By Sharon Spielman
In the land “down under,” this fabricator
and finisher of gearboxes for augers and
other industrial machinery, has been able
to dig itself quite a niche in the market. The
company’s growth has allowed them to open
a plant in the United Kingdom to service its
European customers, and most recently in
the United States to service North America.
Founded in 1981, the heart
and soul of Australian-headquartered
Digga is its manufacturing of
planetary gearboxes for augering and
screw anchor markets. “Digga produces
the most extensive, compact
range of gearboxes in our industry,
supplying gearboxes not only for our
attachments, but for supply to other
OEMs for their auger drives, trenchers,
road planers, rock saws and a
variety of other speciality industries,”
says Suzie Wright, Digga’s CEO.
As Digga grew and the range of
attachments expanded, Digga built
a custom-designed facility, which
opened in late 2006. “The current
facility in Australia is a stateof-
the-art 130,000 sq. ft. facility on
8 acres of land. Exporting to North
America and Europe since 1996,
Digga opened a facility in the United
Kingdom in 1998 to service the European
market. Digga uses mild steel
of varying thicknesses to produce a
range of 32 machinery attachments
in Australia and distributes product
around the world through OEMs
and an extensive dealer network,
Wright reveals.
Digga’s head office is a fully
integrated manufacturing facility
with 168 staff, processing from raw
material with high-definition plasmas,
automatic steel cutting, 11-axis
break press, 15 CNC machining centers,
gear cutting, robotic welding,
fabrication, paint and assembly.
Digga now has five manufacturing
facilities around the world.
Three are in Australia, one in the
U.K. to service Europe, and now the
latest facility in Dyersville, Iowa, to
service the North American market.
“We have a great belief in delivering
quality product fast, and strive to
exceed our customers’ expectations.
That is why we have invested in
local production in each country,”
Wright says.
From the Outback to
America’s Heartland
Digga has been supplying a local
OEM manufacturer in Iowa for more
than 10 years. “When choosing a site
for the new plant,” Wright says, “we
wanted to be central for distribution
to the North American market, have
a quality workforce, a great community,
and be close to our OEM to
ensure we could continue to improve
our service levels and supply
times.” Dyersville was chosen after
demonstrating qualities and support
that Digga felt best aligned with its
own business philosophies.
Business has been a challenge the
past three years, Wright reveals, because
the company was growing so
fast and its plans to expand globally
required them to invest in a new
ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)
computer system. “It took us a lot
longer than anticipated to get it
operating well enough to take on the
new plant in the USA. Markets have
been a bit unstable in the past 12
months, but we are on a clear and
focused course with our products
and the markets we will be serving,”
she says.
The Iowa facility is 43,000 sq. ft.
on 8 acres of land. “We have a modern,
open plan office with the latest
in ergonomic furniture and facilities
for our people. Fabrication and
finishing as well as assembly and
distribution are accommodated.”
The line is composed of Global
Finishing Solutions equipment
that was supplied and installed by
ICAFe Inc., a distributor of finishing
equipment and supplies, based out
of Waukesha, Wis. The manual conveyor
system, which has to accommodate
parts as long as 14 ft. and
diameters up to 6 ft., has a stainless
steel manual wash booth, dry-off
oven, powder application booth, and
a cure oven.
This line was built specifically
to accommodate the product
range being sold throughout North
America, which includes augers,
machine mounts, auger extensions
and a range of complementary parts
for Digga’s screw anchor drive, auger
drive dealers and OEM clients. “Our
primary range of product is auger
drives and screw anchor drives for
dealers and OEM clients. Digga also
designs and produces custom gearbox
solutions for mining, recycling
and other industrial applications,”
Wright says.
When asked why Digga selected
powder for their finishing in the
Iowa facility, Wright reveals, “We
currently use two part and wet paint
in Australia. We chose powder for
the USA as we wanted a product
that was a high quality, cost-effective
solution that had minimal impact on
the environment and was safe for the
staff to use.” Is Digga satisfied with
that choice? “We are very happy
with the results of this new paint
line and now intend to upgrade the
main plant in Australia in the later
half of this year.” The Iowa plant will
also provide powder coating services
to other customers and industries.
Closed-Loop Pretreatment
As anyone involved in any sort of
paint or coating application knows,
the final finish results are primarily
based on the pretreatment stage.
Often overlooked or half-hearted attempts
in this critical stage can lead
to rejects in process or premature
field failure of the coatings. Because
Digga considers itself and its products
to be first-class operations, they
will not let that happen, according to
Wright.
George Strapko, sales manager,
at Riveer (South Haven, Mich.),
Digga’s pretreatment equipment
maker, adds, “The pretreatment of
any substrate is very critical to the primer and topcoat
used. This is true for powder and wet coats on any
substrate. Testing in the coating world proves that a
properly cleaned and prepared substrate will greatly
enhance the appearance and longevity of the coating.”
He continues, “In the past there were wet coats that
were ‘good enough’ for industrial coatings, but with
the expectations of long lasting coatings on everything
produced today, the push for durability is pervasive.”
Strapko says that they know from working with all the
major pretreatment providers and coating providers that
the process of pretreatment in concert with the coating
system has a synergy that creates exceptional durability.
“For many industrial customers, the method of old
was a simple wipe with a solvent and then coating that
was the right color, nothing beyond color in the shop
really mattered. There are many industrial applications
where the parts are exhibiting coating failure to the
trained eye before they are even shipped. When the
quality of the part is circumspect from the moment it’s
delivered, the cost of the coating suddenly becomes less
important. The research by most manufacturers lead
them to understand that to make a great finish you have
no choice but to invest in the proper equipment that
will have a repeatable, measurable, and robust process.
That is where we come in.”
ICAFe Inc. and Riveer have had a long-standing
working relationship. So, even before the new facility
had broken ground, Riveer had the opportunity to be
flexible in design parameters and best layout possibilities
for Digga’s work process flow.
ICAFe Inc. and Riveer supplied two separate areas
in the Iowa plant with a closed-loop option. “This was
important as we want to do things right—environmentally
and as a cost saving measure-—both in labor and
chemical used,” Wright says. Strapko says that the first
is a wash booth designed for degreasing all incoming
product for rework/rebuild. A concrete wash bay with
curtains to contain overspray, using a citrus waterbased
degreaser (DuBois Chemical) is applied at
3,000 psi. All the degreaser is recycled in Riveer’s Model
RTS 500 process tank and re-used. According to Wright,
“These are customer-supplied units that have been in
the field for many years and are due for a rebuild. Since
our products are used in a vast range of climates and
soil conditions, we know the contaminants we need to
remove, such as dirt, mud, grease, oil, etc., will vary,
and we needed a quick and efficient method of ‘cleaning’
these prior to tear down and rebuild.”
The second unit is a batch-type pretreatment system
that utilizes a two-stage process to phosphatize and
rinse and air blow-off for dry. Again,
they recycle the phosphate for reuse.
The filtration system coalesces
and removes oils and separates
particulate loads down to 10 micron
and re-uses the phosphate solution.
Strapko adds, “Additionally the rinse
function also passes through micron
filters before re-use. Fresh water
is introduced to maintain quality
and make-up for evaporative loss
during the operation.” They have a
fully enclosed stainless wash booth
with lighting, exhaust and manual
spray wands. A high-pressure wand
applies the phosphate and then they
rinse with a separate low pressure
wand. “The system works for Digga’s
product range, throughput and
quickly prepares the parts for the
coating process, while keeping us in
an ‘environmentally conscious’ state
of operations,” Wright says.
Sharon Spielman is editor of Powder
Coated Tough magazine. She can be
reached at 847-302-2648 or via email
at sspielman@powdercoating.org.
