Geology

Crusher bucket, eco-material help slash construction costs

The latest in mobile crushing technology is being used as part of an efficient, innovative and environmentally friendly process to reduce costs for residential building, commercial structures and wider applications for infrastructure engineering.

An MB Crusher C50 crusher bucket, fitted to an eight-tonne Kubota hydraulic excavator has been deployed on a steep and challenging residential building site to crush demolition spoil for recycling using an Australian product called Soilstone, a tested and robust alternative building material.

The crusher bucket processed tiles, bricks, mortar and foundation concrete that was recycled in-situ on a steep double block in Sylvania, in Sydney’s south. The site presented challenges in terms of gradient and the need for stabilisation. The result was massive and super-stable foundations for the building of two new homes.

Soilstone technology uses mechanical and natural chemical processes to treat native spoil to produce the properties of rock that can be formed into a structure. The process has been tested, evaluated and approved by the New South Wales building regulator.

Instead of building foundations from purchased concrete, the natural site material is crushed together with additive chemicals that recycle the spoil into an extremely durable and progressively hardening rock-like mass.

A major benefit of the site drainage design is the ability to form multiple drainage lines while retaining structural mass and stability. The material is moisture impervious and enables builders to form drainage and other structures in a way that would be difficult or more expensive than if using poured concrete.

{{image2-a:r-w:300}}The Soilstone process has been used successfully for the mitigation of soil erosion, improved bearing capacity or sub-grade reaction, improved resistance to water permeability, and improved resistance to ground movement and vibration forces. The environmentally sustainable recycled material is not prone to corrosion like steel is.

As an alternative to unwanted or excess soil, demolished concrete or brick materials, Soilstone can use these in-situ resources to engineer a soil structure for particular use and function on-site.

Using the Soilstone process not only provided a suitable engineering solution on the Sylvania site, it also saved the builder more than $36,000, which would have been spent on material removal and disposal.

“Typically, you save around 50 per cent of the material that has to be removed off-site,” Soilstone’s developer and consulting and research engineer Edgar Agda said.

“This means all construction materials can be minimised. The reconstituted material is extremely stable yet can be drilled easily or have sections cut out to add or retrofit service lines.

“In addition, there is virtually no limit to the type of material that can be used for the process. Sand, gravel, clay rock, recycled bricks, tiles, tyre waste and processed plastic can be used.”

The Soilstone process is suitable for applications such as slope embankment stabilisation, buttressing to halt and remediate coastal erosion, in complex construction, and flood mitigation, and the management, prevention and repairing of flood damage to buildings. It can also be used as alternative material in waffle pod, foundation works retrofitting and stabilisation.

Agda said Soilstone was an economical alternative to roadbase material and mine site erosion control, landfill contamination control and other in-situ ground improvement works.

Soilstone’s engineered in-situ soil and processed waste aggregates mix provide an alternative in ground improvement that minimises, if not eliminates, the use of material grading and compaction requirements, yet attain properties of varied shear, and the compressive and bonded strength of stone.

MB Crusher’s screening buckets allow operators and contractors to reprocess materials in-situ, helping reduce the load on the environment by making useful by-products of otherwise low value raw feed, which may add significantly to their profitability.

In urban areas, reducing the carting and dumping costs for waste materials can often mean a fast return on investment, and in rural areas it can mean producing very useful, valuable materials in places where buying materials is often prohibitively expensive.

MB Crusher products are distributed in Australia by Semco Equipment Sales. Soilstone is based in North Rocks, New South Wales.

Source: Semco Equipment Sales/MB Crusher

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