Material Handling Experts of TASSCO Believe in Performance

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This value-added specialty steel supplier and manufacturer of material handling solutions shares upcoming innovations in the aggregate and wood handling industries.

Unexpected downtime for a business is never a good thing. For sectors like mining, steel mills, power plants, and mobile equipment, this downtime is often the result of a mechanical failure with a piece of machinery that is integral to their operation. Knowing that their products keep their clients moving, TASSCO exceeds the expectations of its customers by offering value-added solutions that reduce costs—and downtime.

“The performance of our products is the key to us gaining trust and developing relationships with our customers,” shared David Patton, President of TASSCO.

“Our customers have a lot of confidence in our ability to provide the best products,” Michael Jenkins, Vice President of Sales, said. “It’s critical to our customers’ performance that these products work and last.”

TASSCO’s motto, “Believe in performance”, aligns well with its mission statement to provide quality wear products with world-class service. The company’s utilization of high-quality and cost-effective abrasion and impact-resistant materials result in engineered products like transfer chutes, screen deck wear panels, screw conveyor assemblies, bark hog screen assemblies, mobile equipment liners, and various other material handling wear-resistant components.

Innovations like these are what keep customers coming back to TASSCO time and time again. Two industry-changing products are on the way from TASSCO, and Patton and Jenkins gave us the inside scoop on what new opportunities they bring before they hit the market.

The patent-pending X-Change Grizzly Bar assembly will significantly reduce maintenance costs for rock quarries, coal mines, steel mills, and other raw material handling businesses.

Before, when this component wore out, the entire assembly had to be replaced—an arduous task that could take the better part of an entire shift. Now, TASSCO’s part just takes two bolts to unscrew, install, and then screw back in.

“We came up with a way to mechanically change the one part that wore out instead of replacing the whole assembly,” shared Jenkins. “Instead of spending hours or days welding and changing out a big product, it can be done in a few hours in a safer setting.”

TASSCO’s other new patent-pending product will also cause a reduction in downtime, this time for the paper mill and wood yard industries.

The large steel flights on the conveyors that are connected by a heavy-duty chain and take logs up to the facilities for further processing can take whole shifts to change out. With the new Jackladder Flight Assemblies from TASSCO, the switch now takes about an hour to rotate or replace a modular wear component on the flight and doesn’t require cutting or removing any chain.

Both of these innovations demonstrate TASSCO’s commitment to improving older products to reach the efficiency level their customers need and want. By cutting downtime and making the machinery safer and easier to maintain, TASSCO’s upcoming products are sure to help revolutionize their respective fields.

These two new products also have another thing in common: improving safety. TASSCO is committed to safety on all fronts: both for their own employees and the customers they service.

The company has been incident-free for two years and expects to continue at this level of safety.

“It’s easy to take it for granted when you go that long,” said Patton. “I believe it comes down to the right people. Our employees have a lot of experience in their respective fields, either operations or sales. Most people here have been involved in the industry for a long time. We hire qualified, capable people. That’s the key.

“When you start a business, the bottom line is a concern. You want to control cost, but one place you can’t cut corners is with your people. You have to hire and pay people that can do the job and do the job well.”

Patton also shared that TASSCO’s tradition for safety comes from providing the right tools for the job for their employees, empowering them with safety and other related training, and creating an environment where the employees choose to respect the leadership team—and vice versa.

“These guys are true craftsmen,” Jenkins shared. “The types of fabricated parts they make are, for lack of a better phrase, things of beauty. Our employees understand that when a customer orders from TASSCO, that customer has put their job and company on the line. We work together to deliver excellence, every time.”

TASSCO is currently in the middle of a heavy growth phase. Its more aggressive strategy includes investing in new salespeople familiar with their products and the industry. The company’s facilities were built to handle more growth and more capacity, and Patton and Jenkins shared that the team is ready to take on this growth.

“Our motto is true: we believe in performance,” Jenkins said. “It’s about quality, quality, quality. It’s not easy to do, but all of our employees have the same end goal in mind, and frankly, we do it the best.”