Air Systems Design (CONT’D FROM PAGE 38)
ible 200 pounds a minute to their bricquetter. “By having experience with other kinds of filters, we’re able to open our imaginations for corrugated plants having dust issues, which for the past several years is a problem that has been only getting worse. And that has been good for us.” As word of ASD’s reliable performance and its dedi- cation to customer service spread, the sales of its scrap and dust systems grew exponentially. Business flourished around the country and the world, aided by a San Diego, California based company that has been representing ASD for more than 25 years. In addition to the several projects always in progress in the United States, ASD has multiple projects in Mexico and Canada. Satisfied custom- ers extend to Spain, Venezuela, Columbia, and elsewhere in Latin America. “We have a very good reputation for repeat business,” says Zacary Jr. “99.9 percent of the time, our customers come back asking us to enhance or upgrade all or part of
and on Monday morning started a division within Ameri- can Baler called Ambaco systems, which lasted about a year. When he was asked to be bought out, he accepted the offer,” says Zacary Jr., who finished high school in Lou- isiana, attended LSU and started working with his father’s new company in June of 1985 when it became Air Systems Design, Inc. Unfortunately, Jr. didn’t have experience in en- gineering, nor did he major in it at LSU. Not a problem. He went to night school, took engineering and math courses and combined with the experience he was getting in the field, became a professional in the engineering, design and installation of scrap and dust systems. “When the company started, we had three employees: Dad, me and a draftsman. After the business started taking off, we grew to six draftsmen, an electrical engineer and a secretary. We had a total of ten employees and I thought
we were a really big deal,” remembers Jr. “Then along came CAD (Computer Aided Design) and three people could do the work of six.” Today, ASD has grown to 16 employees, which includes three designers working in 3D. Plans involve more hires in “We really got our start by doing projects in a lot of pa- per mills. In the 1980s and 1990s, about 60 percent of our work was in paper mills and about 40 percent was in the converting market. We still do paper machines and trim systems and yes, we still do a lot of work with tissue sys- tems, including those at Cascades and Georgia-Pacific, to name but two.” the CAD department. First Projects In Mills Today, ASD counts both integrateds and independents as customers with work between corrugated and folding carton industries representing 75-80 percent of its busi- ness. “Since Dad had so much experience in tissue, we’ve been working in tissue mills, tissue converting plants, and non-woven plants, which creates as much dust as trim waste,” he says, adding that some are sending an incred- Three generations: Company founder and patriarch, Robert Zacary Sr., center, with his son, Robert Zacary Jr., and grand- son, Robert Zacary III.
Tammy and Bob Zacary Jr.
their scrap or dust system with new technology or to install entirely new equipment. We have always stood by what we design and install.” ASD’s headquarters in Mandeville, just north of New Orleans, is home to the company’s engineering and sales offices, which generates seven to eight proposals a week with a “waiting period” of about two weeks before a cus- tomer receives it, a period that Zacary insists will only get faster. Components for specific scrap and dust systems – all are NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) ap- proved – are shipped from their respective manufacturing locations and assembled on site wherever in the world the plant is. ASD’s Installers are experienced subcontractors that work only for ASD. Three crews are performing instal- lations around the country and around the world at any given time. Demands on the corrugated market, however, have changed. Zacary Jr. says ten years ago he was starting to see machines having dust issues but today he is see- ing machines with vacuum tables collecting dust across the entire machine. The price of a scrap and dust sys-
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April 28, 2025
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