In Production

The plant is up and running pretty good now.  Gerrit says that they have made 73,000 gal of Sure-K this week.  The first batch made up there was right to specifications and the system continues to improve the accuracy as batches are made. 

Below you can see the framing is done for the packaging room.  This should be complete next week.

 This is a shot of the touch screen.  All of the valves, pumps and motors are operable with the touch of a finger.  There are valve position sensors that change the valve picture from red to green when the valve is sensed open.  This ensures that no valves get stuck to cause cross contamination.  It is very configurable and has a great deal of flexibility for future expansion.

 You remember the steps that Ron Davis put together for the truck loadout.  They are in place now and with a few finishing touches, will be ready to go.  They look great and are very functional.

 Paul checked them out and says that they meet his approval.  He would be glad to help by spinning the wheel to get the bridge extended out to the vans.

 Below is the inside of the truck loadout.  Needs a few finishing touches.  Everything done thus far had to be done from a ladder so it should finish up quickly.  They are loading trucks outside now.  The programmers have to put together the loadout touch screen outside to help us do mixes better.  They will then move inside to get this one working.  It should be a much needed improvement to the system that we currently have.

 The driver's lounge is coming together well.

 This is the hallway into the employee break room.

 Break Room Kitchen

 Logistics office.  Flooring is getting aclimated so that it can go down next week.

 Site Manager office.

Stay Tuned, lots to come in the next few weeks.  I am realizing right now that I forgot to get a good picture of the finished scales.  I will try to remember to get that done for next time.  The grass is also starting to come up so another outisde picture should look nice soon.

Making Product

So - The plant has been making a bit of product the last couple of days.  Still working to adjust and calibrate all of the equipment but things are going well.

They are beginning to install the scales.  There will be much setup that goes along with that but we are looking forward to being able to scale trucks.

 Truck Loadout office is all painted.  The steps and bridges are being powder coated and painted and should be installed by next week.

First Farm American Race!

Read the story from Furniture Row Racing here.

On Saturday we first went to the Speedway Club at the track and toured the facility.  The views from that building are spectacular.  From there, we went to a private room where Pat Driscoll of Furniture Row Racing and Farm American explained the program and its objectives.  Joining us in that meeting were represenatives from Charlotte Motor Speedway and The Performance Racing Network (PRN). 

We then had the opportunity to meet Larry McReynolds.  Larry is one of the broadcasters that you see on FOX Sports.  He has a long history as a crew chief and later in his career transitioned to a broadcaster.  He spoke to us for about 30 minutes about NASCAR in general.

We ate lunch at the Speedway Club and traveled down to the track.  We were then given our radios.  The radios that we were given were the team radios for Furniture Row Racing.  They allowed us to talk amongst ourselves throughout the tour, hear the spotter, driver and team communicate before and during the race.  Charlie gave a great tour and covered all of the aspects of Racing, Qualifying, and team operations.  We followed cars through inspections, visited the tire and fueling stations, and watched car testing in the garages early in the afternoon.

Standing with Charlie is Tina White from Mike Rowe Works.

From there, we attended the driver meeting, watching all of the drivers come in, watch the video about the rules and explain the specifics about safety on the Texas Motor Speedway. 

After the driver meeting, we had the opportunity to go over the wall and wander up and down Pit Row.

We were then able to catch Regan Smith going over some final checks of the car.   

 Skip Fox helped us also with the tour, getting us into places that most people, even with HOT Passes would not be able to get.  Below is Doug standing next to the track close enough to touch the track, or the new Convertible Camaro’s that the drivers were riding in.

The grass out there is spectacular.  I will have to see if they have used Green Lawn lately. (They could have used some Micro 500 to deepen the green and yes, that is the white line)

We were close enough for Regan to recognize us and give us the thumbs up.

I did take some other pictures and thought about inserting pictures of some of your other favorite drivers but then realized that your new favorite driver is featured in the picture above.

Pit work is very athletic.  Here you see the guys getting ready for the race to start.

All of us had the opportunity to sit up in the pit box.  The view from there is spectacular and the cars go by twice as fast as they do on TV.  The gentleman on the right is Barney Visser of Furniture Row.

“Dude, that last pit wasn’t what we wanted, the next one needs to be better. Yes but your breath smells like pickles” – It is very loud, making communication difficult.

After about 100 laps, we moved up to the suite that Furniture Row Racing has.  The views were great and it was a good place to relax and eat a light meal after being out in the sun all day.

After the wreck, we went back down to the garage to see how things were going.  We decided to take off before the last lap to get ahead of the traffic.(next time you talk to Lang, ask him about the ride)  What a great experience.  Hopefully Farm American reaches full funding soon and we can look forward to more races this year.

Regan Qualifies 5th!!

Below is the group from ACLF attending the race this weekend.  From left to right:  Doug Summer, Nick Bancroft, Albert Bancroft, Tim Smith, and Lang French.

We had some difficulty getting to the track to see the qualifying but when Regan ran, he was in the first qualifying position.  He ended up Qualifying fifth after all of the cars ran.

 With this type of access, it is easy to see the inner workings of NASCAR.  Regardless of what you think of racing, this is quite an opportunity to get close and see what goes into a successful race.

 The car looks great, sporting its LIQUID Logo on the rear quarter.

We wanted to take an employee that had gone above and beyond what is normally expected.  Doug Summer was selected for this.

Doug has worked at the NCRS since the middle 90’s transitioning into that job from a truck driver.  Over the course of time, Doug has increased his mechanical, management and organizational skills as the NCRS has grown and his role in that has expanded.  Most recently, we have expanded the NCRS.  There were many things that were accomplished by all of the Agronomic Sciences staff to accomplish that, ranging from equipment advancements to simply the work and planning required to handle the additional acreage.  It was a feat that was accomplished with much work.  In the past 12-18 months, we have expanded the infrastructure at the farm again.  Doug has been an integral part of planning and orchestrating that transition.  Doug has also participated in providing support for the plant project in Ashley.  Doug seeks to help out wherever he sees need regardless of whether or not it is within his department or responsibilities.  Going forward with the growth that we will experience as a company, going beyond departmental boundaries to provide support where needed will be valuable.  Sometimes, we do not have the opportunity to provide rewards and recognition but will work to continue to make opportunities like this available.

More Tomorrow........

Ashley Loadout

Below is Ron Davis standing by the loadout platform for Ashley.  Ron has been working on this for quite a while taking the original design and building something that will be quite functional.  Doug Summer worked the design up off of our requirements for loading and safety..  At the top two bridges connect, raising and lowering hydraulically to load tankers (you can see one of the sections on the ground in the back.  The mid level platform has a bridge for loading vans that is operated with the wheel.  There are side gates that nest together when closed and protect the operator crossing the bridge when open.  It is quite an assembly and will make loading trucks much easier in Ashley.  Thanks to Ron for the good work.

Ashley 4/1/11

There is much going on right now.  Many of the "finishes" are being applied.  The plant is being assembled, configured and tested.  We have 2 new employees working up here full time; Justin Burtch and Eric Dunkel.  Tom Hoten starts full time on Monday.  There is much to learn to operate the new equipment.  Gerrit has been working up there for awhile and is coordinating assembly and loading operations.  We have expanded our truck loading capabilities to allow for more loading of customer deliveries.  There are large quantities of High NRG-N and Pro-Germinator already stocked on site, ready to load trucks and railcars.  In addition, there are quantities of Sure-K and Micro 500 ready for full railcars or mixed loads.  Stay tuned, much to come in the next few weeks.

 Here they are putting the green metal roof on the mansards.

 This is the hallway in primer, ready for paint.

 Site Manager office - you can see that the ceiling has been painted.

 Break room

 Logistics office

 Server Room

 Mechanical Room

 Driver Lounge

 Plant office in primer.

 Manufacturing console is beginning testing phase.  They are testing pump rotations, valve operations and sensors, all getting ready for a test run next week or just after.

 PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) and scale readout for dry handling system.

 This has a touch screen computer embedded in the panel.

Manufacturing PLC controls all manufacturing operations and loadout.