Owned and established by David Eldridge, DE Quarry Solutions has been in business for nearly 40 years. It provides mobile services to quarries throughout Victoria, as well as operating its own fixed plant quarry at Skipton, near Ballarat.
The company offers its mobile plant on a contract basis to a range of customers, including local government and private quarries.
It purchased its first Rammer breaker, the G88 (now rebadged as the 3288), which is mounted on a Caterpillar 330B excavator, to carry out secondary breaking of oversized blasted material before feeding into a crusher.
“We decided to buy a larger breaker to go on our bigger primary excavator, a Cat 345CL,” Eldridge said. “By putting on this bigger combination, we don’t have to break down the bulk material quite so much, so it’s faster and more efficient.”
Eldridge said he chose his first Rammer breaker for a number of reasons. “Certainly I was happy with the look of the product, and I’d been told that the brand had a good reputation for reliability and value for money.
“The G88 at the time was a new model from Rammer, and it had some great features I was very impressed with. One thing I’d been concerned about with breakers was the issue of removing the retaining pins to check or change the tool.
“The G88 had a new feature of round retainer pins instead of wedges to hold the tool in. For me, that was a really important feature. It works extremely well, as these rotate and don’t get burrs like the wedges, so it’s always easy to remove and check or change your tool.
“I’ve worked with breakers for a long time, and I know the heartache that some operators have had with fixed wedges; if you didn’t check the tool every week, and take the burr off the wedge, it would get to the stage where you just couldn’t get it out.”
Over the past five years, Eldridge has had no problems with the G88, which prompted him to go back to Rammer and its Victorian dealer Walkers Hammers when he was looking for a new, larger breaker.
“The G88’s performance is one of the main reasons we bought the 4099 recently,” he said. “In addition, Tino Vinella and Mike Coghlan from Walkers Hammers and the team have given us excellent service and support over the years. Why would we want to change?”
4099 breaker
The 4099 breaker features Rammer’s revolutionary operating principle, which combines stroke length, blow energy and idle blow protection. This allows operating parameters and output to be adjusted to match individual carriers and applications, improving hydraulic efficiency and safety.
Two simple working mode selectors allow the breaker to be purpose-matched to individual applications and materials: a long stroke setting uses a lower blow frequency for optimum breaking in hard materials, such as granite and reinforced concrete foundations, while a short stroke setting delivers higher blow frequency, which is ideal for softer materials, such as limestone.
In addition, an idle blow protector on/off selector allows the operator to easily adjust the working mode to provide protection against blank firing.
Other features of the 4099 include:
- A RAMLUBE automatic lubrication system, developed specifically for hydraulic breakers, designed to ensure a long, trouble-free life.
- A VIDAT vibration-dampened tie-rod system.
- Impact-resistant, large diameter tools.
- A RAMDATA on-board service indicator, which provides on-field information to the user, as well as stored data for use by the owner and dealer to ensure optimised use of the unit.
In addition, the 4099 is backed by Rammer’s full lifetime warranty.
In Australia customers are supported by an independent network of highly experienced dealers, including Walkers Hammers (Victoria and Tasmania), Ground Tec Equipment (New South Wales), Precisionscreen (Queensland), Renex Equipment (South Australia and the Northern Territory) and Total Rockbreaking Solutions (Western Australia).
Source: Sandvik Construction Australia