Joe, uh, thank you so much for putting up with me for an hour here. It's been a great, been a great conversation. Uh you know, appreciate all the insights and uh all the best to to the both of you and superior the rest of the year and beyond. Thanks again to Joe and Riley for their insights and solutions to those six common conveyor problems in this episode. Always appreciate hearing from those two. Be sure to stay tuned for our next episode where we're joined by Scott Alexander with QuickRead and Jason Alexander with Virgin America, where they share their thoughts on the state of the aggregate industry so far, the factors at play affecting performance in 2026, and what they expect for the rest of the year in the industry. You won't want to miss it. Thanks as always for listening, and we'll see you next time.