Preferred Sands: Conveyors Replace Loaders & Trucks

Case Study

Preferred Sands Achieves $700,000 in Annual Savings by Transitioning to Conveyor Systems

Location Sanders, Arizona

Industry Frac Sand

The Challenge

Preferred Sands, a leading silica sand producer in North America, faced the challenge of managing rapid growth and maintaining efficiency across its expanding operations. With increasing demand for frac sand, the company needed to optimize its material handling processes to keep costs low, improve productivity, and ensure timely delivery to its customers.

Traditional methods, such as using mobile equipment like excavators, haul trucks, and loaders, were becoming inefficient and costly, particularly as the company expanded its operations across multiple states. Preferred Sands needed a solution that could handle large volumes of material efficiently while reducing operational costs and improving overall productivity.

Equipment

Portable Jump Conveyors
TeleStacker® Conveyor

Preferred Sands site with jump conveyors

$Preferred Sands frac sand site$

The Solution

To address these challenges, Preferred Sands implemented a strategic shift from mobile equipment to advanced conveyor systems designed by Superior Industries. At their Arizona facility, the company installed two TeleStacker® Conveyors for high-volume and low-cost stockpiling, replacing the need for loaders in creating large work-in-progress stockpiles.

These automated telescoping conveyors allowed the company to stack up to 30% more material compared to standard radial stackers, significantly improving their stockpiling capacity.

At their Nebraska site, Preferred Sands adopted Portable Jump Conveyors, which offered flexibility in the pit, reducing the reliance on costly loaders and enabling efficient material transfer across varying distances. These conveyors, equipped with adjustable-height axle systems, allowed the company to configure them as needed, further optimizing their material handling processes.

Having an electric-powered conveyor that is transporting sand in a very efficient manner is certainly an advantage over a loader that is burning between 9- and 12-gallons of diesel fuel per hour.

TJ Doyle Chief Operating Officer

The Results

By replacing rolling stock equipment with conveyor systems, the company achieved significant cost savings, with one site reporting savings as high as $0.46 per ton, translating to $700,000 annually.

The TeleStacker Conveyors at the Arizona facility enabled the operation to create larger volume stockpiles, ensuring a steady supply of material for the drying plants throughout the winter months.

In Nebraska, the use of Portable Jump Conveyors reduced loader use, cutting fuel consumption and associated labor costs.

$Preferred Sands crew at frac sand site$

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