With the release last year of its TwisterTrac VS350E Stage V crusher, Pilot Crushtec is paving the way for expansion of its footprint in Europe and other regions. This advanced model is CE-certified for distribution in Europe and fully complies with the EU’s Stage V emissions regulations.
The TwisterTrac VS350E Stage V crusher is CE-certified for distribution in Europe and complies fully with the EU’s Stage V emissions regulations.
As Europe leads the global shift toward tighter emissions regulations, Pilot Crushtec is showcasing how its latest TwisterTrac VS350E Stage V crusher is helping customers meet these evolving requirements. The machine will be on exhibit at Hillhead, Europe’s largest quarrying, construction and recycling equipment exhibition, from 23-25 June this year.
The TwisterTrac VS350E Stage V represents the latest evolution of the well-proven VS350E platform, building on the performance, reliability and operating efficiency associated with vertical shaft impact (VSI) crushing, according to Francois Marais, Sales and Marketing Director at Pilot Crushtec.
“Designed to comply with the European Union’s stringent Stage V emission standards for non-road mobile machinery, this model reflects a continued refinement of a highly successful concept,” Marais says. “The original design has already established a strong and proven track record in demanding applications worldwide.”
With well over 100 units operating globally in Tier 3 countries, the availability of the TwisterTrac VS350E in a Stage V configuration now allows customers in the European Union to benefit from the machine’s core performance characteristics, reliability and low total cost of ownership. An important sustainability feature of the TwisterTrac VS350E Stage V is its Volvo Penta engine, which is well-known and widely supported.
“The Volvo Penta is a tried-and-tested brand with excellent support, particularly in Europe,” Marais says. “It gives customers confidence not only in terms of emissions compliance but also in long-term reliability and serviceability.”
Going a step further than most conventional mobile crushers, the TwisterTrac VS350E Stage V is designed as a dual-powered unit. It is capable of operating either on its onboard diesel genset or, where available, directly from a grid electricity supply.
“This is a very important feature for emissions-regulated markets,” Marais says. “Plugging directly into the grid to run the machine electrically gives customers the option to reduce emissions even further and, in many cases, lower their operating costs as well.”
At the heart of the machine’s high crushing performance is the Twister vertical-shaft autogenous crusher, a design refined over decades and central to the machine’s productivity and cost efficiency. James Atkins, Product Specialist at Pilot Crushtec, explains that material is fed into the top of the crusher and directed into a high-speed vertically mounted rotor.
“From there, the material is accelerated outward by centrifugal force and thrown against a surrounding rock box or anvil ring,” Atkins says. “Crucially, much of the crushing action is achieved through rock-on-rock impact rather than metal-on-rock contact.”
This autogenous crushing principle delivers several key benefits. Firstly, it produces a consistently shaped cubical product that is highly valued in aggregate and sand production. Secondly, because the material itself forms a protective bed inside the crushing chamber, wear on internal components is significantly reduced.
“The result is longer service intervals, lower wear part costs and more predictable maintenance planning,” he says. “We also carefully select premium components throughout the machine for their durability so customers experience more uptime and reduce their overall cost of ownership.”
Atkins also notes that the Twister rotor and rock-box arrangement is not a copy of other VSI designs but an original concept developed and refined over more than three decades. “The rotor design itself is original and proven,” he says. “There are hundreds of these rotors operating around the world, demonstrating the design’s superior performance, power efficiency and ease of maintenance.”
Ease of access during maintenance is another area where the TwisterTrac VS350E has been carefully engineered to help customers achieve high levels of equipment availability in real-world operating conditions.
Features such as the onboard jib crane for rotor handling, hydraulically operated lid lifting and modular wear components are all designed to reduce downtime and simplify routine service tasks.
“In practical terms, this means faster inspections, safer component changes and less reliance on external lifting equipment or specialised tools,” Atkins explains.
From a productivity perspective, the TwisterTrac VS350E sits at the top end of the Twister range, with throughputs of up to 350 tonnes per hour depending on application and configuration. This makes it suitable not only for high-volume aggregate and sand production, but also for demanding recycling and mineral processing applications.
“The TwisterTrac platform has always been known for its versatility, and the Stage V version is no exception,” Marais says. “While the core European market is firmly rooted in quarrying, construction and recycling, the technology has also proven itself in more specialised applications, including glass recycling as well as electronic waste and precious metals recovery.”
One unit has recently been supplied to the United Kingdom’s glass recycling market, with several static units already in operation in the same application. In addition, another static unit is operating in the United States to recover precious metals from electronic waste. This flexibility is a direct result of the VSI crushing principle, which excels at producing fine, well-shaped material from a wide range of feedstocks.
Atkins adds that while productivity is measured in tonnes per hour, efficiency is determined by the energy consumed to produce each tonne. By combining high rotor efficiency, controlled crushing action and the option of electric power, the TwisterTrac VS350E Stage V delivers a compelling cost-per-tonne figure in markets where both energy costs and emissions compliance are under scrutiny.
“The design focus is not only on ease of maintenance, but on reducing the need for maintenance in the first place,” he says. “When components last longer, and the machine is easier to work on, customers benefit from higher uptime and lower lifecycle costs – which is ultimately what matters most.”
The growing installed base of TwisterTrac VS350E units across the UK and Eastern Europe, together with an increasing number of direct sales enquiries from continental Europe, has prompted Pilot Crushtec to expand its distributor network. Marais notes that engaging with potential agents will be one of the company’s priorities when it exhibits at the UK’s Hillhead show in mid-2026.
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