Depending on who’s counting, there are as many as a dozen manufacturers offering telescoping conveyors in North America today. Despite growing competition, Superior's TeleStacker Conveyor continues to lead the market.
That leadership is shaped by more than 2,000 lessons learned in the field and almost 30 years in the making.
"The market has changed dramatically since the first telescopic conveyor was introduced in the 1990s,” says Scott Gulan, Superior's director of business development. "Today, it's a crowded field of competitors with recent product designs that reflect issues we've spent years engineering around."
The Hidden Differences
As more telescoping radial stacking conveyors enter the market, end users can struggle to identify meaningful differences between machines. Similar capacities, lengths, and specifications can make products appear to match on paper.
For dealers, Superior's experience isn't just a talking point...it's a sales tool!
"After decades of customer feedback and field experience, we've built a knowledge base that can help dealers approach projects with confidence," says Tom Koehl, a conveyor applications engineer at Superior. "Whether it's unusual materials, site constraints, stockpile requirements, dust challenges, or frequent relocations, there's a good chance we've seen something similar before."
During CONEXPO-CON/AGG, several of Superior's conveyor engineers spent time studying competing telescopic stackers on display. In many cases, they noticed design approaches that reminded them of challenges Superior had worked through years earlier. Things like:
- Chain-driven systems that introduce additional maintenance through tensioning, lubrication, and wear components.
- Winch placements, that look good in AutoCAD, but make service access and maintenance much more difficult in the field.
- Undercarriage configurations that allow material to enter the sliding telescoping joint instead of shedding away from the structure.
"At this point, Superior is often 100 mistakes ahead of some of the designs we see in the marketplace," says Koehl.
The Protected Advantages
Competitors can study a machine, borrow ideas, and develop similar concepts. What they can't do is legally duplicate patented innovations developed through decades of engineering refinement and field experience.
According to Scott Gulan, Superior currently maintains seven patents across its telescoping conveyor product line, each representing a solution to a challenge encountered somewhere in the field. Here are a few of those patents:
- FB® Undercarriage: Developed to support longer conveyors and larger stockpiles, Superior's fully-braced undercarriage improves stability and reduces structural flex. Today, the design is used across all models, helping deliver stability and safety.
- Auto Level Technology: Standard on FD Axle models equipped with PilePro™ Automation, this patented feature automatically levels the conveyor during radial travel, helping prevent belt mis-tracking—a top frustration for conveyor operators.
- XTP Swing Axle: For customers who prefer a swing axle configuration, this patented design simplifies the transition between transport and operation through faster power-travel engagement, fewer setup components, and improved wheel alignment.
- 210' Road-Portable Design: Developed to overcome the structural challenges that come with longer conveyors, this patented support structure allows operators to build larger stockpiles while maintaining the stability and portability requirements needed for road transport.
For dealers, these patented innovations provide another way to explain why telescoping conveyors that appear similar on paper can perform very differently in the field.
This 36" x 210' model at a Jacksonville, Florida, marine terminal represents the type of project that has driven Superior's growth into the world's longest portable telescopic radial stacking conveyors.
The Feedback Loop
Those patented innovations reflect lessons from the past, while the next lessons are already shaping future enhancements.
Superior recently began gathering a small group of experienced dealers for regular conversations with its conveyor engineering team. Feedback from vets like Tom Bond (McCourt Equipment), Don Kern (General Equipment & Supplies), and Todd Uphoff (Kimball Equipment) is helping identify opportunities and prioritize future enhancements.
We'll keep the exact details of some of their feedback behind the curtain for now, but those who stay current with The Orange Edge will soon learn about updates aimed at reducing setup time, simplifying maintenance, and improving the day-to-day experience for operators.
You don't need a seat at these meetings to influence the future. Call anyone at Superior to share any frustration. The next great idea could come from you and your customers.
The Never-Ending Pursuit
Competition in telescopic conveying isn't going away. The challenge for dealers isn't explaining what a telescopic stacker does, it's helping customers understand the differences.
Some of those differences are protected by patents. Others come from thousands of applications, decades of engineering refinements, and a steady stream of feedback from you.
"We constantly push the envelope on innovation long after others have copied the idea," Gulan says. "That continuous improvement is how we stay number one."