Wirtgen Group of Germany recently acquired a majority interest in Kleemann GmbH, an international manufacturer of track mobile and stationary aggregate-processing equipment. Kleemann manufactures and markets a broad range of mobile and stationary processing technology for crushed stone, demolition waste and mixed construction waste. In 2007, under the direction of Evan Clarke, vice president, Kleemann Inc. USA, Kleemann began expanding its presence in North America. In this exclusive Q&A, Clarke discusses the company's position in the North American aggregate-processing market and its plans for growth here.

Rock Products: How is Kleemann positioned internationally and how is it expanding in North America?

Clarke: Kleemann began operations about 150 years ago in the manufacturing business in Stuttgart, Germany. Over the decades, it has evolved into the business that it is today. For the longest time, it was run as a privately owned, engineering-driven company — focused on the design and improvement of mobile and static crushing. The company has developed a broad line, which includes jaw and impact crushers, and improved the mobile crusher concept over the last 40 years.

Rock Products: Why expand into North America now?

Clarke: Europe is our biggest market, but our equipment is sold in the Middle East, Asia and Africa as well. We did not enter the North American market earlier because we simply could not meet the demand. We are anticipating production capacity improvements that will permit us to expand our markets worldwide.

We always knew we would get into the North American market; that was one of our plans. But we decided to wait until the right time. With the acquisition of Kleemann a year ago August by Wirtgen Group, the right time has come. That's because we can leverage the existing Wirtgen America infrastructure in the United States, and have co-located our offices with Wirtgen America in Nashville, Tenn. Eventually, from Nashville, we will market equipment to both North and South America.

Rock Products: How will Kleemann expand?

Clarke: The way to establish ourselves is to get the right products into the North American market to meet customer demand. We need to get settled in this market while resolving issues of transport and legislation. Later, we can expand our dealer network to better reach potential customers.

Right now, we have three dealer/distributors. Columbia Crushing & Screening, Portland, Ore., is handling California, Oregon and Washington. The second dealer/distributor is McHale Inc., Windsor Locks, Conn., serving Connecticut, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York and Pennsylvania. Our third dealer/distributor is D&L Equipment, Jackson, Mich., which serves Michigan, Ohio, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico.

Rock Products: Which products are you stressing in North America?

Clarke: We are concentrating on the mobile business. Kleemann's overall business is half mobile, half static/stationary. We are well known in Europe and the rest of the world as manufacturers of complete turnkey stationary plants. But our key focus in North America will be to sell and support mobile equipment, including contractor equipment, which can shift from site to site, and mobile equipment for in-pit use.

Rock Products: What's special about these products that will help Kleemann compete in the market?

Clarke: We build our machines to the concept of the “static plant” — that is, they may be mobile, but they are built to static plant standards. That is, you will have a feeder, and a fully independent pre-screen, which allows material that doesn't need to be crushed to bypass the crusher. We also offer feeders underneath the crushers, which eliminates belt damage, especially when crushing hard rock or material with rebar in it. In addition, we offer a diesel-electric machine that runs cleaner and more cost effectively than diesel/hydraulic systems.

Rock Products: How is the pre-screen independent when the equipment is all on one chassis?

Clarke: Most of our machines come with a fully independent pre-screen as a key element to the Kleemann design — that is, a double-deck, buffered grizzly on the top section, and the mesh underneath. This allows the operator to fully pre-screen prior to the crusher on the mobile chassis, removing fines, clay and dirt and actually sizing it prior to the crusher, putting the right-sized product on the side, or bypassing the crusher altogether.

For many years, this concept has been accepted for static plants. Anyone installing a static plant will include a hopper, feeder, pre-screen and crusher. The whole system can be improved by how effectively you optimize the process and length of feed prior to the crusher. If your crusher is very close to the back end of the hopper, and the material does not have enough time to spread out into an even flow, the crusher will not work effectively.

With our system, it doesn't matter how much material you have in the hopper, because it doesn't decrease the vibration, nor the effectiveness of the scalping system. It then feeds onto a pre-screen, which runs at 1,000 rpm — scalping and allowing the material to spread out evenly prior to entering the crusher.

Rock Products: At what point will the size or weight of Kleemann products impact a customer's ability to move a product from one site to another?

Clarke: We do build smaller and lighter-weight machines. Our main focus is on the quarry and contractor business. We build quarry machines with heavier tracks and liner plates. But we offer a lighter-built machine for the contractor. We are still trying to engineer a machine that will be 100% transportable with no compromise in life span.

Rock Products: The decline of the dollar versus the Euro is in the news these days. Does this pose a challenge to Kleemann in its introduction here?

Clarke: We are focused on the fact that, for now, the exchange rate will be a problem, but we are prepared to invest. With Wirtgen's influence and experience, we will benefit from their perspective on how to deal with this situation. The North American market is one we must be in, and the investment and financial resources will be there to make it work.

Rock Products: In the United States, as in Europe, there is a lot of interest in the use of recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) and reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP). Which Kleemann products are suited for recycling and reclamation of these recovered materials?

Clarke: In Europe, the Mobicat and Mobirex are used for this material recycling, and the tendency is to use the impactor more for recycled concrete and asphalt. For many years, jaw crushers had been used because operators were afraid of getting metal damage in impactors. However, Kleemann's primary impactors are designed to allow rebar or metal to go through the crusher. Today's impactors provide higher tonnages of reclaimed material than is available through a jaw crusher, with better-shaped material and fewer flats. They also clean the concrete off the rebar more effectively than will a jaw crusher.

Rock Products: What are Kleemann's plans for ConExpo-Con/Agg 2008?

Clarke: This will be our first exhibition at ConExpo-Con/Agg. It will be the major show for us in which we introduce ourselves and show customers what we offer. Our exhibit will be 4,800 square feet in size, located at Stand No. S-522, on the Silver Lot.

Rock Products: What kind of synergy exists between Kleemann and Wirtgen that will help Kleemann better reach and serve aggregate producers in North America?

Clarke: We already are benefiting from Wirtgen's years of experience in the U.S. market. We will also benefit from their sales organization. Kleemann, being privately owned up to its acquisition and being a Germany company as well, was a perfect fit for Wirtgen, also a privately owned business. Now Wirtgen Group has moved upstream into the aggregate-processing side of the road- building industry. It was the correct move forward for both of us.