Over the last 118 years, Nugent Sand Company has grown into one of the largest producers of construction aggregates in the Ohio River Valley—and with demand increasing, the company needed a bigger machine to shorten barge unloading cycle times at its riverfront operations.
Enter the Cat® 385C Material Handler. Using this specially designed scrap and material handling machine, Nugent reduced its cycle times down to 15-17 seconds—a critical savings for an operation that unloads approximately 1,800 tons of material per hour.
To make sure the 385C MH was properly configured for Nugent’s work, Caterpillar engineers visited the operation to determine exact requirements. The end result is a machine equipped with a 56-foot extended boom, five-cubic-yard general purpose clamshell bucket, standard wide undercarriage, cab riser, counterweight and auto lube system.
In addition to the 385C MH, Nugent’s fleet includes more than 20 Cat excavators, wheel loaders, articulated trucks, telehandlers, skid steer loaders and other equipment—and the company has a longstanding relationship with local Cat dealer Whayne Supply.
“They understand our business model and realize we cannot afford any downtime in our system,” says CEO Thomas Nugent III. “If any one part of the production process goes down, it stops the entire process. With the 385C MH, we have had only minimal downtime.”
In fact, the 385C MH has already logged more than 700 hours on the job, and Nugent reports that his operators really like its ease of operation and reliable performance.
“It’s a perfect fit for our operation,” he says.
