Rohr Corp.: Rock Solid Equipment From a Producer, For a Producer by Kelly Gates
Frontal view of the 20 CY Rohr Dredge GT1200. Note the crewmen walking alongside the floating conveyor system.
Rohr Corp. has been making sand and gravel mining equipment since 1977 when founder Wolfgang Rohr began producing machinery for his family’s sand & gravel operations in Germany. The first of Rohr’s many inventions was the “Aquamator,” a washing unit that effectively removed deleterious materials such as lignite, coal and wood sticks from sand or gravel resulting in a clean finished product. Later, Rohr began making dredging equipment and other sand and gravel mining machinery for the European markets and ultimately, the business expanded into the US with the help of his son Jochen Rohr. “I joined the company in Germany in 1983 and two years later, I came to the US to start an operation here to sell our dredging equipment,” said Jochen who owns Rohr Corporation. “We now have our main US headquarters in Cleves, Oh., and another office in the San Francisco area.” The next major milestone in the company’s history occurred in 2003 when Wolfgang retired from the dredging business. Jochen opted to purchase Rohr Bagger GmbH, its German operations, and he has been managing both companies as president ever since. Rohr was approached by CEMEX, of Madison, CA, the following year. At the time, the CEMEX site was preparing to transition from a land-based mining operation to an offshore outfit, a switch that would require the company to purchase a new dredge unit. CEMEX needed a dredge that would not only extract sand and gravel at great depths, but could also remove clay particles from the mix and dewater the materials before sending them along several miles of conveyors to its aggregate plant. “CEMEX came down to southern California in 2004 to look at three large deep mining installations that were using our dredges,” said Jochen. “After seeing the Rohr equipment in operation, they knew it was what they needed for their operation.” Rohr immediately set out to custom design a 20-yard clam shell dredge with a rake grizzly, two 8 X 20 dewatering screens and two fines recovery systems. With the various components, the new unit was capable of excavating, removing clay, dewatering and prewashing the materials before sending them on to the plant via conveyor. “The Rohr dredge was perfect for our application,” said Marc Mammola, manager of aggregate and asphalt for CEMEX. “They custom built the dredge to handle the type of materials we mine. And because they have so much equipment in the local market, we felt very comfortable with their availability for customer service and maintenance assistance.” According to Mammola, the Madison, CA, CEMEX site has been able to maintain a high level of production despite the major adjustment from onshore to offshore processes and equipment. The smooth transition was in part due to Rohr’s commitment to working closely with CEMEX’s management team and equipment operators to ensure that the company’s needs were met at all times, he added. Indeed, Jochen and his staff took care to personally manage the construction and installation of the dredge unit. They also stuck around to make adjustments as needed, fine-tuning the machine to ensure that the dredge met every last one of CEMEX’s operational requirements. The transaction was such a success, another of CEMEX’s locations, a mining operation in Phoenix, AZ, was next in line to purchase a Rohr dredge, said Jochen. “CEMEX placed another order with us about a year ago for a 16-yard dredge,” he said. “That dredge was made with a very heavy duty digging bucket because the material being excavated there is really conglomerated and therefore, tough to penetrate.” When constructing new dredges for customers, Rohr typically begins with its standard hoist and electric controls, but adds all other components based on each company’s unique needs, Jochen told NAQN. Everything from the clamshell bucket to onboard processing equipment such as crushing systems can vary greatly from unit to unit, making Rohr’s machines highly functional for many different applications. The latest developments coming from Rohr include a land-based bucket ladder dredge, a floating bucket ladder dredge and a slewing crane mounted on a barge for shallow deposits, noted Jochen. These systems are commonly used throughout Europe and are just now making their way into the domestic marketplace. Rohr has also made some changes internally, strengthening its U.S. presence by manufacturing nearly all of the units it sells domestically at its Cincinnati facility. “Now, only a few components come from Germany, but pretty much everything that needs maintenance and replacement comes from this continent,” he said. It is a great merging of European mining ideas with US production capabilities, added Jochen.
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