How Collaboration and Partnership Drive Increased Output

NORD DRIVESYSTEMS helps a Midwest manufacturing company increase equipment uptime and reduce operating costs.

The Norwood Young America, Minnesota-based manufacturer's latest innovation aims to make fertilizer blending even more efficient.

"People don't have tension belts on our new HIM 2.0 Precision Blender," said Sackett-Waconia project engineer Matt Barnes. "Less guarding is required, maintenance is easier and everything is basically safer to work around. These are just a few of the improvements made possible with direct drive gearmotors."

NORD DRIVESYSTEMS supplied those motors.

Breaking Conventions

Sackett-Waconia's Director of Business Development, Evan Halscheid, explains that for most of the company's history—and for much of the domestic fertilizer processing industry—V-belts and sheaves have long been the standard for powering rotary components.

The reasons are understandable. Belts are inexpensive, widely available and forgiving. They tolerate minor misalignment and don't require special tooling for adjustment. Together, these conveniences are a big part of why they've stayed in place across generations of equipment, much of it operating at the dry-blend retail facilities Sackett-Waconia serves.

"That's just what everyone in the U.S. is familiar with," said Halscheid. "When it came time to replace something, they kept going with what they knew."

Belts must be tensioned periodically, a step that many operators overlook until equipment fails. Belt drives also require that the operator remove the guard for servicing, then remember to replace it before bringing the blender back online. During all of this, the equipment sits idle—its owner is spending money on parts and labor and trucks might have to wait in line while the loading facility scrambles to get it repaired.

Adam Reynolds, district sales manager for NORD DRIVESYSTEMS has worked closely with Sackett-Waconia since the start of the relationship and notes that installation is another concern.

"Normally with heavy equipment like this, you have to install the gearbox, motor mounts and motor, sheaves, bushings and belts, then get everything aligned and tensioned properly," said Reynolds. "As a result, there's a lot of dialing in at the job site. Customers want to eliminate as much of this effort as possible while also making the equipment safer to operate, with reduced maintenance."

The HIM 2.0 precision blender checks all of these boxes. At the heart of each machine is a pair of NORD UNICASE parallel shaft-mount gearmotors—one for each counter-rotating rotor shaft—replacing the single-motor, belt-driven arrangement of earlier generations with sealed direct drive packages.

Built for the 4Rs

Sackett-Waconia has long designed its systems and equipment with the needs of modern agriculture in mind, this means supporting The Fertilizer Institute's (TFI) 4R Nutrient Stewardship program:

• Right Source: Matches fertilizer type to specific crop needs.

• Right Rate: Matches the amount of fertilizer to crop requirements.

• Right Time: Makes nutrients available when crops need them.

• Right Place: Keeps nutrients where crops can use them.

The HIM 2.0 and its precision fertilizer blending (PFB) capabilities are no exception. A pair of synchronized,overlapping paddles keeps all particles moving during the blending process, eliminating the "dead zones" that would otherwise occur. The gentle motion also reduces the risk of particle damage, something that's especially important with newer polymer-coated fertilizers and micronutrients that are sensitive to degradation.

And by maximizing particle contact, the design allows lower volumes of nitrogen stabilizer and other liquid additives to be applied, reducing costs while improving additive efficiency. The result is a blender purpose- built for the precision the 4Rs require: accurate ratios, uniform distribution and minimal waste.

First Steps

Sackett-Waconia chose its first NORD job strategically: Gromark, a fertilizer facility in Amherst Junction, Wisconsin, located close to NORD's Waunakee plant. Because the customer's primary concern was service after the sale—what would happen if a drive went down—proximity to replacement parts answered the question directly. The result was a near-complete conversion to NORD across the site; the only holdout was the HIM mixer itself, which had not yet been redesigned.

Other projects soon followed, and by the time HIM 2.0 was ready for production, Sackett-Waconia was using NORD drives in virtually all system designs, many of them protected with NORD's NSD4+ coating.

Beyond Performance

When asked what the new system delivers in terms of increased throughput or operating cost, Halscheid provides a surprising answer.

"Performance is important, but it's not the game changer here, said Halscheid. "If you need 50 horsepower to rotate a shaft, you'll get that with anyone's drive unit. NORD's direct drive package delivers on other, more tangible fronts—a simpler design, fewer parts to manufacture, easier assembly, commissioning and maintenance and perhaps most importantly, safer operation."

That kind of reliability matters as fertilizer dealers face increasing pressure to deliver more precise blends, faster turnarounds, and predictable uptime through the planting and harvest seasons. The HIM 2.0, paired with a top-to-bottom NORD direct drive package, gives them a system designed for those expectations—not just at startup, but for the long years of corrosive, around-the-clock operation that follow.