JW Bell 100th Anniversary

A Supplement to Construction Equipment Guide

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The 1977 Dealers’ Conference was held at the Roosevelt Royale Hotel in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (L-R first row) are Bob Markley, Walt Hanson and Harold Reese, all of Iowa Manufacturing Company. (L-R second row) are Mark Budeslich of James W. Bell Co. Inc., Des Moines, Iowa; Grant Oliphant of Kane Equipment Company, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada; Raymond Francavilla of Blackwood Hodge Quebec Ltd., Dorval, Quebec, Canada; Marcia B. Cook of James W. Bell Co. Inc., Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Consuelo Toriello of Enrique Toriello e hijo, C.L. Guatemala City, Guatemala; Matt McCarthy of A. H. Puffer Company, Rockford, Ill.; and Loyal D. Martin of Missouri/Illinois Tractor & Equipment Co., Hazelwood, Mo. (L-R third row) are Harold L. Corey of Blackwood Hodge Quebec Ltd., Dorval, Quebec, Canada; Louis Schock of Kane Equipment Company, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada; Carl H. Henning of A. H. Puffer Company, Rockford, Ill.; Larry Allen Ely of James W. Bell Co. Inc., Fort Dodge, Iowa; and Charles Duncan of Missouri/Illinois Tractor & Equipment Co., Cape Girardeau, Mo. (L-R fourth row) are Owen J. Owen of Mitchell Machinery Company, North Little Rock, Ark.; Don Pither of Costello Equipment Co. Ltd., Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; Dave Bengford of James W. Bell Co. Inc., Fort Dodge, Iowa; Normand Pelletier of Blackwood Hodge Quebec Ltd., Dorval, Quebec, Canada; Hollis Emerson of James W. Bell Co. Inc., Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Tom Smith of James W. Bell Co. Inc., Des Moines, Iowa; and Otto P. Giese of James W. Bell Co. Inc., Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

JW Bell Celebrates Its Centennial

By Giles Lambertson CEG CORRESPONDENT

In the late 1800s, Iowa residents would joke about their roads being as deep as they were wide, meaning travelers could expect to find themselves up to their axles in mud during rainy periods. A good roads movement began and by 1923 — 100 years ago — Iowans began to get to the bottom of their roads problem.

James W. Bell was part of the solution.

The founder of the company bearing his name teamed up with a friend, Howard Hall, who in 1923 also started his company, Iowa Manufacturing Company. The goal of the two enterprising Cedar Rapids men, besides making a living, was to make passable roads across the state. Hall’s company manufactured stone crushing and handling equipment that produced graveling material. Bell’s company sold the equipment to quarries and contractors.

Both companies prospered. Today, JW Bell celebrates a century of solving problems in the aggregate industry and enhancing the industry’s productivity and efficiency.

JW Bell bills itself as an “aggregate processing specialist.” While processing aggregate might be something of a specialty, the company is anything but a niche company in the industry. Its expertise ranges across the spectrum from selling and renting material-handling equipment to manufacturing custom machines and entire plants to offering turnkey management of aggregate projects and operations.

“The direction we have gone is, we are your solution to your aggregate needs,” said JW Bell owner Scott Cummings. “We give them a solution. It may be a piece of equipment or a management package. It’s all intertwined.”

The strategy is likened to the proverbial onestop shop, the company doing everything from engineering a solution to custom building equipment to supplying equipment for supplemental production. This holistic approach to aggregate industry services began to emerge in the 1990s — when the company was still in its spritely 70s.

The JW Bell manufacturing team

At that time, Cummings joined JW Bell from the automotive industry as a 20-something technician working on the shop floor. As an electronics diagnostician, he soon was recognized as a problemsolver and progressed through employee ranks.

When the company decided to dabble, and then become fully immersed, in the manufacturing end of aggregate equipment, Cummings was tapped to run the manufacturing operation. A separate facility was leased across Cedar Rapids from Bell’s sales and service headquarters, and he oversaw its operation for 16 years.

Initially, new parts for stock aggregate-handling plants were its product. As the operation grew, JW Bell also began to design and build machinery from the ground up — filling gaps in marketplace equipment or innovating and introducing new aggregate solutions. A 6x20 double-screen plant with static skimmers was JW Bell’s first custom product.

Cummings said Bell’s comprehensive “solutions” business plan will continue to be the company’s strategy moving forward.

“It gives us an upper hand in the industry. Some dealers out there do small modifications. We employ seven engineers and various experts. We keep up on our game.”

By definition, “aggregate” is a cluster of something. In geology, the something is congregated rock and soils. The aggregates industry is tasked with deconstructing these clusters and turning them into useable construction components. This is done by crushing, sizing, washing and sorting them.

It is brutish work — cracking open rock takes a lot of psi. The machines capable of accomplishing it are large and heavy, fabricated of hardened steel, and engineered to withstand the shuddering work process itself. JW Bell designs and builds these mechanical work horses.

This is the process: First, a customer’s concept for a piece of equipment is sketched out and refined using SolidWorks 3D design software. It is a sophisticated design architecture that turns an idea into a scaled multidimensional representation. At that point, the plant cannot crack or wash or sort rock, but it is fully envisioned.

The design is turned into the real thing through a sophisticated manufacturing process. Hardox abrasion-resistant steel components are sized utilizing shears, and water jet and plasma cutting tables capable of handling material eight-in. thick. Housing components are shaped to close tolerances on 500-ton press brakes. Portable or stationary line boring machines strategically puncture

each component as needed. Finished pieces are blasted clean and painted or coated in booths.

In the end, raw steel has been turned into machined parts. While the machining process isn’t magical, the resulting fabrica tions are incredibly precise, especially considering the material being sized, shaped and drilled is hard, hard steel. Acceptable tolerances are miniscule yet are routinely realized through expert operation of manual and CNC (computer numerical control) milling machines.

“Every day is a challenge, but every day is an opportunity, too.”

Scott Cummings Owner, JW Bell

Scott Cummings,

owner

“We can make new parts of all sizes and shapes or take old components and machine them back to new tolerances,” said Cummings.

The shop specializes in the manufacture of new or replacement parts for aggregate handling and processing equipment, but it continues to broaden its capacity.

Finished components are assembled in a JW Bell work bay with a 60-ft.-high ceiling and served by 50ton overhead cranes. New aggregate plants are completely put together there for walk-around viewing by a customer, before being disassembled again and moved.

“The last one we shipped out required a dozen semi loads to move it to the site,” Cummings said.

The engines that move conveyor belts and squeeze rock and pump water on the plants are selected according to customer preference. Typically, they are either

Cummins or Caterpillar power plants, with Toshiba electronic drives and motors.

Cummings said the company experienced the same shortfall of parts and supplies during COVID as did other businesses.

“Electronics still are pretty tough to get.”

The supply problem was mitigated by quickly identifying the issue and effectively responding to it, he said.

Overall, the pandemic was not a setback for the company. In fact, it was a period of growth.

“Production actually increased,” recalled the president. “When things shut down and people stayed at home, the roads were less traveled, and contractors could do a lot more work there. Consequently, we never slowed down.”

The interruption in normal services also spurred the company’s equipment rehab business. Because manufacturers were trying to get bread-and-butter products built, customers couldn’t get other products and began to look for alternatives.

The beamline in the Cedar Rapids shop was new in 2023. This machine can custom cut structural steel to customer’s specific designs and needs.

JW Bell screen plant

“We always have to be ready to lift up that rock and see what we find.”

Scott Cummings Owner, JW Bell

The shop specializes in the manufacture of new or replacement parts for aggregate handling and processing equipment.

JW Bell’s Cedar Rapids facility

One of them was to have JW Bell rebuild older machines, including vintage models no longer supported by manufacturers. That is, parts were no longer available. Bell was able to digitally scan the components and reverse engineer them. The parts restoration work developed into a sizeable portion of the company revenue — perhaps a fifth — and continues to grow.

**

The dealership side of JW Bell includes some iconic brands. Among them is market-leading Sandvik. The Swedish manufacturer builds down-the-hole and top-hammer drilling rigs and assorted other heavy equipment. Another century-old company represented by JW Bell is Lippmann, which produces high-quality, high-volume mobile crushers.

Iowa Manufacturing Company, which James W. Bell partnered with in 1923, still is turning out crushing and screening equipment and is among the company’s equipment offerings. Since 1985, it has been known as Cedarapids and was acquired in 1999 by Terex. It remains an industry leader.

There was a time when one of these brands would have been declared the flagship product line for the dealer. Such designations became superfluous with the rise of the manufacturing wing of the company. Furthermore, the company’s shift in business strategies under Cummings emphasizes custom solutions rather than brand loyalty.

An early JW Bell screen plant

2500VSI plant

“We’re a solutions company. Each piece of equipment can be a component in a solution.”

Scott Cummings Owner, JW Bell

Customer plant installation in Iowa.

The shop in Cedar Rapids is 178,000 sq. ft. under roof on 24 acres.

The Cedar Rapids shop has more than 35 cranes, including three 50-ton overheads; a 20-ft. by 75-ft. indoor blast booth; and a 25-ft. by 100ft. paint booth.

The machine shop in Cedar Rapids

“We have a blank canvas here. How are we going to paint the picture we want and continue to grow?”

Scott Cummings Owner,

JW Bell

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“We’ve changed our views about all that,” the company owner said. “We’re a solutions company. Each piece of equipment can be a component in a solution. One day it might be a Terex, the next day a Lippman or a Sandvik. Solutions aren’t really brand specific.”

How about top-sellers among the dealer’s brands of equipment — is there a bread-and-butter product that leads the sales portfolio?

“There really isn’t,” said Cummings. “Five years ago, I would have had a different opinion on that, but the last couple of years it has changed direction. The equipment sales picture can change year to year.”

That is considered an indicator of the company’s versatility and adaptability. Bell tries to supply the best piece of equipment, the best solution, for each application. Being able to respond quickly to changes in the market makes that possible and is part of the company’s success story.

Sometimes the best answer to equipment need is to rent it. Bell’s equipment offerings are not skid steers or some other compact piece of equipment needed for a week or a weekend. So, rental of mobile aggregate machinery does not constitute a large part of the company’s business. However, renting sometimes is part of a solution, such as when an aggregate customer needs to produce product while it transitions to a new machine.

JW Bell is an Iowa company with a focus on the Midwest market, which is to say Iowa and surrounding states.

“Those states are key to us,” Cummings said, “but we do look beyond that. We have shipped worldwide. We have great customers in Texas, Colorado and New Mexico, on the East Coast and West Coast and a couple of customers in Canada. But the Midwest is our key.”

The brake press in Cedar Rapids is used to bend steel to customerspecific designs. Plasma table

JW Bell is an Iowa company with a focus on the Midwest market, which is to say Iowa and surrounding states.

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This JW Bell-built conveyor is on site at customer’s quarry in Iowa.

The company’s seven service trucks range across the region, occasionally running farther afield in response to a customer’s need. Customers can pick up parts at the dealership, too, of course. JW Bell’s parts and service operation is deemed an important part of the company’s continuing success.

Another key ingredient in its growth is the breadth of solutions the company offers customers. Bell customers range from global outfits to mom-and-pop companies and its range of services is

almost as large. The company has the capacity to sell and set up a crusher for a small quarry, rebuild a vintage machine in a local mining operation, or fabricate a whole new plant for a regional aggregate supplier.

And that’s not all: Bell can manage the start-up of an aggregate operation.

“We’re managing four projects at this time” Cummings explained. “We can be the general contractor, get the permits and

Service truck and trailer

The JW Bell service team

run it from start to finish. One customer we’re working for doesn’t mine aggregate, it runs the material and needed a crushing and sorting circuit. We said, ‘We can build that for you.’”

Whether in the manufacturing facility in Cedar Rapids, at the Altoona sales and service headquarters, or on the road in a service truck, JW Bell’s 56 employees are busy. Staff has nearly doubled in the past decade and hiring is ongoing.

“We’re still in a growth mode,” Cummings said.

The constant hiring is not because of high turnover. To the contrary, a “core group” of employees has created a stable work base for the company, beginning with the 53-year-old Cummings himself, a Cedar Rapids native, who started at Bell 30 years ago.

Numerous others have been on the payroll for 10 or 20 years. The most senior is Mariena Brady, who has been a part of JW Bell for 51 years.

“She knew the original owner,” said Cummings. “She’s seen the entire evolution of the company and brings a lot of perspective to the company.”

The owner repeatedly mentions the “very good core group that has been here for many, many years. Having those people is the key driver in our growth and success.”

When he purchased the company in May 2013, Cummings inaugurated a change in mindset. Three generations of the Bell family had successfully overseen JW Bell for the first 90 years. It was time for new thinking, for diversifying even more, for capitalizing on its well-deserved reputation.

“The former owners were great people, but I saw possibilities for growth. I was given a great opportunity to realize that growth,” Cummings said. “When I walked around the facility, I said to guys, ‘We have a blank canvas here. How are we going to paint the picture we want and continue to grow?’”

The changes he envisioned with the help of his team resulted in expansion of the manufacturing side of the company and development of the total solutions strategy. As he set about implementing the new company direction, JW Bell began to change.

Cedar Rapids service center

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While being interviewed, the company owner excused himself to take a customer’s call. When he returned, Cummings was asked about the conversation.

“Basically, he had a crusher that wouldn’t start,” he said. “He’d shut it off and tried to start it today and it wouldn’t. I tried to help him diagnose it — is it something catastrophic or something simple? I had him check two or three things. Just trying to avoid the ‘It’s only-out-of-gas’ scenario.”

Not every company owner personally answers a call like that, spending time to help a customer figure out why a balky machine is acting the way it is. JW Bell is not a three-employee lawn mower repair shop, after all. So what is Cummings doing taking such calls?

“I’m the owner, but I am here in the office and at the facility as much or more than anyone,” he said. “An employee can walk in my office, and we’ll talk and make a decision about something. Functioning as a team is one of the things that keeps us moving as a company. We do have five-year and 10-year strategic conversations that give us an overall vision, but the company is very much an ‘open door’ place to work.”

And what do the five-and-ten-year conversations show for the company? Could there be another hundred years in the offing? Cummings said he likes what he sees down the road.

“Every day is a challenge, but every day is an opportunity, too,” he said.

He added that keeping an eye out for constructive change is part of the secret to succeeding. Cummings expressed that thought in a fitting way for an aggregates guy.

“We always have to be ready to lift up that rock and see what we find.” CEG