Screens & Feeders

Diversified quarry business kicks up a gear

Hi Quality works across an assortment of industries, with quarries and resources throughout Sydney and Melbourne, so it required a flexible and reliable unit that would work across a wide range of applications.

To this end, Hi Quality looked very closely at the Magotteaux VSI 2700 VSI crusher, built by GIPO in Switzerland.

The business spent more than a year investigating the machine and judging its suitability for Hi Quality’s applications.

“We couldn’t be happier with the decision,” operations manager and director Adam Hallinan said.

“This unit is doing everything we thought and more. It is very easy to operate and has no automation, so the operators are very comfortable with the unit, and wear parts are easily accessible. Even better, the wear parts are very quick to change out, 40 minutes for some and 90 minutes for others, giving us more uptime.”

Samples were sent to Magotteaux in Belgium for GIPO’s experts to test and give accurate feedback about throughputs and wear rates.

{{image2-a:r-w:300}}With about 900 GIPO units working throughout Europe for more than 20 years, the supplier’s feedback was very accurate.

To date, the unit has worked in two applications for Hi Quality: sandstone to produce 8mm minus for a wash plant; and hard rock to produce 22mm minus aggregate.

8MM MINUS SANDSTONE

This application has proved difficult in the past, with high wearing horizontal impactors and very basic VSI units providing the company with, on average, only 130 tonnes per hour (tph) throughputs.

The GIPO VSI can process much more.

“We use a 54-inch jaw crusher to feed the VSI,” Hallinan said. “The jaw has an independent pre-screen, so we scalp the majority of fines prior to the VSI, feed 90mm run of crush into the VSI and overall production of 8mm minus sandstone has lifted to more than 500 tph – that says it all, really!

“While we don’t want to divulge wear rates per tonne, we are very happy with those costs.”

An added bonus of this large throughput is that it allows Hi Quality to work around the wet weather and the effects this has on all crushing equipment, such as blockages, excessive wear, low throughputs and high fuel usage for poor outcomes.

A unit such as this means it does not have to crush every day, or even every week, to meet customer demand. Hi Quality can pick its window of opportunity, campaign its required stocks over a week, then, should the rain set in for a few days, use the washing plant to meet customer demand – a complete game changer.

22MM MINUS HARD ROCK

{{image3-a:r-w:300}}At its hard rock quarry in Melbourne, Hi Quality used the same set-up, with a 54-inch jaw crusher removing the fines before the VSI, and feeding a 90mm run of crush into the VSI with an overall production of 22mm minus aggregate at 250 tph. “It could produce more but the mobile screens cannot handle the feed material going across them,” Hallinan said. “It’s an issue we always thought we would have, and one we are delighted to have, as it’s easily fixed.

“This was the application we were most concerned about but so many large, prominent companies in Europe had been using the same machine for years and years. This, together with the report from the Magotteaux factory, gave us a lot of confidence that the machine would do the job here in Australia.

“We have basically replaced the need for a four-foot cone crusher and a VSI to shape our aggregates with one track-mounted machine, which we believe is one of the simplest and easy to operate and maintain crushing machines on the market, with a build quality and finish that is second to none.”

The Magotteaux VSI comes in three sizes: 2700, 2400 and 2100. It can be either track-mounted or fixed.

Most of the units working throughout Europe in the past 20 years or so are in fixed plant applications. These can be mounted onto tracks or semi-mobile platforms. GIPO also offers a bespoke solution to all customers and has built many such units with 20’ x 6’ screens in a closed circuit, offering a complete solution.

Source: Screenmasters Australia

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