Nucor, one of the largest steel producers in North America, is spending more time focusing on increased demand and less time worrying about airborne dust thanks to a hybrid managed service program from Midwest.
With more than 300 locations and over 25,000 employees, Nucor is one of the biggest names in steel production in North America. Now, the company’s Kingman, Arizona, location is enjoying a safer, healthier workplace with an airborne dust control hybrid managed service program from Midwest Industrial Supply, Inc.
Nucor’s continued investment in our industry-leading airborne dust control products and services shows, yet again, how successful Midwest is at helping customers keep airborne dust under control. Plus, with Midwest handling the entire application and maintenance process for Nucor, the company has been able to focus on what matters most: their business.
Keeping Airborne Dust Under Control
Nucor’s Kingman, Arizona, facility — an essential node that converts steel bars into rebar for Nucor — has enjoyed a surge in business in recent years. While this has been a boon to the company, it’s also presented challenges as far as managing airborne dust in compliance with Arizona state law.
To operate its business in Arizona, Nucor has worked under the auspices of an Air Quality Management District (AQMD) operating permit. The increased demand that the Kingman plant has witnessed means more dust kicked up by vehicles and equipment. Nucor tried to handle the situation on its own, but with the facility’s roads 70-75% unpaved, the process proved time-consuming.The Kingman plant had been using two water trucks on-site, with one applying ammonia lignin sulfonate and the other spraying large amounts of water. This solution was partially successful, but lignin solutions are known to pose some environmental risk and wash away easily, while water’s efficacy is limited and gradually degrades road integrity.
What’s more, the same surge in business that merited this solution, made it difficult for Nucor to implement independently. With greater demands placed on each Nucor employee, there was less time available to handle their own dust control solution.
Midwest was already on Nucor’s radar because of our successful work with another location in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Now, running up against bandwidth limitations applying their own dust control measures, and environmental concerns, Nucor’s Environment Safety Manager at Kingman reached out to Midwest for help.
Saving Time, Saving Money
Once our team understood the scope of Nucor’s needs and their requirements for an effective solution, we began crafting an airborne dust control program that would mitigate the effects of intensive industrial activity and respond to their personnel mandates.
Ultimately, we recommended one of Midwest’s airborne dust control hybrid managed service programs. This regimen would involve the application of our Road Pro® industrial road dust control solution every quarter and the application of our Earth Armour® synthetic solution every month. Additionally — and this has been a gamechanger for Nucor — Midwest proposed managing the entire process, including the delivery of these products, their application, and their ongoing management.
Nucor and Midwest began with a brief trial period over a limited portion of the plant’s roadways. Once it became clear how successful this treatment was, combined with our already effective work with Nucor’s Crawfordsville location, the Kingman facility expanded our solution to more of their roads.
Since then, Nucor’s Kingman team has saved an average of 27 man hours every week thanks to Midwest’s hybrid managed service program, as well as a 70% reduction in water usage. This has allowed their facility to better manage its growing business.
In addition to staying within the permit limits of ADEQ (Arizona Department of Environmental Quality), and without having to make other considerable changes, the Kingman plant was awarded the VPP Star Certification. This made it one of just 46 facilities in the state and 2,360 businesses across the country to be recognized for achieving and maintaining exemplary health and safety standards.
At Midwest, we’re proud to be working with Nucor’s Kingman and Crawfordsville locations to better manage airborne dust and support their growing business. Our partnership continues to help make Nucor a safe, environmentally friendly place to work — something we hope to help many other businesses achieve in the future.
