ICEM DDN Customer Testimonials
Kress Masters Monster-Sized Designs with ICEMDDN
The Kress Corporation is a family-owned manufacturing concern located just outside ofPeoria, Illinois. It is set among the cornfields and farmhouses of the American Midwest,yet its humble location belies its reputation. Kress is recognized throughout the world asthe leading and most innovative producer of material handling equipment for steel mills,copper smelters, and strip mines.
For the past 31 years, the Kress Corporation has produced heavy duty, off-road vehiclesthat stand two stories high and resemble giant-sized Tonka toys. These gigantic materialhandling carriers, with state-of-the-art hydraulics and electronic monitoring systems, caneach cost more than US $1 million. Too large to be shipped in one piece, the massive,rubber-tired vehicles are assembled and fully tested at Kress, then disassembled andloaded onto trucks for transport. When the equipment reaches its destination it isreassembled and tested again.
Given the challenges inherent in producing equipment of such immense scale, it is notsurprising to learn that the engineering prowess at Kress is legendary, prompting manycompetitors to copy designs. None, however, can lay claim to the multitude of Kressinnovations which have contributed so much to the advancement of the material handlingindustry.
In 1965, its first year of operation, Kress produced the first slag pot carrier forsteel mills, with a 550 cubic foot capacity. Since then the company has produced onerevolutionary breakthrough after another, including the first unitized 150 ton capacitycoal hauler; a "U" frame and "straddle" type steel slab carrier withtongs, carrying up to 200 tons; and the first elevating pallet carriers. In fact, thecompany has to its credit 79 "milestones" or innovations that have been made forthe mining, construction, and metals industries.
Kress Model EPD-100C Dumping Pallet Carrier with 60 ton (46 M. Ton) capacity –Operating at Chaparral Steel, Midlothian, Texas
ICEM Technologies began to contribute to the success of Kress Corporation in 1986 whenthey installed two ICEM DDN CAD terminals linked to a main-frame computer. During the lastten years, as Kress expanded its business, the number of ICEM systems also grew. Today,the company has a total of 41 ICEM DDN seats running on an SGI workstation network.
One of the company's most recent accomplishments attests to the role ICEM DDN plays inKress' continuing leadership. The company completed work this year on the world's largesttruck, a 300 ton capacity coal carrier which was designed entirely with the ICEM DDNsystem. This single unit hauler can travel at 55 miles per hour and make extremely tight180 degree turns (only five feet wider than the overall length of the truck). The truckfeatures nitrogen-charged shock absorbers six times softer than the tires, and offers anexcellent payload-to-weight ratio of 2.29 to one.
The contribution ICEM DDN makes to the Kress success story is not limited to theEngineering Department, however. There are ICEM DDN systems at work throughout thecompany, including one in the office of the president and founder. The company's successis due to the fact that they can work with their customers to show new equipment beingdeveloped which is completely revolutionary. This new equipment will reduce materialhandling costs, but more importantly, improve plant throughput.
Product conceptual design actually begins in the Sales Department since ICEM DDN isalso used by the sales staff to initiate Proposal Drawings (PDs) for customers. Those PDsare passed on to Engineering when an order is received and used as the launching point forthe finished design. Completed ICEM DDN designs then move to the Manufacturing Departmentwhere they are< |
