John “Chip” Dristas
Plant 1 foreman,
Dan Copp Crushing,
Anaheim, Calif.

Chip Dristas does it all; maintenance, production and purchasing. A 15-year employee of Dan Copp Crushing, Chip has followed the traditional career path from the yard on up. Today, as foreman of his own plant, Chip and his two crew members run a 28-year-old portable rock crushing plant that picks up and moves from site to site more than 20 times a year, all over southern California — with almost no downtime.

“When we move the crushing plant, Chip and his crew tear it down, clean it, load it onto seven trucks, then move and reassemble it at the new site,” explains Dan Copp, owner of Dan Copp Crushing. “And, Chip’s plant moves more frequently than any of the six portable plants in our fleet.”

Although the work his plant does never varies, Chip’s job does.

“I have to keep up on purchasing fuel and parts for a plant that is literally trying to tear itself apart,” he says. “I do conveyor belt changes and repair; hard-face crushing surfaces with an automatic welder; maintain four diesel engines; tear down the plant, move and reassemble it; and the list goes on.”

Chip’s list of duties also includes installing new software upgrades and integrating new equipment.

“Along with running his crushing plant, we also rely heavily on Chip when new computer technology comes out for things like setting variable frequency drives or belt scales that weigh the material,”  Copp adds. “Whenever we need something computer related and we have a disk from the manufacturer, we get Chip to help.”

In the past year, Chip’s duties have expanded into assisting Copp’s superintendent with moving and scheduling maintenance on other plants, following up on repairs and other tasks.

This article appeared in the December 2005/January 2006 issue of MRO Today magazine. Copyright, 2005.

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