Arnold Company • 800-245-7505 • http://www.arncosolutions.com
Trenton, IL-based Arnold Company was founded by Arnold Huelsmann in 1985 as a distributor of a wide variety of material handling and vibration equipment, including belt scrapers, magnets, and air cans, as well as products for railcars. The company is best known for its flagship Door Demon railcar opener, which comes in a variety of different types and specifications, including manually operated, battery-operated, electric-operated, and air-operated gate openers.
In 2017, the company introduced its latest product, the Door Demon HTO, a handheld, air-powered hopper trailer opener.
Grain Journal recently spoke with Albert Middeke, president and owner, to discuss the company’s position in the market, what’s hot, and what’s trending in the grain industry today.
The newest thing for Arnold was the launch of our hopper trailer opener, the Door Demon HTO. Basically, the development of this product came out of a need expressed by our customers for an automated solution for opening hopper trailers to prevent injuries and improve productivity.
In addition, we’ve been introducing upgrades to several of our products, such as our railcar hopper gate opener and boxcar opener.
On the railcar hopper gate opener side, we recently launched an improved beam-mounted unit with an upgraded sled design. On the boxcar side, we introduced a remote control unit.
We’re starting to see an increased need for automation and remote technology. Over the past few years, people have been asking us about automation technology for hopper trailer openers. We had products for rail, but they were asking about products for grain trailers, so we finally decided to get into that.
Any product that removes the worker from any possible safety issue is hot right now.
The grain industry is all about speed and safety. Safety continues to grow in importance. It’s not like it wasn’t important five years ago, but still, in 2019, it keeps growing in importance.
Unfortunatlely, however, we still see a lot of facilities that are doing things unsafely when it comes to railcar opening and railcar vibration. We get customers every day who are realizing they’re doing things unsafely, and they’re looking for a solution.
Even so, any successful safety product must, at the very least, maintain the speed of the previous product or method. Speed without safety is unacceptable, and safety without speed won’t sell well. So, whenever we’re looking at new products or existing products, those are the two things we prioritize. In fact, our slogan for the past five years has been “safety and productivity solutions.”
Another trend we’re noticing is that elevators continue to grow, and companies continue to consolidate. With that, there’s a greater need for speed and automation, all while improving employee safety.
We have the widest product line and highest quality available. But I think one of the things that helps us stand out is that we have the knowledge and experience to fit our wide product line to the varying needs of each customer. So, we provide a lot of options, but we also work well with the customer to fit those options to their site. We have a very hands-on customer service and personal approach.
Reprinted from Grain Journal July/August 2019 Issue
