#BROCE BROOM RJ350 HOW TO#

When a Kansas company can have global impact, that is a clean sweep.Īudio and text files of Kansas Profiles are available at. We commend Alan Vance, Mark Chalfant, and all those involved with Broce Broom for making a difference with engineering innovation. “We continue to sell more sweepers than all our competitors combined.”įor more information, see It’s time to leave North Africa, where a sweeper from a company in rural Kansas is being used to prepare the roadbed. “We have shipped our products coast to coast and exported to 40 different countries,” Alan said. “We want our operators to have the safest experience possible,” Alan said.īroce Broom in Dodge City now has 60 employees. In 2018, the company partnered with another business to offer a new dust control additive to go in the sweeper water tank. “People are now using our sweepers in the artificial turf industry as the final step in leveling the crumb rubber which has been poured on the artificial turf,” Alan said. They had a son named Alan who served as an overseas missionary before taking the position as company CEO.īroce Broom now manufactures a heavy duty model for road construction and a lighter weight model for rental companies, while continuing to innovate with its partners. When he eventually retired from the Air Force, he joined his father-in-law’s company. Ray Broce’s daughter went to K-State and later met and married Bud Vance. In 1963, Ray Broce formed a new company, Broce Manufacturing, to build and sell “Broce Brooms.” Eventually the family closed the construction business to focus on manufacturing. It worked so well that other contractors saw it and wanted one also. Broce Construction crews used it that summer. That was the beginning of the self-propelled mid-mount sweeper which would revolutionize that part of the industry. The question arose: “Wouldn’t the broom work better if we put it in the middle of the machine where the operator could see it and make adjustments?” The guys went to a salvage yard, got an automobile frame and engine, and mounted the industrial sweeper broom in the center of the machine. That made it difficult to simultaneously steer and adjust the equipment. At that time, a road sweeper was usually towed behind a truck or tractor.

#BROCE BROOM RJ350 HOW TO#

During the winter of 1961, Ray Broce and his mechanics had time in the shop to think about how to improve their road construction process. Of course, the process of building roads and applying asphalt is typically done in the summertime. It’s important that the road surface be just right. In the road construction process, a roadbed base is built and then swept clean immediately before adhesive and asphalt is applied. “Someone estimated that half the roads in Oklahoma were built by Broce Construction,” Alan said.įrom 1973 to 1975, the National Asphalt Paving Association presented its highest award for construction projects to Broce Construction – the only company in history to win the award three years in a row.

Broce became the largest road construction company in Kansas and Oklahoma.

Ray Broce grew the Broce Construction Company into one of the leading road construction businesses of its era. “He mortgaged his home and bought his first piece of construction equipment in 1937,” Alan Vance said. Broce worked for the Kansas Highway Department and then went into business for himself in Dodge City. The history of this company goes back to Alan’s grandfather, Ray Broce, who was born in 1902 in the rural community of Attica, population 626 people. Mark Chalfant is chief operating officer. Where do you suppose that sweeper was built? Would you believe, halfway around the globe in Kansas? Today we’ll learn about a remarkable ruralpreneur and his company who is building these sweeper machines for markets across the nation and beyond.Īlan Vance is CEO of Broce Broom, the company which produces these industrial sweepers. An industrial sweeper is being used to prepare the road surface for the application of asphalt. Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Alan Vance, Broce BroomĪ major road construction project is underway in North Africa.

Broce broom rj350