WA Limestone is a family-owned Western Australian company that has been operating for more than 40 years.
With a strong emphasis on customer service, the company has become one of the biggest suppliers of road construction materials and armoured rock for breakwater construction and marine infrastructure in WA, with quarries strategically located across the Perth and northwest areas.
From these locations, WA Limestone supplies more than 30 different types of raw materials products to contractors, state government, local government and the wider Western Australian public. Its products and services include crushed limestone to various sizes, spalls, building and construction sands, equipment hire, contract crushing, bulk earthworks, trucking hire and specialised breakwater and marina construction.
The company has successfully operated a sand and gravel plant for the past four years and produced one million tonnes of concrete sand and gravel in the first three years. Since its installation in 2011 at the company’s site in Perth, WA Limestone has not had to purchase any parts or request service repairs other than routine plant maintenance. This has generated substantial cost savings, while ensuring optimum capacity at a rate of 200 tonnes per hour.
After a visit to the Bauma trade show in 2010, the company decided to replace its existing equipment, to produce more consistent sand and gravel products for its own concrete plants and supply material to construction markets throughout Perth.
As a result, WA Limestone invested in an M2500 mobile washing plant and an AquaCycle thickener from materials washing specialist CDE Global. {{image2-A:C-w:500}}
The plant’s ability to run effectively is primarily due to the durability of its design, according to Sean Kerr, engineering manager at CDE Global.
“The use of the highest quality polyurethane screen decks within the ProGrade P2-75 rinsing screen maximises plant life and offers the highest level of resistance to abrasion during the aggregate screening process,” Kerr said.
He highlighted the discharge position from the M2500 feed conveyor, which ensures material is delivered to the very back of
the screen, maximising the available screening area.
The easily replaceable modular polyurethane screen panels also reduce the time required for plant maintenance, therefore increasing the plant’s productivity.
The spray bar assembly on the ProGrade P2-75 rinsing screen is mounted independently of the screen box, which in turn eliminates vibration and extends the life of the plant.
The ProGrade also features a ROSTA-tensioned drive unit for increased belt life and efficiency. As belts are held in constant tension they are not subjected to any shocks as the ProGrade screen rotates, also resulting in increased plant life and reduced maintenance costs. {{image3-A:C-w:500}}
Design features within the integrated EvoWash have also been proven to eliminate wear, such as the rubber-lined feedbox that not only maximises the screening area on the dewatering screen but also minimises the impact of material directly onto the screen deck, increasing operational life.
Rubber-lined pipework ensures maximum wear resistance to minimise the lifetime cost of ownership. The discharge chute and cyclone of the EvoWash are also rubber-lined, to prevent abrasion of material on steel to offer superior wear resistance.
The focus for CDE in Australia is on the development of business in the sand and gravel and crushed rock sectors, as well as the growing C&D waste recycling market, through the introduction of the EvoWash sand washing plant and the M2500 mobile washing plant. The M2500 offers feeding, screening, sand washing and stockpiling on one single compact portable chassis.
“Since our investment in the sand and gravel plant from CDE Global in 2010, we have been extremely pleased with the performance of the plant and its capability to process large volumes of material effectively,” WA Limestone director Steven Bella-Dona said. “We have been particularly impressed with the superior design, quality and flexibility of the plant, and since installation the plant has performed as promised, allowing us to achieve optimum productivity with little or no maintenance costs during this time.”
“Our sand and gravel washing systems have been employed by many of the leading construction materials companies in the world to improve efficiency of their operation and add value to their final sand and aggregate products, and this is certainly also the case for WA Limestone,” CDE Global regional director Terry Ashby explained.
“The efficiency improvements the M2500 has offered are evident in this case, particularly given the volume of material that has been processed through the plant and the company’s savings on parts and maintenance over the three-year period.”
Source: CDE Global