HOT-MIX MAGAZINE 40 VOLUME 9, NUMBER 2

THE NOMAD
PORTABLE HOT-MIX ASPHALT PLANT FROM CEI ENTERPRISES
TM
Cabo Nuevo Construcciones
was the first contractor
in Mexico to use the new
Nomad Model 5.5 hot-mix plant.
Here is that companys experience
with the compact, productive tool
that was designed specifically
for smaller producers.
O
NLY FOUR YEARS AGO,
two brothers in San Jose del
Cabo, Baja California Sur,
Mexico decided they were tired of
working for other people. They
wanted to be owners instead of
employees. The founding of their
construction companyCabo
Nuevo Construcciones, S.A. de
C.V.was really that simple. But
the growth and success of the
new company can be attributed
to one thing: hard work.
Gilberto Romero Sillas and Sergio
Romero Sillas are co-owners of
Cabo Nuevo Construcciones. Just
four short years after starting the
company, their inventory now
includes several backhoes and
front-end loaders, several road
graders, a couple of bulldozers,
various trucks, and a paver. Their
newest acquisition is a CEI Nomad
Model 5.5 portable asphalt plant
that became operational for the
first time in August of 2004.
The Romero brothers represent
a classic Mexican success story.
shopping centers. While he was
with that firm, he was responsible
for architectural supervision and
financial control of a number of
various projects, including Fiesta
Americana Resort in Los Cabos.
After working for other companies
for several years, the two brothers
started their new construction
company to serve customers in
the San Jose del Cabo. In the
beginning, they took on only
small jobs such as sidewalks and
patching pavement in streets and
parking lots. They did most of
the work themselves with a
helper, using only a pickup truck,
picks, shovels, and a plate tamp-
er. Because of the trucks limited
capacity, they would often have
to haul six or seven loads of hot-
mix asphalt (HMA) per day from
the plant to the job site.
Three months after starting their
business, they used some of their
retained earnings to buy a used
dump truck. The company has
been expanding ever since.
They grew up as two of the nine
children of a hardworking fruit-
and-vegetable vendor in a farm
community in south-central Baja
California. The Romero brothers
and their siblings have become
college-educated professionals.
Gilberto Romero is an engineer;
Sergio Romero is an architect.
The other siblings are engineers
and one is a doctor.
Gilberto Romero earned a degree
in engineering at the Instituto
Tecnolgico de La Paz and then
went to work at Crisol, the largest
construction firm operating in
Baja California. There, he was a
project supervisor working on
projects all over Baja California.
Sergio Romero earned a degree
in architecture at the Instituto
Politcnico Nacional in Mexico
City. He then went to work for
CAABSA Group, a large Mexico
City-based firm that specializes
in the construction of hotels and
HOT-MIX MAGAZINE 41 VOLUME 9, NUMBER 2
FOR MORE INFORMATION
about Nomad portable hot-mix plants, call Tom Lewis at CEI:
505-842-5556
Fax: 505-243-1422
E-mail: TomLewisCEI@aol.com
They especially appreciate the fact
that the key people they rely on
for support after the sale
all speak Spanish...so there are
few communication problems
with factory and service personnel.
It was not long before they were
doing some site-development and
infrastructure work. Today, their
capabilities include complete
turnkey site development, from
initial earthmoving and grading to
installation of utilities, drainage
works, curbs, gutters, sidewalks
and streets for large subdivisions,
hotels, and shopping centers.
As their construction company
grew in size and capabilities, the
Romeros began to think more and
more seriously about buying their
own HMA plant so they could
increase their job flexibility and
productivity, improve the quality
of their work, and reduce their
costs. Other contractors had put
portable plants in the San Jose del
Cabo area (commonly known as
Los Cabos), but there were no
plants operating permanently in
the area. The Romeros said the
logistics were overwhelming. We
bought hot-mix asphalt from two
suppliers in the La Paz area,
said Gilberto Romero, but that is
a three-hour haul. Often our first
load didnt arrive until noon or so
and sometimes we would not
finish placing and compacting the
asphalt until after midnight. We
wore ourselves out. In addition,
we had difficulty getting good
quality mix.
The Romero brothers started
thinking seriously about buying
their own asphalt plant. Gilberto
Romero had operated a hot-mix
plant earlier in his career and he
knew what to look for as far as
features. He learned of CEI through
the Internet and arrangements
were soon made to visit CEIs
factory in Albuquerque, New
Mexico to look at the Nomad
portable HMA plant. They liked
what they saw. Gilberto Romero
said he thought the Nomad plant
was designed and built better than
a competing plant he had seen
earlier. He and his staff especially
appreciated the fact that the key
people they would rely on for
support after the sale all speak
Spanish, so they would have few
problems communicating with
factory and service personnel.
The Romero brothers wound up
buying the first Nomad Model 5.5
plant that was built by CEI. One
of their first contracts using their
new plant was a turnkey project
for Colinas de San Jos, a large
700-home subdivision being
developed by Fincamex, a large
Mexican development firm.
The CEI Nomad Model 5.5 is a
smaller version of the original CEI
Nomad. The Nomad Model 5.5
was designed to be a low-cost
plant that would meet the needs
of contractors who do a lot of
smaller projects, such as drive-
ways, parking lots, and secondary
roads in rural areas.
According to a CEI spokesman,
the Nomad Model 5.5 is rated to
produce 80 tph (72.5 tonnes per
hour) with 5 percent moisture.
This is considerably less than the
original Nomads 130 tph (118
tonnes per hour)but the Nomad
Model 5.5 is also considerably
smaller and more compact.
The Nomad Model 5.5 is totally
portable. It is usually made up of
four separate operational units: a
portable drum-mixer; a portable
tank for heating and storing the
liquid asphalt cement; a portable
hopper for loading trucks; and a
portable control house.
The main advantage of the Nomad
Model 5.5 plant is its portability.
Each of the operational units is
trailer-mounted to permit quick
and easy transport from one job-
site to another. After being moved,
the entire hot-mix plant can be
set up and be producing hot-mix
within just a few hours.
A visitor to the Romero brothers
Cabo Nuevo Construcciones plant
cannot help but be impressed with
how orderly it is. The control
house is as clean and neat as the
day it left the factory, due to the
efforts of plant operator Remigio
Amador. In his youth, Amador
worked in a steel-fabrication shop
and he became familiar with how
good products are built. Amador
said he thinks the Nomad hot-mix
plant was noticeably better built
than competing plants he worked
with earlier. According to him, it
has thicker steel plate in various
areas, sturdier motor mountings,
and generally better bracing and
reinforcement than other plants
he has seen.
KEY SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE NOMAD
Model 5.5 Portable Drum-Mixer Unit
U.S. Measure Metric Measure
Tons per hour at 5% moisture 80 72.5
Drum length 24 ft. 7.3 m
Drum diameter at burner end 5.5 ft. 1.7 m
Drum diameter at mixing end 4.5 ft. 1.4 m
Burner output 30 million Btu/hr 8,700 kW
Number of cold-feed bins 2 bins (2 compartments per bin)
Bin size (each bin) 8 x 10 ft. 2.44 x 3.05 m
Capacity per bin (heaped) 13.2 tons 11,975 kg
Transport width, length, height 10 x 67 x 14 ft. 3 x 20.4 x 4.3 m
Transport weight 58,000 lb. 26,400 kg
Note: These figures are for the Model 5.5 Nomad.
To get specifications for the larger Model 6.5 Nomad, contact CEI directly.