Fulton Hogan has been in the quarrying industry for more than 80 years and processes rock and aggregates at about 45 sites throughout Australia and New Zealand to supply to civil construction projects.
Naturally, each region is unique, and treatment of the rocks differs according to their particular qualities.
For Fulton Hogan’s Canterbury branch in New Zealand, the alluvial plains mean much of the rock processed there is what Quinn McNab, retail and portable operations manager, describes as “nice material”.
However, following the Kaikoura earthquakes, Fulton Hogan took its portable crushers to the Clarence and Hapuka rivers, where the rocks are larger and present a bigger challenge to crush.
“We were crushing boulders, much bigger than what we’re used to,” McNab said.
Unsurprisingly, the existing gear struggled with the challenge, so the company opted to buy a new Kleemann jaw crusher from supplier Wirtgen New Zealand.
The Kleemann MC 110Z EVO jaw crusher soon proved it was an ideal unit for the Clarence River job.
“It can monster all the boulders we can throw at it,” McNab said. “If the digger can lift it, the jaw can crush it.”
The spec sheet has the crusher’s inlet opening at 1100mm by 700mm, with a maximum feed capacity of 330 tonnes per hour.
“When the NCTIR [North Canterbury Transport Infrastructure Recovery, pronounced ‘nectar’] work finishes, it will fit well into the Fulton Hogan operations in Canterbury, and further south,” McNab said.
“A unit like this future-proofs the company for new projects, especially in hard rock settings across the South Island, where the feed material is typically less consistent than in Canterbury.”
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Completing the trio
Fulton Hogan is also operating a Kleemann MR 110ZS EVO2 impact crusher and a Kleemann MCO9S closed circuit cone crusher.
“We had the impact crusher working in the Clarence River in tandem with the jaw crusher,” McNab said. “The jaw would crush the rocks to 100mm and then they were fed into the impact crusher to break them down and screen out an M4 AP40 product.
“We trialled it at our Lake Hood Quarry just out of Ashburton, and in the Ashburton River. It’s quite challenging, as the material is really, really small, with a high percentage of fines, and it’s hard to get the required broken face percentage while still meeting the grading specification.”
However, it seems the MR 110ZS is equal to the task.
“It’s doing well, as it has the ability to scalp out the fines with its live independent pre-screen, which allows for the machine to do more crushing with less wear,” McNab said.
“It’s ideal for this, as it can turn out huge volumes of M4, AP65, AP40 and AP20, without additional gear.
“It’s effectively a one-man operation. One guy can grab a loader and feed the impact crusher and away it goes.”
The new MCO9S cone crusher has been operating in the Clarence River, working in conjunction with the jaw crusher.
“We’re currently making railway ballast and this has quite specific specifications,” McNab said. “Ballast is required to be a 0-65mm product with zero fines.
“This gear is an ideal operation for us because, like the impact crusher, the Kleemann jaw has the same ability to pre-screen out all the fines in the feed material. This means anything less than 40mm is taken out and everything larger goes to the cone.
“The cone gives a final crush to ensure the largest sizing is 65mm and helps give shape to the product.”
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Safety, linkage
For McNab, the other standout feature of the Kleemann products is that everything is enclosed.
“Fulton Hogan is big on safety and the units are well designed, with optimal guarding and access points for maintenance,” he said. “This means there’s no extra guarding required. You just roll it off the truck and use.
“What is also great about Kleemann is that you can link all the gear together via an interlinking cable – the machines will adjust if one crusher is not keeping up, automatically running at the optimum level, which ensures our operation is working efficiently. And it’s a nice looking piece of kit, too!”
Overall, the team at Fulton Hogan have been very impressed with the new equipment, which McNab has said is “very reliable”.
Furthermore, they have enjoyed the support and advice of Gary Payne at Wirtgen, particularly in relation to training around the new gear. Payne was previously the Queensland sales manager for Wirtgen Australia.
“Gary has been excellent about running new guys through how it all works,” McNab said. “We’ve had no teething issues.”
Article courtesy of Quarrying & Mining (NZ).