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M-Con Pipe & Products, Inc. Profile for CPIVersion: 16 July 2013= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

M-Con adopts “egg laying” system from HawkeyePedershaab to meet new market demands

OverviewM-Con Pipe and Products, Inc., was established in Ayr, just west of Toronto, in 2004 to serve the growing needs of the Southern Ontario market. The firm uses its original HawkeyePedershaab PipePlusPlus Machine to produce concrete pipe and manholes. Over the years, demand in product volume and variety have moved the firm to expand its plant footprint and capabilities.

Recently, the firm adopted an innovative new approach to dry cast production that has enabled increased product flexibility, greater output, and significantly minimized capital and operating costs. The new system from HawkeyePedershaab combines a modular box culvert mold system with a computer-controlled concrete feeder and an overhead crane to enable “egg laying” style production.

In addition to the box culvert equipment, M-Con has also installed a new robotic manhole base production system—HawkeyePedershaab’s Smartcast—that has reduced labor, increased accuracy and cut delivery time for manhole bases with even the most complex flow patterns.

Growing painsM-Con’s first dry cast location was established in 1989 near Ottawa in Carp., Ontario. That location, M-Con Products, Inc., serves the eastern and central Ontario regions with a wide range of dry cast products, all produced on HawkeyePedershaab PipePlus and VUP systems. M-Con founders, the Mion family, have been producing manholes and other precast concrete products for more than 50 years.

As building permits for private, commercial and institutional construction skyrocketed in southern Ontario in the early 2000s, M-Con saw an opportunity to extend its reach beyond its original service area. The firm acquired a 75-acre parcel in Ayr, which offered room for growth and a strategic location serving the greater Toronto area and southwestern Ontario.

Since 2004, the M-Con Ayr plant has expanded three times, adding new floor space, equipment, and staff to reach its current 70,000-square-foot size. The plant’s product line has also grown beyond the original round pipe and manholes to now include elliptical

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pipe, box culverts, three-sided boxes, highway barriers, retaining wall systems, and many types of custom limited-run products.

Even during the recession years, growth continued thanks to provincial and federal government funding in the form of the Building Canada Fund and other initiatives. Billions of dollars were and continue to be spent on infrastructure across Ontario and other provinces, including the National Highway System, drinking water, wastewater, public transit and green energy projects.

As the quantity and size of projects has grown, M-Con’s Ayr plant has responded in kind, adding increasingly more robust production systems. In particular, the plant added dual Hawkeye VUP production systems, each capable of producing dry cast concrete pipe up to 12 feet (3600 mm) in diameter. In addition, the plant has added a complete wet cast area that specializes in all types of manholes and associated products. Further expansion is currently underway.

Larger projects, larger productsAccording to Doug Galloway, president of M-Con’s Ayr operations, new highway infrastructure projects, in particular, have led to an increased demand for large and diverse types of products. “For instance, Highway 407 (see figure 1) here in Southern Ontario has needed a large number of large box culverts,” he notes. “We didn’t have that production capacity in large box culverts and wanted to add it to meet current and future demands.”

Centralized dry cast production using a vibratory table or wet casting using individual forms were two options the firm considered. Each of these production methods would have required extensive capital investment in equipment and building modifications, including a larger rolling crane—up to 80 tons—and building reinforcement or redesign.

In early 2012, Galloway learned of HawkeyePedershaab’s “egg laying” style production system that would enable the firm to produce larger box culverts without requiring major modifications to the Ayr facilities or investment in a larger overhead crane. The new system includes several main components:

Modular Box Culvert Forms – HawkeyePedershaab system of adjustable steel forms (see figure 2) enable M-Con to produce dry cast box culverts, three-sided boxes, and chambers up to 5.1 meters in span and 3.6 meters in rise in varying lengths and wall thicknesses. The system of forms includes built-in core vibrators (see figure 3) and a computerized vibration control console. M-Con can also wet cast box culverts, three-sided boxes and chambers up to 12 meters in span.

Crane-mounted Computer Controlled Concrete Feeder–The HawkeyePedershaab four-cubic-yard capacity concrete feeder (see figure 4) provides precise, automated filling thanks to a scissor-action mount (see figure 5) that allows vertical and horizontal movement without swaying. The feed system is operated by radio remote control in semi-automatic (“dead man” switch) or manual mode. In semi-automatic mode, the operator depresses the dead man

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switch and the computer control automatically fills the box culvert mold (see figures 6 & 7) based on the selected parameters. The computer controls allow storage of box designs for tracking of mold shapes, variable feed rates, and future recall.

Hydraulic Product Tipper–Allows finished box culverts to be safely moved from vertical to horizontal position for yarding.

Batching System – Shared concrete batching system provides dry cast mix via conveyor to the crane mounted feeder.

HawkeyePedershaab’s modular box culvert form system provides flexibility in the selection of critical dimensions, including length, span, rise, and wall thickness. The forms include a torsional tongue-forming pallet design that ensures structural integrity throughout the production process and a groove-forming presshead. A single set of forms and accessories in combination with the egg-laying style of production enables M-Con to meet their growing box culvert market demand.

M-Con installed their new modular box culvert production system in the summer of 2012. “The egg laying system allows us to dry cast the box culverts in the same place the products are cured,” Galloway explains. “We advance the pre-set adjustable jacket and core to the next pallet and cage assembly, set the forms in place, and the system automatically fills and vibrates. As soon as it’s done, we are able to remove the form as a unit, leaving the product in place, and move it to the next pallet and cage set-up.”

Laying golden eggsGalloway notes that the firm chose the HawkeyePedershaab egg laying style production system for several reasons, including:

Eliminated the need for large machine pit and vibratory table.

Enabled the production of a variety product sizes and types, including very large box culverts.

Reduced the size of overhead crane required – instead of an 80-ton crane that would have been required with conventional methods, the egg lay system uses a 15-ton crane because the products do not have to be moved since they are poured and cured in place. A preexisting 40-ton crane is used to remove cured product from the building.

Existing building could be used without modifications such as additional reinforcement or expansion.

Dry casting offered higher production volume versus the wet cast alternative.

Enables production of two three-sided boxes in a single pour.

Enables the use of a continuous single-offset rubber gasket for products up to 12 meters in span, providing a strong and unique competitive advantage

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“We were able to get up and running very quickly because the required infrastructure was minimal compared to other alternatives,” Galloway notes. “We saved about $2 million over other options we considered and we’re getting added benefits that other systems could not provide. The fact that we’re not moving products by crane meant we could get away with a much smaller crane, sized just for lifting the concrete feeder and forms. We also didn’t need to modify our building.”

M-Con’s Ayr location has been using the HawkeyePedershaab modular box culvert system for nearly a year. The new production system has enabled the firm to meet the needs of a wide range of customer requirements, including major highway projects, and private and municipal storm water and waste conveyance works.

According to Galloway, the adjustable box culvert forms enable the firm to produce almost any size up to 12 meters in span (see figure 8 to 11).

“We needed to get into the market quickly because the opportunity was there,” Galloway says. “This type of production system not only provided a quick turnaround, but lets us meet our customers’ needs for almost any size box culvert.”

Custom benching made easyDoing more with less—less labor, less waste, less time—is a challenge for every business. Not only has M-Con gained a competitive edge in box culvert production, it has added an innovative new capability that is helping it deliver manhole products that offer more value for their customers.

The firm, earlier this year, installed HawkeyePedershaab’s Smartcast monolithic manhole base production system (see figure 12). This new production system provides M-Con with a holistic approach to producing wet cast base sections encompassing an infinite number of channel possibilities.

“Manhole bases are one of the things that used to be done on site,” Galloway explains. “However, precast bases offer so many advantages to the contractor. Speed, accuracy, and quality are all better with a precast product. In the past, we would manually bench the channels called for in the design. With that, there was finishing, troweling, and coring involved.”

The new Smartcast system uses stock or customer-provided manhole base designs to mill a complete channel mold out of solid EPS (see figure 13) using a software-driven robotic milling system. M-Con acquires its EPS blank stock locally and recycles milling and molding waste to achieve the greenest and most cost-effective process possible.

The system control software allows the engineer or designer to input a few key variables, including the number of connections, connection angles, elevations, and the type of connections (e.g., PVC, concrete, clay, etc.). In just a few minutes, the Smartcast system creates a manhole base design that controls a six-axis industrial milling robot. Each

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manhole base design may be stored for future recall, enabling accurate repeatable production.

This process results in the production of monolithic base products (see figure 14) with the smoothest and most accurate flow surfaces possible, thereby reducing the impact of scour and optimizing hydraulic flow through the unit (see figure 15).

“We use the system to bench manhole base up to 1200 millimeters, including the inlet and outlet openings, in a fraction of the time it used to take with manual methods,” Galloway notes. The Smartcast system can handle up to 1800-millimeter bases. “The Smartcast system eliminates a lot of steps and the quality is exceptional—glass-like finish.”

Was it hard to decide to invest in these new solutions? “I’ve been in the business for 40 years,” Galloway notes. “The demand for all types of precast products is growing every year. These new and innovative solutions are helping us meet current demand and will enable us to adapt and meet future needs as well. We’ve relied on HawkeyePedershaab for more than 20 years—they are our first choice for the bulk of our production systems. We trust their solutions.”

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[Suggested artwork/photos...]

Figure 1 -- M-Con Pipe and Products provided numerous box culverts and other products to the Highway 407 (in red above) construction and extension projects.

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(source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ontario_407_map.svg)

Figure 2 -- One of the critical elements of the new HawkeyePedershaab “egg laying” production system for box culverts is an adjustable form system that allows M-Con to produce almost any size box culvert. This cast-in-place approach provides for rapid dry cast production with no need to move the product until it’s fully cured.

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Figure 3 -- The modular steel forms used in the HawkeyePedershaab system include self-contained vibrators.. Once the form is positioned on the pallet, the vibrators on the jacket and core are connected to a central vibrator control console.

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Figure 4 -- The HawkeyePedershaab crane-mounted concrete feeder is installed on a 15-ton overhead crane. The system’s infinitely variable feed rate with X – Y computer controlled guidance allows the system to feed any size box culvert.

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Figure 5 -- The feeder is filled with dry-cast concrete conveyed from a central batching system. The scissor action mounting system enables the feeder to be moved both vertically and horizontally without swaying, thereby enabling accurate filling of any box culvert size and length. The feeder is radio remote controlled and can store box shape designs for future recall.

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Figure 6 -- When in position, the computer-controlled belt feeder automatically fills the box culvert form with even layers of concrete. A home setting returns it to the central batching system for refilling, if necessary.

Figure 7 -- The modular form core includes integrated, synchronized vibrators to provide the primary source of vibration. This vibration process allows the form to be built with rigid stiffeners to minimize form deflection for the manufacture of precise and dimensionally accurate products.

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Figure 8 -- Finished box culvert with the outer jacket and inner core removed. The product will remain on the pallet with the press head assembly in place until the product is fully cured.

Figure 9 -- Multiple box culverts poured in place with HawkeyePedershaab’s new modular “egg laying” process. A canopy kiln (stored against the back wall) is deployed to cover the products during curing.

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Figure 10 -- The egg laying process is excellent for large boxes, such as this 4.8 m x 3.6 m box culvert HawkeyePedershaab’s modular box system enables M-Con to produce a wide range of sizes using a basic set of adjustable forms.

Figure 11 -- Finished box culvert, cured and ready for yarding.

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Figure 12 -- M-Con’s Smartcast monolithic manhole base production system enables the firm to create wet cast base sections with an infinite number of channel possibilities. The system combines design software and a six-axis milling robot to create EPS mold formers for the production of monolithic bases with standard or custom flow channels with smooth, glass-like flow surfaces.

Figure 13 -- Finished EPS mold insert ready for installation in the mold. Inlet and outlet openings are also molded in to eliminate the need for coring. The system saves labor and provides consistent, reproducible accuracy.

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Figure 14 -- The milled EPS former fits tightly against the mold jacket, complete with inlets and outlets.

Figure 15 -- At left, a channel former milled out of EPS on the HawkeyePedershaab Smartcast system is installed, ready for filling. On right, finished base product has glassy smooth flow surfaces for optimal hydraulics.

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