The national drive to increase housing production has given a welcome boost to the building industry and with it an upsurge in demand for raw materials, a case in point being stone dust – an essential ingredient for the manufacture of bricks and concrete blocks.
Crushing and screening specialist Pilot Crushtec International recently demonstrated the ability to assist a customer in significantly increasing output together with a concomitant and equally impressive reduction in operating costs. As the southern African distributor of Metso products, it was able to utilise its extensive equipment offering and technical back-up to provide the required solution.
Stone dust: Stone dust is an essential ingredient for the manufacture of bricks and concrete blocks.
According to CEO Sandro Scherf, the customer – a major quarry owner with a network of operations supplying producers country wide – had reached its maximum capacity threshold using its existing plant.
“This particular plant configuration is used for the production of 0-9 mm material and had ramped up to maximum capacity in using the equipment at its disposal. As long-standing Metso users they contacted us for advice and we were able to identify where the substitution of a larger capacity Metso product would relieve what had become a bottleneck. This was achieved by the substitution of the existing crusher with a new Metso HP300 static cone crusher, a purchase decision which has had a very positive effect on the customer’s business,” says Scherf.
The net result is that the quarry has been able to increases its in-spec dust production output by a reliable 50%, and in total terms its benchmark plant capacity by a remarkable 40%. This in itself has seen the quarry not only comfortably meet customer expectations but also obviated the need for a planned additional shift to keep up with a swelling order book.
Metso plant: This plant comprises a Metso C100 Jaw Crusher with B feeder, a Metso CVB1845 four deck screen, HP 200 static cone crusher, HP 300 static cone crusher and CVB 1845 four deck screen with selective flop gates.
“Original expectations were that we would gain an uplift of around 30% in dust output, however collaboration between the onsite crew and our own technical staff has seen significant gains on what were already ambitious expectations,” is how Scherf describes a remarkable exercise in problem solution.
The financial implications have also been equally impressive. The initial purchase price has been offset by a substantial output of immediately saleable material as well as a direct decrease in operating costs. The product it replaces is also not standing idle as it is working well earning it’s keep at another of the customer’s locations.
The current suite of Metso equipment providing world class performance at an important quarry site consists of the following equipment; Metso C100 Jaw Crusher with B feeder, a Metso CVB1845 four deck screen, HP 200 static cone crusher, HP 300 static cone crusher and CVB 1845 four deck screen with selective flop gates.
