Portable Crusher?

Plow King and Anyone else

I'm new to the industry of Crushing & Screening. I used to be an owner/operator of an excavating/landscape and nursery company. I've been pulling levers in the dirt since I was 14. I just switched over to the Aggregate side of the house from selling Heavy Equipment for CAT. What are your thoughts on Crushing/Screening as far as IROCK, Screen Machine and Terex Findlay are concerned?

A lot of smaller sized aggregate companies are saying they like the tracked/portable crushing and screening equipment. They can get close to the bench, shorten cycle time and cut equipment costs with it. What do you guys "in the dirt" think about all this. Good or bad let me hear it.

Semper FI:usa

Tracked mobile crushing and screening equipment is the new way of the world Brent. It doesn't always get used the way it should, more than 50% of the time it will eventually end up statically located within the pit and for all sorts of reasons. Mostly we find its because repairing underslung componentry after it comes in contact with an underprepared ground or a stray rock can be quite expensive and time consuming. US operators might be a little more conscientious, who knows?
The real compelling reason is financial. A lender can advance money to an owner much more safely against brand name mobile plant - knowing if it turns to poo he can quickly liquidate the machines involved at known values. A static plant is almost a liability to a lender.
Another compellng reason is ease of transport. I see crushing palnts for sale all over America which need 5 or more truckloads to shift and then a week to reassemble at a new site. Two lowboy trips and an hour or so setup is all you generally need with tracked to do the same job.
Having said that, there are a lot of new players trying to catch up on the market with their versions of tracked mobiles. There are some real lemons out there, believe me.

This is my opinion only, but from what I see of the current Powerscreen, Finlay, Nordberg, Masterskreen, etc. products, they have really cheapened since they were taken over. It seems like companies more interested in marketing have bought these famous and formerly high quality brands and are capitalising on their hard won reputations while neglecting to advance them in any meaningful way other than cost effectiveness in manufacture and which ensure a revenue stream for the companies after they're sold. They have failed to even continue what made them great. That's modern business I guess and most do it to one degree or another if they want to stay afloat. You'd be familiar with the concept coming from Cat even.

Still, there are a few models which are still good producers and which will last the distance we're used to and we need to last in business as a contractor, aggregate or hirer of such equipment. Its just a matter of finding someone who knows and can (and will) tell you which they are.

I made this into it's own thread, seems like it will generate enough discussion on it's own.

your portable crusher depends on your needs. the ones the I have worked on would move into the the pit or quarry, (5 to 9 loads, depending on the job) and we usually could be up crushing in about 6 hours. ( 3 guys setting up.) we would usually produce any where from 5000 ton to 40 000 ton before moving on to the next job but that also depended on the customer. I Dont know much about the track units, we were going to rent one for processing reject material from a mine but it never came to be. I have seen them used on demolition sites, and talked to a few of the operators, and they like them but they say the impactors are a little labour intensive. but once again, it depends on your needs. If your not going to be crushing Concrete and demolition, you could get away with a Jaw unit or Cone . then , you need a screening unit as well.

If it was me, I would look at a mobile plant , like a Cedarapids, Elruss, Clemro, because I know I can get good service and parts in my area. I have never seen and Irock system so I cant comment .

I should clarify my post here: I mean two lowboy loads, one for the tracked crusher and one for a tracked two or three deck screener. One man can set it up in an hour (if there's a flat floor) and then he runs the whole lot from the loader - or excavator and loader combo using radio control but usually only in an emergency stop scenario.

Sounds good to me compared with 5 to 9 loads for a wheeled version, 3 men and a 6 hour setup. They'd need to be very good and very experienced 3 men to get it unloaded and set up in that time too I suspect. They'd need to be very fit shovellers to clear away under the axles. You'd also need lifting gear at both ends.

I don't know what a man costs per hour in the USA or what a truck costs per mile, but if I was doing that over here the establishment costs would kill my competitiveness unless it was on a 100,000 ton job to spread the cost more thinly, in the meantime the tracked guy doesn't need to worry about that. cheers

what kind of ton per hour do you expect to make?

It depends on the job specification and the crusher used but with one Nordberg LT100 (a 50 tonne 40" x 30" tracked jaw) the hirer peaked at 487 metric tonnes per hour and averaged 360 over 6 months. (I think a metric tonne weighs somewhere near 2250 pounds). He was producing 6" top size from blast basalt admittedly.
When working with crushers in dry material most of the tracked screeners we use are good for up to 400mtph with three splits down to a 15mm (.6") bottom deck. Less if smaller of course but these are only 22 tonnes with 10' x 5' decks, if you want to do more, you use a bigger screener of course.

As stated her you will need less machines with tracked units.
The least "solution" is where the screener also follows the main crusher.
It will then only be needed with a excavator and a wheelloader to do the whole prosess.
If your loader has a onboard weight you can do the loading straight out of the screener and onto trucks.

Some firms here in Norway run a wheeled cone and screener system.(instead of a tracked one)
Sandvik has a popular wheeled modell.
This system then needs a extra whelloader to carry the products from the main crusher and into the cone.

U would then, as a example, be able to produce a 0-120(0-5") from the main crusher, and then choose to run it through the cone or stack it as a product.
Secondary cone can then be set up to produse another two/three products out of the 0-120.

But then this is out of the rock found here. Different rock quality might give you another result if u use double crushing.(Jaw+cone)
Resycling systems on the screener might also be a solution to keep quality up.(you don't crush it down to the maxsize, but resycle oversize)
Your rockquality might be so that its no problem to only run a jaw + a screener system.

Backside is as stated transport.(weight and height)
And i bet it can be a though area to compete in.
Always some real experienced firms to compete with...

You also need a good excavator driver to load out the floor straight. Some of theese crushers got a smal and not so solid undercarriage...You want the crusher as big as possible and the weight as low as possible...Then the produsers save on the undercariage..

Then i say excavator, cause you want the rock to be blasted right. Not blasted to death with only fines in it...Then u will find some rocks bigger than wanted.
A hammer to the exc is therefore a must...

Just stay away from CEC crushers, they are built cheap and will give you problems. I've run two of them and neither one was much in the way of staying running.

Something like this? :usa

Mobile is the only way to go, it would seem.

Contract Crushing / Screening is big business in the UK

Some very big pits ( you maybe call them mines ) here in the UK are finding real benefits in replacing thier old static plants with tracked crushers and screens.
As stated by others ( I am not a crusher man ) the right crusher with a double or triple deck screen can produce several products that can be trucked straight out the gate, by incorparating jaw and cones and a couple of screens some pits are producing 6 or more products straight onto trucks with 2 operatives, an excavator and a shovel.



Have a look at this site http://www.hub-4.com/ it gives some very good info on the global market not just UK

Portable Crushers

go to www.rubblemastersystems.com

komatsu seems to be a popular brand around here as i have only seen komatsus and 1 extec.

I haven't seen many Komatsus but I hear one of the larger contractors around here is enjoying them. Otherwise, Extec seems to have a good crusher/screener and I can personally say the Terex-Pegson provides excellent crushers too, since we've had them on one of our jobs for a month or two and there was little, if any, downtime and it just kept making big rock into little rock no matter what we found.

Ran a Terex/Pegson crrusher and an Extec screener. Working with steel slag, the Terex machine would kick out the jaw when a tough piece went through( mostly bits of steel or a thick chunk of slag.) The only thing i really didn't like about the Terex was the control panel was on the opposite side of the alarm beacon, which forced you to walk around the hopper, or near the discharge belt and in front of the mag belt. Other than that it was a great machine when it was running right. Never had a complaint with the Extec. Always had great finished product come out and never any contamination. We screened some pretty dirty stuff (slag with wood, rags/tarps, steel shred, and assorted rubbish mixed in.)

portable crushering

i like pegson premairtrack 26x44 nice strong machine,and keestrack screening equipment,cannot kill the novum model

mobile crushing

ont he subject of crushing,I find it useful that you need to have a good rappaport with the crusher operator! the operators main duty is to produce and keep the machine running,This could be quite stressfull,because of the stone size,fines content,every one wants to close down the jaw and make baby-powder! the jaw i work with id deseigned to take onley 10% fines my people whant to make 5o% or better!!!!! the other factor is whoever is loading cant wait for the materiael to go down the grizzly,the loader operater complaines the pile under the belt is to high??? and when the unit stalls the boss wants to know how long its going to be before its up and running again!!! oh, and dont forget to call the fuel man!! and you better have it up and running after coffee break......

i worked for a large portable crushing company. we used lippmann duo-king portable crushing plants with jaw primary and roll secondary for road gravel, 22a 23a 22a. mod. depending on how wet the clay was 500tph was nothing for these plants to handle. the company operated 3 of this type. when crushing and sizing other materials such as 1" 1/2 minus, 20aa, crusher dust, r34, ect. we tried to stay with cone crushers. we believed we got a better fractonated crush with a cone than with other plants. svedala, metso minerals, allis mineral systems are a few of the brands we worked with. this company often runs op to 10 different materials at the sametime. so buying many different types of crushers and screeners allows us to taylor a plant to process the material to the costumers needs. everything they own is road portable.

oakland said:

komatsu seems to be a popular brand around here as i have only seen komatsus and 1 extec.

Click to expand...

The Komatsu crushers are quickly gaining popularity here in southern california. We have a few BR380s like this one but seem to sell more of the larger BR580. The remote features are pretty cool, the operator can control the crushers movement and operation without leaving the cab of his excavator. We have had very few problems out of them, the only kind of annoying part from a mechanics standpoint are the safety switches, there are over 20 of them and if it wont start you get to walk around and find which one is tripped, but they are there for a reason and they do their job well.

Portable setup

Our setup.

Terex finlay 1175 Jaw 30x42

Metso Nordberg hp300 cone

Metso Nordberg 620 tripple deck screen.

Worked this setup all summer. Some pro's, Some con's with each piece of gear. Worked them from March till mid Nov. so learned quite a bit about this particular setup, but always willing to learn more. So if anyone has been around any of these 3, please chime in with pros and cons. I have a long list, but will not discuss them at this time unless someone is interested.