Today we pause to honor the men and women who have served our country.
To every veteran, and to the families who stood behind them: thank you. Your courage, your sacrifice, and your willingness to serve something bigger than yourselves do not go unnoticed, today or any day.
From all of us at VMI Dredges in Cushing, Oklahoma, thank you for your service.
Honoring all who served.
Visit VMI Dredges at Booths 216 & 218 to Explore Proven Dredging Equipment and Solutions
The displays are up, the equipment is in place, and the VMI Dredges team is ready for the Oklahoma Auctioneers Association (OKAA) event in Norman, Oklahoma!
With an eye-catching exhibit featuring large-scale digital displays, equipment imagery, and examples of VMI's manufacturing capabilities, Booths 216 & 218 are ready to welcome visitors interested in learning more about the equipment and experience behind the VMI name.
For more than 50 years, VMI Dredges has manufactured dredging equipment designed to meet the demands of real-world operations.
From maintaining navigable waterways and marinas to managing sediment in lakes, ponds, and industrial applications, VMI understands that every dredging project presents unique challenges.
Our team works with customers to identify equipment solutions based on their specific operational needs, project requirements, and long-term goals.
This year's booth brings together a combination of technology, equipment displays, and visual storytelling to showcase the VMI brand.
Visitors will find large digital presentations highlighting VMI's equipment, a vibrant dredging-themed backdrop, and displays that reflect the innovation and manufacturing expertise behind our machines.
But beyond the displays, the most important part of our exhibit is the opportunity to connect directly with customers, industry professionals, and others interested in what VMI has to offer.
Whether you're exploring equipment options, planning an upcoming dredging project, or simply want to learn more about our capabilities, our team welcomes the conversation.
If you're attending OKAA in Norman, Oklahoma, make plans to visit VMI Dredges at Booths 216 & 218.
Meet our team, learn more about our dredging equipment, and discover how decades of manufacturing experience continue to drive the development of dependable, hardworking machines.
VMI Dredges — We Make Revenue Flow.
For more information about VMI dredging equipment and available solutions, visit www.vmidredges.com.
#ThisIsHowYouDredge
VMI was set up at the 6th Annual CAD Summit at Meridian Technology Center's South Campus in Guthrie today. The Summit gives students a look at career opportunities, and a chance to see how the skills they are learning translate into real-world work. We were there talking dredging equipment with them, and showing students what dredging equipment looks like up close.
#thisishowyoudredge
We're set up at the WEDA Gulf Coast meeting, Booth 21. The banners are up, the table is loaded, and we are ready to talk dredging. If you are at the show, come by and see us, whether you are planning a project, looking at a rental, or working through a tough job and want to talk it out. Booth 21.
#thisishowyoudredge #WEDA #dredgingequipment #VMIDredges
We are set up and ready to go at the 2026 WEDA Eastern Chapter Meeting in Wilmington, North Carolina at Hotel Ballast. Stop by the booth to talk about dredging solutions.
#thisishowyoudredge #WEDA #dredgingequipment #VMIDredges
Just Another Friday at VMI Dredges
There’s no real slowdown button on a manufacturing floor.
On any given Friday at VMI Dredges, sparks are flying, steel is moving, equipment is taking shape, and teams across the facility are keeping projects moving forward.
That might mean welding and fabrication on the shop floor, assembly work, moving components into place, or handling the countless details behind the scenes that keep production on track. Every part of the process matters when you’re building equipment designed to go to work in demanding environments.
Our latest behind-the-scenes reel captures a few of those moments from a typical day at our manufacturing facility in Cushing, Oklahoma.
Nothing staged. Nothing complicated.
Just people doing the work.
At VMI, dredges and specialized equipment don’t simply roll out of a catalog. They come together piece by piece through fabrication, engineering, assembly, testing, and the experience of the people building them.
So while the week may be winding down, the work continues.
Just another Friday at VMI.
VMI Dredges - Built to Work.
Before a cutter suction dredge can begin moving material, it must reach the project, enter the water and be assembled safely.
That sounds obvious. In practice, mobilization can become one of the most complicated and expensive parts of a dredging operation.
Large components must be transported within legal-load requirements. Cranes, crews and assembly areas must be coordinated. Traditional launch procedures may require substantial lifting capacity, complex sequencing and work performed at or below the waterline.
VMI Dredges approached that challenge by reconsidering the machine from the beginning.
The result is TIMS, the patent-pending Transformable Integrated Modular System used with VMI’s Titan cutter suction dredges.
TIMS is not simply a dredge boom that can be made longer. It is a modular approach to transportation, assembly and operating depth designed around the realities of getting a serious dredge to work.
A dredge may be capable of meeting production goals once assembled, but the project still has to absorb the time, equipment and risk required to put it together.
Transportation restrictions can dictate how components are sized and shipped. Limited access can affect the crane that reaches the launch area.
These are not side issues. They affect cost, schedule and how quickly a project begins producing.
TIMS treats mobilization as part of the dredge design rather than a problem left for the jobsite to solve.
Traditional thinking often assumes that most of a dredge must be assembled on land and then lifted or pushed into the water as a completed structure.
TIMS changes that sequence.
Major modular components can be launched first. The center structure and related assemblies are then connected from accessible working positions at the surface. This water-first approach reduces dependence on underwater assembly.
By allowing the dredge to come together in the water, TIMS can also reduce the size of crane required compared with lifting a fully assembled dredge.
The result is a setup process designed to be safer, more manageable and better suited to sites where launch space or lifting capacity may be limited.
A dredge that cannot move efficiently between manufacturing, staging and the project site creates cost before it produces a single yard of material.
TIMS uses modular components designed around legal-load transportation and compatibility with 40-foot shipping containers. That approach supports both domestic and international mobilization without treating transportation as an afterthought.
Instead of moving one oversized structure, the system can be broken into manageable sections, transported and assembled for the requirements of the project.
This is especially valuable for inland sites, industrial ponds, aggregate operations and projects where access may be more restrictive than a coastal shipyard.
Not every project needs the same digging depth.
A fixed boom may force an owner to choose between buying more reach than currently required or purchasing a machine that cannot adapt when the project deepens.
TIMS uses modular 7.5-foot boom sections to change the operating configuration. Depending on the selected arrangement, TIMS can support digging depths ranging from approximately 20 feet to more than 51 feet.
That range allows the platform to be configured around the work instead of forcing every project into one permanent geometry.
A shallower application can use a more compact arrangement. A deep mining pit or process pond can add the reach required for the reserve. If operating needs change, the modular concept gives the equipment room to change with them.
Adding depth affects forces throughout a cutter suction dredge.
TIMS incorporates a dual-acting boom system designed to provide controlled movement in both directions. Its rack-and-pinion spud system includes free-float capability, allowing the spuds to respond to changing conditions while supporting positioning and dredging operations.
These features matter because deep digging is not achieved by attaching more steel and hoping the rest of the dredge behaves.
The boom, spuds, structure, hydraulics and operating controls must function as a coordinated system.
TIMS was developed as that system.
Crane capacity can influence where assembly occurs, how much staging space is required and what mobilization costs the project must carry.
The water-first sequence allows major components to be handled separately rather than requiring one lift of a fully assembled dredge. This can reduce the crane capacity required for setup.
A smaller crane requirement can open more options at sites with restricted access, limited shoreline space or existing infrastructure near the launch area.
The exact lifting plan will always depend on the configuration and project conditions. The design advantage is that TIMS gives planners a modular sequence to work with.
Dredging projects change.
Material conditions vary. Ponds deepen. Discharge locations move. Production goals grow. A machine selected for today may need to serve a different part of the operation tomorrow.
TIMS gives the Titan platform the ability to respond through modular configuration rather than requiring every future need to be built permanently into the original setup.
That flexibility is particularly relevant to aggregate production, mining pits, industrial basins and other operations where the dredge may serve the site for years.
Innovation in dredging is often measured by what happens after the machine starts.
TIMS begins earlier.
It considers how the dredge ships, how it is launched, how crews assemble it, what lifting resources are required and how the platform can change as the project changes.
That is what makes water-first assembly important. It is not a clever setup trick. It is a different way of designing mobilization into the machine.
The dredge still has to cut, pump, position and produce. TIMS helps it reach that point with fewer traditional obstacles standing between delivery and operation.
VMI Dredges did not simply ask how to build a deeper cutter suction dredge.
It asked how to make a serious dredge easier to transport, assemble and configure for the work ahead.
TIMS is the answer.
Today we pause to honor the men and women who have served our country. To every veteran, and to the families who stood behind them: thank yo...
