Today, most farmers around Mishawaka, Ind., are probably too young to remember the year Jon Laidig built his first bottom-unloading silo.

It was 1961, and Jon, a recent graduate of Purdue University, was dividing his days between a job in town and raising beef cattle with his father and brother on the family farm.

Time was money, and Jon knew a bottom-unloading silo would speed up operations on the farm. The only available system, manufactured by AO Smith Harvestore, was too expensive.

A self-taught inventor, Jon decided to design his own system. Within a few months, he had built what would become the first Laidig bottom unloader, otherwise known as a "reclaimer." The silo made news, and it wasn't long before Jon had several requests to build bottom-unloading silos for other farmers in the area.

It would become the biggest test of character he had ever faced.

"He built five systems and not one of them worked perfectly," said Jon's first cousin Roger Laidig, now vice president of marketing and sales for Laidig Systems Inc. "So he had a choice: stay and fix the systems, or run from the problem."

Jon stood firm.

He quit his job in town and devoted himself full time to fixing the silos he had already sold and improving the design of the silos in production. For nearly a year he worked around the clock, often with little sleep.

In the end, Jon's labor paid off. Requests for more reclaimers piled up, and the company that is now Laidig Systems was born. In the years that followed, Jon and his wife Sonja traveled across America to meet and work with new customers. Sonja's meticulous attention to detail is typical of the quality that Laidig still represents today.

Under Jon's leadership, the team at Laidig Systems has now developed an entire line of bottom reclaim systems that can handle even the most difficult applications of hard-to-handle materials, which today includes distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) from the ethanol industry.

"The story of how all this began encapsulates Jon's commitment to customers that set Laidig apart from the very beginning," Roger Laidig told EPM.

New era beginsThe company reins are now in the hands of Dr. Wyn Laidig, Jon's oldest son, who returned to Mishawaka with his wife after a successful international career. Wyn holds a Ph.D. in physics and taught at North Carolina State University, before consulting high-tech companies and working in Asia for 15 years up until rejoining the family company in 2002.

Wyn Laidig's return was made comfortable by the fact that several employees, in the office and in the shop, have worked for the company for over 20 years.

"Some of our best employees today started working here when I was in high school," he told EPM.

The company's amazing employee retention is a direct reflection of the rewarding work environment Jon Laidig cultivated over the years. There are countless stories about Laidig's impeccable character and compassion for his employees.

"Overall, I think Jon was always fair and honest with people and offered excellent fringe benefits," Wyn Laidig said. "There have been bonuses in the good years (Jon once chartered a plane to Disney World for his employees), and few – if any – company layoffs".

As president of Laidig Systems Inc., Wyn Laidig and his dedicated staff plan to take the company well into the 21st Century. Laidig is proud of its "combination of youth and experience," and plans to continue expanding its presence and capabilities in the industrial bulk material handling industries.

The ethanol industry – DDGS storage specifically – is an attractive new growth area for Laidig.

DDGS offers new market opportunity
As recently as five years ago, storing DDGS in silos was unheard of. Almost every ethanol plant in the Untied States was storing DDGS in flat storage – on the concrete floor of a steel building.

Today, while most ethanol plants still utilize flat storage with relative success, a growing number of plants are investing in Laidig's automated reclaimer.

"I like to ask potential customers, 'What would automating your DDGS load out be worth?'" said Mike Schuster, Laidig's Midwest sales manager. Schuster said if an analysis is done, the answer is usually "significant."

While there are some additional up-front costs associated with the Laidig reclaimer, the benefits are undeniably attractive: push-button loading, "first-in, first-out" inventory control, product quality control, fewer personnel, less risk of injury (large piles of DDGS can be dangerous), less space requirements (vertical storage occupies less real estate) and the avoidance of potential air-quality issues.

"A real advantage of Laidig's DDGS storage system is that your payback begins with startup and continues long into the future," Schuster told EPM. "Flat storage may require less investment but does not come with that claim."

Model '698'
While there are many systems that could be utilized for DDGS storage, the Laidig concrete "jump-form" – a monolithic pour – is the most common application in the ethanol industry. The jump-form concrete silo is designed to handle the unique loads created by the Laidig unloader.

"While the bottom unloader is certainly the heart of the system," Schuster said, "we consider the concrete silo to be an important part of the package."

The company's "698" model, available in a 48-foot diameter size (3,000 ton capacity) or a 55-foot diameter size (4,000 ton capacity), has been installed at 11 ethanol plants in the United States, with four more under construction. Both sizes tower 112 feet from the ground.

The automated reclaimer features a huge sweep auger with a reinforced shield that's able to cut through heavy DDGS loads. The reclaim auger's shoe weldment grips a ductile iron track along the perimeter of the silo, keeping the auger firmly in place as it undercuts the stored material. Rotating 360 degrees around the structure, the auger conveys the material toward the center of the silo where it drops through the elevated silo floor into a metering hopper. From the hopper, the DDGS is routed to trucks and rail cars for transport.

In addition to the benefits mentioned above – improved speed, safety and operational costs – one of the most appreciated qualities of a Laidig DDGS silo is what it brings to a facility in terms of aesthetic appeal.

"The first thing most of our customers say about the system is 'It's just so nice to have all that DDGS up off the floor. It makes the plant look so much more orderly,'" Wyn Laidig told EPM.

Of course, the automation of the system is what probably matters most.

"The strongest selling point of the whole system is the automation of DDGS loadout," Roger Laidig said. "The controls can be incorporated into a PLC or DCS system or through a Laidig-supplied control panel that can be installed at the location. Either way, our customers discover that they are able to load many more trucks in a day. The speed of load out greatly increases."

Solid company values
Laidig is a modern company with old-fashioned values. The company views each customer as a "long-term partner" and only feels successful when its customers feel the same way.

"When we make a commitment to a customer, we start what I call a 'lifetime partnership,'" Roger Laidig said. "We're with them all the way and we never hide from problems – no matter what."

The company prides itself on its experience and strides to remain an industry leader in the bulk handling and storage industry. Laidig has a proven track record with companies as large as Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and Cargill, building storage systems for soybean meal, corn gluten, corn fiber, bran and other ag products. Recently, the company has completed major projects in China, Thailand, Vietnam, Egypt, Brazil, Mexico and Argentina.

The company's involvement in the forest products industry was a boon to its growth in the late 1970s and continues to be important today. Working with furniture companies, lumber mills and co-generation plants, Laidig has provided automated reclaimers for a variety of wood waste industries. In addition, the company has built reclaimers for the plastics industry.

The company is dedicated to providing top-notch parts and service. Laidig carries a comprehensive parts inventory and has an experienced in-house engineering staff and seasoned service personnel that can quickly be dispatched to an ethanol plant to solve customer problems quickly with the latest available technology.

"In the ethanol industry, we virtually have someone in the field every week, whether it's a salesperson or a service technician," Roger Laidig said. "Sometimes that means they're just stopping in to say hello. It's part of our commitment to the customer."
Schuster said he spends about 45 percent of his time on the road. He calls on several industries, but ethanol plants are often his main focus.

"Most of my time is definitely spent in Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota," he told EPM. "With new customers, I spend a lot of time talking about the virtues of automation."

New opportunities
One of the most recent projects Laidig has completed was for VeraSun Energy, in Aurora, S.D. The massive 100-mmgy plant, still under construction, needed two 4,000-ton Laidig reclaimers.

The project represented a "first" for Laidig, which until this year had only installed reclaimers at ethanol plants built and managed by Broin Companies, a company Laidig remains highly committed to.

The VeraSun plant, however, is being built by Fagen, utilizing an ICM Inc. process design. Fagen-ICM plants typically utilize flat storage, but VeraSun's chief investors researched the Laidig concept and ultimately committed to incorporating two Model 698 reclaimers into the design of the facility.

"The VeraSun project showed us that other builders – Fagen and ICM primarily – are willing to incorporate our systems into their design when their customers show an interest in it," Roger Laidig said. "The most important outcome of this is that the end user now has an option to flat storage. That said, we will continue to work with Broin Companies and also develop alliances with other builders."

What's ahead for Laidig?
Laidig will soon complete an expansion of its office building and fabrication shop, which is one of several steps being taken to position the company for new growth.

"Back in the early days of the company, people were making all kinds of predictions about where the business was headed," Wyn Laidig said. "A lot of what was predicted didn't happen. Growth came in unexpected areas – wood, plastics, soymeal, DDGS. So it's hard to make predictions.

"We must remain flexible. As long as there is a market for hard-to-handle materials, we will be in business. That business might not always be DDGS or soybean meal, but I can say with certainty that it will involve the handling of bulk materials."

Schuster may have summed it up best when he told EPM, "What this company does is not easy, it never has been. There's a reason we don't have any direct competitors in the ethanol industry. We accomplish what others are unable, or unwilling, to do. That's why we've lasted." EP