Jim Lenz:
All right. Conveyor belts are the backbone of efficient and modern grain handling facilities, ensuring a seamless and automated process from the point of intake through processing, storage and distribution. Their importance lies in optimizing efficiency, preserving grain quality and contributing to the overall productivity and safety of the grain handling industry. That’s why it’s a complete pleasure to welcome a seasoned veteran when it comes to conveyor belts. Our guest for today is Joe Alton Hoffman. He’s a technical sales professional from IBT Industrial Solutions. Thank you for your participation in whole grain, Joe. Thank you. I’m privileged this morning to be talking with you, To allow our listeners to get to know you and to start the show with a bit of a positive spirit. Could you share with our listeners a mantra or success quote that you live by professionally?
Joe Altenhofen:
I have several that I go by. One is I believe in treating others as you wish to be treated. The other would be promised to deliver and deliver on what you promise. And the third would be ask yourself at the end of the day if you contributed 100% to your efforts.
Jim Lenz:
I love those great words of wisdom. I appreciate that. Thanks for sharing Now to provide some context for our whole grain listeners who are joining us. Joe, could you provide a brief overview of the great work of IBT Industrial Solutions, especially as they relate to the grain industry?
Joe Altenhofen:
Yes, ibt Grain Division offers the grain industry products and services tailored to the grain industry requirements to support our customer needs. Ibt Grain Division has 84-inch wide conveyor belt slitting and custom bucket elevator punching capacities. We offer engineering support for calculating existing conveyor system configurations and system capacity upgrades. We have abundant quantities of on-hand grain belting inventory and related MRO item inventory. We offer same-day service for those critical downtime situations. We offer product and maintenance training to educate customers on what to and how to prevent downtime situations. We offer guidance and proper product selections, application and installation of those products. Ibt currently has 39 branch sales offices in 11 states throughout the Midwest and Central United States, as far west as Phoenix, arizona, and as far east as Spartanburg, north Carolina. Our grain division team supports the 39 IBT Sales Branch offices, customers with grain industry products, product knowledge and application guidance and other troubleshooting expertise. Our 42,500 square feet grain division warehouse is centrally located in Wichita, kansas. Being centrally located in Wichita Kansas allows us to ship product to any location in the continental US and Canada with minimal transit times. Through forwarding we do ship product all over the world China, oh you do.
Jim Lenz:
Okay, uh-huh, no, joe, you have a great selection of products and services. One of those services that our organization offers is individuals like yourself, who have years of experience, who have worked in the grain industry, who’s worked in conveyor products, rubber products. Just say, if you don’t mind, share with our listeners a little bit about you and your background.
Joe Altenhofen:
I’m currently the operations manager and grain product specialist for IBT industrial solutions grain division. I have been in a conveyor, manufacturing and industrial rubber products business for 35 years. The last 30 years I’ve been focused more so on grain industry products, such as grain conveyor and bucket elevator belting, along with other maintenance and repair products.
Jim Lenz:
Thank you for sharing that, Joe. Now today, in this episode, we’ll shed light on the crucial aspect of grain handling selecting the right conveyor belt. Unlike some other commodities, grain is a fragile product and handling it with care is crucial. Big picture wise Joe, can you elaborate on the significance that conveyor belts play in country elevators and terminal elevators, thereby stressing the importance of maintenance and optimizing systems?
Joe Altenhofen:
Yes, Conveyor belting and bucket elevator belting used in the grain elevators and grain terminal facilities are unique as they are required to meet or exceed OSHA compliance for static conductivity and OSHA compliance to have fire retardant properties. Also, grain belting should be compromised of MLR or SOR and abrasion resistant compounds. To expand on this, grain belting covers are formulated to resist the oily nature of various grains, along with having 60 to 65 durometer hardness on the belt covers to have a cushioning effect on the grain and also offer abrasion resistant seal as well. Maintaining the conveyor system components and belting is key to safe and proper operations and preventing critical downtime. We would suggest PM system inspections to be performed, often scheduled daily, weekly, monthly. But often the things to look for during an inspection would be proper belt alignment, overall belt condition, top and bottom belt cover inspection. The condition of the belt supplies itself. Inspect drive pulley lagging condition. Overall conveyor systems check, including drive package bearings, lubrication of systems, drive and tail pulley and carry idlers, along with proper tensionings for some of the the items that need to be inspected.
Jim Lenz:
Alright, so thank you, joe, for sharing that. Joe, in what ways does the conveyor belt play in ensuring the smooth and continuous movement of grains in the agricultural process?
Joe Altenhofen:
Conveyor belt systems are the most efficient way to convey grain carefully throughout the process to achieve capacity requirements. Grain conveyor belt systems are designed to convey large volumes of grain products through a series of troughing eyelers matched with the proper belt or maximum load support and optimal conveyor systems performance All add that a well maintained conveyor system will convey grain steadily and uniformly through the process.
Jim Lenz:
I’m kind of curious, since you have such great experience and you have a wide base of customers. You’re having new customers all the time. You are seeing and hearing issues and challenges and problems that come up for facilities. If we look at the last 12 months, for example in regards to grain belting, what are some of those specific problems that you have seen? Were you able to consult and help with customers? Are there any common issues or trends that have emerged Common?
Joe Altenhofen:
issues that we see here in the grain industry are worn and failed belt splices. Generally that’s due to either normal use or normal wear or improper installation or some other unforeseen obstacle within the conveyor system. Belt delamination is something we see as well. That is where the belt cover and carcass are separating, and generally that’s due to idler junction failure or a proper bucket mounting hardware installation. Also, inadequate belt tensioning and the use of aggressive dust suppressants can have an effect on delamination of the belt.
Jim Lenz:
Oh really, Can you state more about that?
Joe Altenhofen:
Generally, over the years we’ve seen mineral oil used to suppress dust on the systems. Of course grain dust is highly explosive and so we try to negate that. The facilities try to negate that wherever they can. So in some situations they will actually treat or spray their grain with a mineral oil or some other type of product to prevent the grain dust from accumulating in the facility. Some of the products out there used today can be a little aggressive towards the compounding of the belt and cause some belt delamination or deterioration.
Jim Lenz:
That’s a good point to be aware of and get concerned about. Thank you for sharing that. Another thing I want to ask you was about one of the things that you see is splicing of belts. Are there some tools that you have in stock that can support the splicing? I’m sure you do. What are some of the things that you offer to support splicing?
Joe Altenhofen:
There are mechanical splices available. Common ones are called plate fasteners. There are also hinge fasteners. There are clamp style fasteners as well. The key thing here is that these fasteners should be comprised of a non-sparking alloy to keep from having a spark or a source of ignition within the grain conveyor system.
Jim Lenz:
That’s good information. Now, it’s no secret that in recent history, not just the grain industry, but it hit other verticals as well. The challenges faced in the supply chain, affecting, in this case, availability of conveyor belts and other grain products. Is this situation started to level out in your mind? What changes have you witnessed?
Joe Altenhofen:
I believe that the supply chain issues have leveled out. Manufacturer delivery times are down to a tolerable level they are. In the past, during the supply chain challenges, we were looking at months for product delivery, and now they’re down to days or weeks, so it has leveled out a bit. Manufacturers have adjusted, acquiring and stocking more raw material, which has helped to alleviate the shortage, and they’ve also looked for alternative sources raw materials to shorten their lead times as well.
Jim Lenz:
I’m curious how IBT’s grain division adapted to the supply chain challenges in the recent history to ensure a consistent and timely supply of conveyor belts and grain products to customers. How did IBT prepare for this and for their customers?
Joe Altenhofen:
Our procurement decision making team here at IBT, we realized early on of the perceived supply chain challenges to come. So, ibt, we stayed ahead of the supply chain shortages by increasing our inventory levels on crucial belting inventory and other related items. By doing so, raising our inventory levels, we could assure that our customer base was having inventory as needed, but also having inventory for the rising demand caused by availability of inventory drying up in the marketplace.
Jim Lenz:
So that’s good preparation by IBT industrial. Really forecasting needs thinking about, obviously, the industry and the demand that there would be. So that’s really good preparation. Great to hear. So, given your wealth of experience and connecting with so many organizations and individuals, I think our listeners may be interested in your perspective on what you believe are the at least some of the greatest challenges within the grain industry right now and, just as important, where do you believe are the greatest opportunities that exist in the grain handling and processing industry? What kind of trends or patterns are you willing to share from the many conversations you have with customers and clients? You know thinking broader grain industry.
Joe Altenhofen:
Well, what I keep hearing is everyone is having staffing shortages. I believe that employment opportunities within the grain industry are in high demand and they would offer a good career for anybody to follow in this industry. The grain industry has a lot of good people to work with. It’s a great industry to be involved in and people are again generally very good to work with, and they are looking for young people to come into the industry and grow as their company grows. The other thing I’m hearing is they’re looking for technology to monitor their systems remotely, as not to rely on some of their personnel climbing ladders or, possible, putting employees in hazardous situations to monitor equipment and such.
Jim Lenz:
A lot of changes and adaptations that are occurring to help alleviate some of those issues. So any other things that you see as trends right now or within the industry, again, I believe the trends would be the technology to offset the labor shortage.
Joe Altenhofen:
Everybody is looking for an answer because of the staffing issues. Grain storage has been a real need and over the past few years been a high priority with a lot of facilities See that trend continuing, that facilities will be adding more storage.
Jim Lenz:
Yeah, those are some critical issues that are at stake right now. It’s interesting to see how the industry has evolved in just a short number of years. Now. Conveyor belts, as you know, plays such a crucial role in the operations of grain elevators and terminal elevators for so many reasons. It was a pleasure to connect with you to offer your unique perspective, joe. If whole grain podcast listeners want to follow up with you and learn more about the products and solutions offered at IBT industrial solutions, what are the best ways for listeners to find out more information?
Joe Altenhofen:
I would suggest going to our website, wwwibtcom, and follow the links to grain products, and that should lead you to my direction and we’d be able to answer your questions and you’ll be able to see the product offerings that we have for the grain industry.
Jim Lenz:
That’s fantastic. You also have organizations posted article on your website on conveyor belts. It’s quite extensive. I think that’d be great resource. We’ll put that in the show notes, of course with IBT website as well. Also, ibt industrial solutions will be at the upcoming jeeps exchange 2024. That’s happening a little bit, so excited for you and your team to be there. On behalf of the entire jeeps team, we thank you for sharing your time and talents with whole grain listeners.
Joe Altenhofen:
Thank you again for having us and look forward to visiting again. Alright, thank you.
