The Premarc Corporation - Success Stories

Grand Rapids Plant Tour

Grand Rapids - In an effort to educate professionals on the advancements the precast concrete industry has made in recent years, Premarc is opening its facilities in Grand Rapids, Durand and Clarkston to the public. Founded in 1927 in Durand, Michigan by the Marsh family, Premarc is Michigan's leading manufacturer of concrete products for the construction industry. Visitors to Premarc are able to see the manufacturing process of various precast concrete products, and witness the stringent design and testing criteria our products must meet.

On June 10, 2003 over seventy members of the American Society of Civil Engineers, West Michigan Chapter attended a plant tour hosted by Premarc's Grand Rapids facility. Participants included engineers from MDOT, Kent County Road Commission and private engineering firms. Following a lunch provided by Premarc, guests were divided into groups and escorted throughout the Grand Rapids facility.

Sparks flew, as curious onlookers witnessed wire cages being automatically spot welded on the MBK machine. This machine has the capability of forming reinforcement cages for concrete pipe as large as 48-inch diameters. They also discovered how double cage systems are manufactured for use in Class IV and Class V concrete pipe. Once produced, these cages are transferred to the pipe area for use during the pipe manufacturing process.

Visitors then continued to the Transmatic Pipe machine where Premarc professionals produced a 36-inch diameter Class IV concrete pipe within a matter of minutes. The Transmatic Pipe machine has the capability of manufacturing 20-22 pieces of concrete pipe per hour. Pipe is manufactured on this machine utilizing dry cast technology which allows the forms to be stripped from the pipe within 2-3 minutes after the pipe has been formed.

Any concerns regarding the strength and quality of Premarc's dry cast concrete pipe were quickly quelled after observing a three edge bearing test. A 36-inch Class IV concrete pipe was able to withstand 1 1/2 times the load required by ASTM C-76 standards before developing a 0.01 crack, thus insuring the strength and integrity of our concrete pipe.

The production of a 48-inch diameter manhole on the Teksam machine provided visitors with added insight of our manhole manufacturing process. Premarc professionals were able to show guests the importance of pipe invert information during the manhole coring process.

Engineers attending the tour were able to witness the manufacturing of the CON/SPAN^® Bridge system. CON/SPAN^® is a three-sided arch bridge system manufactured at the Grand Rapids facility. Engineers were able to view a skewed CON/SPAN^® section being prepped for forming, as well as observing the manufacturing of CON/SPAN^®'s patented headwall and wingwall systems.

Tom Grumbine, Premarc Corporation's Bridge Engineer, provided an overview of Premarc's pre-stressed bridge beam operation. Participants were able to view the beam beds, wire cable and equipment used to pre-stress the box beams and I-beams produced at this facility.

The highlight of the day included watching the Besser V312 Block Machine in full production. This block machine was placed in the Grand Rapids facility in 2000 and started producing block in 2001. This machine has the capability of producing twenty different products including several types of retaining wall block, brick pavers, manhole block and Nova Brik. The Besser V312 is a fully automated process that forms and split blocks, as well as places the blocks on wooden pallets for shipping.

Premarc's 90-minute tour provided valuable insight of the strength and quality of precast concrete products to specifying engineers. The Premarc Corporation takes pride in sharing our technology with contractors, developers and engineers. If your firm or group has an interest in touring any of our facilities, please contact Robin Wolf at 1-800-968-2662, ext 221 to schedule a tour.

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