South Australian contractor Linke Contracting has seen productivity increase by two to four times after upgrading to a new-generation Sandvik BR2155 breaker on its Cat 325B excavator.
Linke, a family-owned company based in the Barossa Valley with civil, mining, earthmoving and bulk haulage operations in South Australia and Victoria uses the excavator/Sandvik BR2155 combination for a range of construction and quarrying clients.
Applications for the breaker include secondary breaking in quarries and general rock breaking in civil construction projects.
At the time of writing, the BR2155 was being used for secondary breaking of blasted rock at Seelander Stone and Sand Supplies? bluestone quarry, just out of Nuriootpa, in the Barossa Valley.
According to operator Rob Plowman, since putting the new breaker on his excavator – which he has operated for the past eight years – productivity in breaking work has substantially increased.
?I would easily be twice as productive with this new breaker compared with the old one,? he said.
?In the quarry, we?re working in very hard bluestone rock, and it will just shatter the rock with a few blows. In fact, it doesn?t just crack or break the rock, it explodes it!? exclaimed Mr Plowman.
?On a construction project recently, in a very tight area and again in hard bluestone, I found I kept having to switch back and forth to the bucket to clear away all the rock I?d broken; I was surprised at how quickly it was breaking the rock.?
On another project, Mr Plowman used the BR2155 to demolish concrete plinths up to six metres in diameter and 500mm thick. ?We broke those plinths up like they were biscuits!? he said.
He?s also found the compact size of the Sandvik BR2155 to be a big advantage.
?The previous breaker on this machine weighed over two tonnes – compared with 1200kg for the Sandvik one – so it was very large and bulky. It was probably also a bit too heavy for this excavator,? he said.
?The new breaker is brilliant. It?s lightweight, plus it?s nice and narrow, so it gives me much better visibility. That makes it really good working in tight areas, because I can get into places I couldn?t with the older hammer.
?In addition, the speed of the piston hitting the tool has been increased a lot, and so it doesn?t send nearly so much vibration back to me in the cab – which makes it a lot more comfortable to operate,? Mr Plowman said.
?I do appreciate that as an operator; it?s very easy on me.?
Robert Plowman also says the InterLube integrated lubrication system, which is integrated within the breaker?s body, makes for increased ease of maintenance.
?I can just pump a whole cartridge of grease in – which only takes five or six pumps – and that will give me a full eight hours without
needing to refill it. On the old hammer, I was having to get out all the time to regrease it.
?It?s also not as messy to use as other systems, and very easy to access.?
Linke Contracting?s workshop manager Andy Mickan said that from a service point of view, Sandvik breakers? South Australian dealer Renex Equipment provided excellent levels of service.
?We?ve been dealing with Renex since 1998, when we bought a different brand of hammer from the company,? he said.
?The service and support we?ve had from them has always been fantastic.
?Renex?s sales engineer Daniel Drew certainly provides all the service and support we could ask for and any queries we have or issues we raise are dealt with very quickly,? said Mr Mickan.
?You get issues with any piece of equipment, and we find with Daniel and Renex they get resolved very quickly, and we have the equipment back and working as soon as possible.
?They also provide very professional set up on-site at the time of delivery, giving us full operator and service training, and ensuring we are completely ready to go with the equipment,? he said.
ABOUT LINKE CONTRACTING
Linke Contracting was established in 1967 by David Linke, and today is run by his sons Michael and Kym.
Michael looks after the civil construction side of the company, with Kym taking care of its transport operation, which includes materials haulage and bulk haulage, with operations at Geelong in Victoria and Largs Bay, South Australia.
On the civil side, it operates around 40 pieces of Caterpillar equipment, including excavators, dozers, loaders, graders, scrapers, dump trucks and rollers.
Its work includes general civil construction, subdivisions, road projects and winery work – such as tank pads, roads, drainage, deep ripping and demolition.
SANDVIK BR2155 BREAKER
The BR2155 breaker is designed for 18 to 26 tonne carriers and incorporates a modular design for maximum flexibility for end users.
It has a working weight of 1190kg and an impact rate from 490 to 760 blows per minute, and is available standard in a sound-suppressed configuration.
A key feature of the breaker is its inbuilt safety valve – which instantly stops the breaker if the operating pressure is higher than the preset factory specified setting, preventing catastrophic damage to the breaker and associated high repair costs. Sandvik?s new line of breakers are the only ones on the market with this feature.
To get the breaker to start again, the safety valve must be reset and the unit then operated in correct flow/pressure setting.
The BR2155 also features a slimline, robust housing designed to provide the highest levels of protection for the hammer?s internal components while providing excellent visibility to the tool.
This gives higher productivity because the operator can see the tool and working area more easily, as well as allowing the breaker to work effectively in confined spaces.
Constructed from wear-resistant steel, the housing also features a replaceable bottom plate for a long working life and easy modification for improved application matching.
A full range of retrofit options are also available for the BR2155, giving owners the option of customising it after purchase to best suit their applications.
Sandvik rammer products are distributed in Australia and New Zealand through an independent network of authorised dealers.
Source: Sandvik Mining and Construction/Spitfire Communications