In the construction equipment industry, the
trade name "Cedarapids" is synonymous with dependable, quality products. To the
people who make these products, it symbolizes pride in workmanship and generations of
excellence.
The company founded as Iowa Manufacturing
Company shares a heritage of proud tradition with the city of its birth.
In 1985, in honor of the high reputation the
trade name
had come to represent, the company officially became Cedarapids, Inc.
Today, Cedarapids continues its pioneering
lead, offering its customers a wide array of technologically advanced products.
Muddy Roads
The automobile began its sensational climb as the preferred
method of transportation over the horse and buggy in the early 1920s. "Vote for good
roads!" was a rallying cry across the nation, and getting the infrastructure out of
the mud was a major objective of the government and the people.
Howard Hall, a local industrialist, recognized the great
business opportunities behind the good roads rhetoric. In 1923 he purchased the Bertschey
Engineering Company machine shop, renamed it Iowa Manufacturing Company of Cedar Rapids,
Iowa and introduced the city to a new type of industry: "Manufacturers of
Crushing, Screening and Conveying Machinery".
Crushers: Then and
Now
Good roads could not be built without aggregate, and the
demand for it was skyrocketing. Aggregate production in the early 1920s was an inefficient
process requiring many separate pieces of equipment. Moving the equipment to the raw
material site was both costly and labor intensive.
This dilemma gave birth to an idea that was to
revolutionize the road building industry: build an easily transportable machine that
receives unprocessed stone at one end, reduces it in size, and produces ready-to-use
material at the other.
A team of engineers, led by company co-founder Guy Frazee,
transformed this concept into the first truly portable aggregate plant, the "One
Piece Outfit", or OPO. It was easily moved between job sites and it shaved production
costs to mere pennies per ton.
During World War II, the company had the distinction of
providing 80 percent of the U.S. military's crushing equipment needs. The 1700 plants
built for the cause were used in every theater of the war, spreading the name Cedarapids
throughout the world.
After the war, the company expanded its product offering to
capitalize on increased demand and emerging markets. New Holland Equipment, purchased in
1950, added impact-type crushers. Twenty-six years later, ElJay, Inc. was acquired for its
world-renowned Rollercone crushers and associated equipment. Cedarapids' crushing and
screening equipment line thus became the broadest offered in the industry.
Hot Mix Asphalt
Plants
As the definition of better roads evolved from simple
crushed stone surfaces to all-weather hard surfaces, Cedarapids kept pace. In 1929 the
company introduced one of the very first hot mix asphalt plants.
Sixty years later, Standard Havens, a Missouri-based
manufacturer of high-tech, counterflow hot mix asphalt plants, was acquired to expand the
product line.
Hot Mix Asphalt
Pavers
Post-war prosperity brought a demand for more and better
roads, and Cedarapids embraced the challenge. In 1956 it unveiled its first asphalt paver
line, equipped with another first: the vibrating screed. The device substantially boosted
both paving speed and volume over competitive models.
Less than 30 years later, the line was redesigned and
renamed. The Grayhound paver, with its innovative engineering and sleek profile, ushered
in a new era of asphalt paving technology.
Road to Success
As we embark on a new century, Cedarapids
crushing, screening, asphalt mixing and asphalt paving equipment is hard at work in almost
every country in the world. Contactors obtain the very best in equipment, parts and
service through a worldwide network of distributors.
Each year the United States alone produces two billion tons
of aggregate. Over 90 percent of the nation's highways are paved with asphalt.
Cedarapids' growth, from a 12,000 square foot building in
1923 to over 750,000 square feet under roof today, is a reflection of the world's
ever-increasing demand for these materials.
Cedarapids, Inc. is proud of its pioneering role in the
industry. From the One Piece Outfit that pulled our nation "out of the mud", to
the revolutionary technology just over the horizon, Cedarapids is helping to build a
better world.
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