Ledwell Team

Phil Bocox, Dale Kidd and Mica Morse attended the US Poultry Feed Mill Management Seminar in Nashville, Tennessee on March 20-21. The program, developed by a committee of experienced industry mill managers, nutritionist, and university faculty, addressed topics that included Pellet Quality; Boiler Efficiency and Safety; Fleet Safety – Cameras and GPS; and Dust Control Technology – New and Retrofit.

Kidd, General Manager of Ledwell in North Carolina said, “There was a large group of feed milling customers in attendance and everyone’s attitude was very positive for the year.” Phil Bocox explained, “This year was a record attendance for the Mill Managers Seminar. The general consensus was very positive about the future of our industry. Speakers were very informative and touched on timely themes for the assembled feed mill managers. We were able to visit with many of our customers from all over the U.S., Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean.”

Ledwell & Son has been in the tank business for several years, building various types of water spray and dust control trucks and trailers. In early 2000, Ledwell & Son ventured into vacuum tanks, some smaller truck mounted tanks for non-industrial use and later “Saltwater” trailers used in the oil drilling industry.

Due to customer demand and market studies, Ledwell chose to take the next step and become fully certified to manufacture and repair Code tanks. Code tanks fall under various D.O.T. rules as well as being regulated by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)and the National Board of Boiler & Pressure Vessel Inspectors.

After a lengthy education process and review by the Texas Department of Licensing & Regulation, Ledwell & Son became certified by ASME and The National Board on April 27, 2010. This certification allows for the manufacture of “U” stamped vessels and “R” stamped repairs to in-service tanks.

Ledwell has come a long way in a short time due to a great group of employees and continued support from our established vacuum customers and new ones along the way.

Ledwell has a new division to add to our ever expanding product line: Ledwell Power Group. We recently acquired the assets of J-j Manufacturing Company in Henryetta, Oklahoma. After nearly 35 years in the industry, the owners of J-j Manufacturing were ready to pass on their pneumatic (air) products manufacturing business. Ledwell & Son, one of J-j’s largest customers, was the perfect option with its current machining capabilities as well as its desire to manufacture all parts and pieces in-house.

Transporting the company from Henryetta down to Texarkana required a small army. Over a 3-day period, 12 people and 4 trucks transported machinery, tooling, parts, racks, bins, benches raw material and computers. While that was happening, another crew at Ledwell was tearing down walls and rearranging existing machinery to make room for the incoming freight. Over 4000 square feet was opened for this venture. Over a short weekend, machines were set in place and Ledwell was back up and running with virtually zero down time.

The logistics of blending J-j into the Ledwell company proved more difficult and time consuming than expected. The previous owners had their (proven) ways to operate all aspects of their company and many of those ways were difficult for us to assimilate. We had to learn new computer software, bills-of-material, machine drawings, machining codes, customer knowledge and product knowledge in a very short period of time. Additionally, we had to begin the long task of rebuilding inventories of raw material, purchased items and semi-finished goods. Fortunately, Ledwell had the people and machine resources to solve these “opportunities”.

For the past few months we have placed all-hands-on-deck acquiring the knowledge to move the company forward in the marketplace. Machining techniques are producing better parts, at a faster speed. Our semi-finished goods inventory is growing, assembly processes are increasing and we are now beginning to make some engineering improvements. These changes are important, not only to our customers, but also to us as a large consumer of the products. We manufacture almost 2,500 standard products that comprise the over 400 pneumatic parts we offer.

In the future, expect to see a more nation-wide presence of our new addition. We will be developing a group of distributors and agents to sell our Air Products in the OEM and aftermarket. To that end, we are already adding additional multi-spindle machines and building a larger assembly/test area to increase our output. Expect to see more innovative products that will allow us to be responsive to customers’ needs.

Air Cylinders
Sizes range from 1.50″ to 8.00″ bore with various rod sizes, double rods, strokes and mounting. These cylinders are interchangeable with many others in the industry. Electric-over-air valves are available for wired control.

Air Valves
Manual, pilot operated, electrically operated, special function valves, and circuit savers. We have both pneumatic feathering and bang-bang control valves.

Hydraulic Valve Actuators
These actuators are used to stroke (shift) a variety of commercially available hydraulic control valves and dump pumps. We also have the ability to supply wireless remote controls so that the valves can be shifted away from an operator’s station.

Power Tower Consoles
Simple truck body air controls are integrated into a single stand-alone box (tower). We offer the industry’s widest selection of controls serving the needs of many vocational vehicles; dump, water, maintenance, lifting, winching, oil field, farm and feed, etc. The consoles can incorporate feathering control sticks, panel mounted air regulators and detented push-button operators to power cylinders or pilot controls. They can also be used to mount electrical switch panels and have “side boxes” installed to hold customer supplied valves.

Pneumatic Supply Manifolds and Hydraulic Return Manifolds
To eliminate extra plumbing and fittings, we manufacture several different configurations of aluminum air manifolds and hydraulic return line manifolds.

Electric Tarp Control Kits
We build a 12vdc electric, chain-drive tarp kit. The tarp bars and tarps are also available upon request.

 

Ledwell’s location in Fayetteville, North Carolina opened in October 2008 and has been growing ever since. The East Coast Ledwell facility now has 5 full-time employees covering sales, parts and service for all area customers. The branch was opened to make parts and repairs more accessible for Ledwell’s East Coast customers.

Dale Kidd was hired on first as Sales Manager to open the office. James “Mac” McIver was hired shortly after as Parts Manager. Later that year, shop equipment started arriving and Ledwell Service Center, Fayetteville NC was in operation. Shop employees from Texarkana went to Fayetteville for weeks at a time to setup equipment and start repairs for the existing customer base. As business grew, they added 3 full-time shop employees: Brandon Kelley, Milan Kepic and Zack Beard. Brandon transferred to Fayetteville from Texarkana where he has been working for Ledwell for the past 13 years. Milan was previously employed locally in the Fayetteville area and Zack made the most recent move from Texarkana to Fayetteville to work for Ledwell.

The shop in Fayetteville offers sales and service for all of our customer’s needs. They also do repairs, PM programs, truck mounts and other general maintenance.