Merschman Fertilizer LLC In Iowa - Mantsinen Reference Story

MERSCHMAN FERTILIZER LLC IN BURLINGTON, IA

Merschman Fertilizer LLC is a wholesale fertilizer company that handles dry and liquid fertilizers such as potash, phosphates, urea, ammonium sulfate and sulfur. It also treats and handles salt. Those materials are shipped via truck, rail and barge. To increase its operational efficiency, Merschman Fertilizer has undergone a major renovation at its Burlington, Iowa, facility and dockyard.

“When we look at our operation from a business aspect, efficiency is everything, and the help isn’t out there like it used to be,” said General Manager Brett Lindner. “We have more employees here right now than we’ve had before, but we’re also doing more things than we have done before.”

Lindner continued, “Another part of our operation would be safety. We were having issues with our old dock, and we thought we were going to be able to make repairs. Once we got down and had the engineers look at the old dock, we made the decision that a new dock would be the best thing to do.”

Efficient equipment

Merschman Fertilizer recently acquired a Mantsinen 60 material handler.

“It is the smallest material handler Mantsinen makes,” said Lindner. “We’ve never had a material handler with wheels. Due to the new construction of the dock area, we decided to go with a wheeled machine for less tearing of the concrete.”

The company is already seeing the advantages of the material handler.

“Since we aren’t completed yet, everything’s going directly into trucks from the barge to be moved across the yard,” said Lindner. “Even then we’re seeing a 30 % to 40 % increase in efficiency versus the old machine we had.”

Even then we’re seeing a 30 % to 40 % increase in efficiency versus the old machine we had.
Brett Lindner, General Manager, Merschman Fertilizer LLC

Lindner has also realized how the material handler has helped increase job site safety.

“The machine sits up high enough that anybody can walk around it and be out of the swing radius,” said Lindner. “With the old machine, that was an issue. It can operate from any angle or height around the cab. It has sensors on it, so if the bucket gets too close to the cab, it’ll override the system. It won’t lock the operator out but allows them to move it back further away.”

The machine has the reach to handle high and low river levels as well.

“Everybody on the river system is fighting low water right now,” explained Lindner. “Ultimately — in the 20 years that I’ve been here — it’s the lowest that I’ve ever seen it. Having a longer boom while running the barges in high or low water is going to be a huge help. We haven’t seen high water yet but being able to have a little more reach will be great.”

Merschman Fertilizer equipped the material handler with a 5-yard Anvil clamshell bucket to increase its load capability and reduce product hang up.

“From a 3.5-yard bucket to a 5-yard bucket, we are seeing 60% less buckets depending on the material,” said Lindner. “We are cutting our unloading time and hours on our machine.”

Plus, the material handler has strong operator comfort features.

“The 60 is lightyears ahead of what we had before,” said Lindner. “The comfortability of the operators using it is great. It has a Bluetooth radio on it, so you can talk hands-free or listen to music off your phone. It also has a heated and ventilated seat and auto climate control in the cab. If you’re going to put an operator in this for 10 hours, we want to make sure he’s in the machine that’s going to provide the least amount of fatigue.”