Since the 1990s, Barmac VSI crushers have become mainstays of quarrying operations globally. The Barmac B-Series VSI has over 4000 units in aggregate and mineral processing installations around the world. The B-Series is considered unique because unlike other types of crusher that use metallic parts to crush rock, it uses the rock fed into the machine to crush itself, promising a higher quality of shaped aggregate.
The new Barmac V-Series V300SE VSI was on show for conference delegates at Metso Minerals? Matamata factory. It weighs 15,550kg, has a single-drive configuration with maximum power of 260kW and a throughput capacity range of 115 to 415 tonnes per hour. Its 950mm size rotor can operate between 1100 and 1800 revolutions per minute and its maximum feed size is 125mm. The V300SE is available for both fixed plant and mobile applications.
The V300SE features three rotor configurations: open rotor (table) and anvil, closed rotor and anvil and closed rotor and rock shelf option. The open rotor and anvil configuration is best suited for large feed, low abrasion and high reduction applications. The closed rotor and anvil configuration is for the best reduction in fine feed, low abrasion applications. The closed rotor and rock shelf option allows for greater flexibility in a single machine and the ability to handle fine abrasive feeds and produce excellent particle shape in coarse aggregate and manufactured sands.
ROCK ON ROCK VS ROCK ON METAL
While it is not a revolutionary departure from its predecessors in the B- and VI-Series, the V300SE is an important evolution, according to Krish Amirthalingam, Metso Minerals? global product manager for Barmac VSI. He said it offers customers versatility over the traditional VSI machine while incorporating many features which have made the B-Series and V-Series so popular within the construction, mining and minerals industries over many years.
?In a closed rotor and anvil configuration,? Krish Amirthalingam explained, ?you can take a feed size right up to 2.5 inches (60mm) and you will get high reduction with good product shape. In some applications, the customer may want to feed material larger than 2.5 inches, at which point you can use the open table rotor and you can feed material to about five inches (125mm) of feed size. The open table allows you to do that. So feature for feature, how you apply the closed rotor and anvil is very similar [to the B and VI-Series] except that the open table will allow you to have a bigger feed size.?
Krish added that rock on rock crushing is a feature available in the V-Series. A fixed plant operator, for example, whose application ?dictates a rock on rock application from day one? would use a B-Series VSI. On the other hand, he said the V300SE would be suitable for a contractor that moves from place to place.
?A contractor moving from one site to another may prefer the versatility of the V-Series where he can have the rock on rock or the rock and anvil configuration on a single machine,? Krish elaborated. ?It may not be the most efficient configuration but that?s not what a contractor is after. He wants to get the job done and so having the versatility is a lot more important than the absolute efficiency of the machine.
?We expect the three features in the V300SE will be very popular for the contractor market. When you move from one place to another, you don?t know what you are going to crush next and having one machine with three different configurations is almost like having three different machines, so it makes a lot of commercial sense.
?The V300SE is going to be more popular for the mobile market because the contractor market is more mobile. You can have it on wheels or tracks. You can take it from one place to another and based on the tasks and types of material to be crushed, you can decide which of the three configurations is the best to get the job done.?
Krish said the V300SE could be easily adapted for a quarry operation, depending on the customer?s requirements, that is, and higher reduction versus higher end product shape quality. ?If it is a very abrasive application,? he conjectured, ?you would want to select the rock on rock function as your first choice rather than rock and anvil. That?s just the nature of the crushing mechanism – rock on rock, less metal contact, therefore less wear. Rock on metal gives you higher reduction but rock on rock gives you superior product shape.
?There are various requirements to consider. Typically the abrasion index, the gradation, the end product shape that the customer wants would be the major ones. Again, with high reduction, we are also saying that if the customer wants to produce more sand, then you want as much reduction as possible. But by the same token, if you say ?I want high reduction as well as excellent product shape?, then we have to identify which configuration will best fulfil the customer?s requirement with the least operating costs. Sometimes due to feed material characteristics, it is not possible to have both with one machine. At this point, the customer has to weigh the importance of one requirement over the other, coupled with investment costs. If reduction is more important, you?d choose the V-Series. If excellent product shape is required, you?d choose the B-Series. If both reduction and excellent product shape is required, then perhaps you?d choose both. We have to evaluate all of these to find a happy medium.?
IMPROVED SAFETY AND MAINTENANCE FEATURES
Krish explained that in developing the V300SE, Metso Minerals had incorporated many of the safety and automation features of the Barmac B-Series VSI. ?We?ve added the VSI Operational Control System (VOCS)and we?re able to automate the V-Series in similar way to the B-Series. VOCS is standard on all V-Series machines.?
The V300SE has an advanced safety interlock system on the inspection door and a roof lifter, enabling safe inspection and servicing of internal components. A pivoted motor mount also allows for safe, ?upright? servicing of motor sheaves rather than working under the machine.
The working life of the V300SE prior to servicing and parts replacement is again dependent on its application. ?It depends very much on how hard you are running the machine and how abrasive the material is,? Krish reiterated. ?V-Series machines in anvil configuration are meant more for non-abrasive applications such as crushing limestone. All else being equal, non-abrasive material will cause less wear and tear. Each application is unique. Each customer has different operating principles. Some customers will operate the crusher below its maximum capacity, while other customers will operate to the machine?s fullest capacity. They will have varying operating costs. Hence we work closely with customer son the application and operational requirements and then pinpoint the length of servicing and parts replacement.
?It?s a simple machine. Another nice feature of the V-Series is its compact design which makes it popular for mobile purposes. If you have installation and/or travel height restrictions, this could be the machine of choice. Installation-wise, the footprint is quite compact. We have standard designed platforms that are specifically meant for this machine, so you don?t have the hassle of designing your own from scratch. It can be skid mounted or installed on a concrete foundation. For portable plants, you can have it wheel or track mounted. It is easy to assemble.?
EXPLORING NEW MARKET APPLICATIONS
The launch of the V300SE coincided with the beginning of the global financial downturn. As a result, Metso has had to rethink its strategy for promoting the V300SE to a contracted, more cautious international market. Krish conceded that releasing a new product ?smack in the middle of economic uncertainty? was not ideal, but he was confident Metso Minerals could assess the mood of the market and promote the V300SE to customers accordingly.? Regardless of economic conditions, a solution must bring value to a customer. The V-series fits Metso?s extensive product line-up. There are customer needs where the V-series is the ideal solution. We will be targeting applications where you want a lot of versatility,? he said, ?and where the material is not very abrasive, and high reduction is required, with a good product shape quality.?
Krish forecast that just as the Lokotrack LT7150 incorporates a Barmac VSI B7150SEVSI, a Lokotrack might in the future incorporate a V300SE. He added that it was also possible that the V300SE could play a part in reprocessing and recycling applications. ?For example, low quality, low-priced crusher dust can be re-processed into high quality and profitable manufactured sand with minimum investment cost,? he explained. ?There may be an opportunity, with a very small investment, to turn something that is a waste material into a higher, premium product.?
There is even the scope for the V300SE to follow its counterparts in the B-Series by diversifying into mining. At the Barmac conference, Gerhard Lenz, who specialises in technical and application support for Barmac VSIs in South America, outlined how the Barmac VSI is being employed as an alternative, cost-effective complement to grinding mills in mining operations to achieve greater operational cost savings and/or improved production. Krish stated that while this is not a traditional role for the VSI, Metso has found an innovative way of applying Barmacs as a cost-effective solution. The Barmac VSI can ?reduce the feed size to ball mills, thus improving mill capacity and ultimately improving the efficiency of the entire mineral processing circuit. We have had mining applications where customers have seen five, ten or even 20 per cent improvement by using a Barmac VSI pre-grinders.?
Krish is optimistic that the diversification of a machine built primarily for quarrying into mining will in time bring benefits back to quarrying. ?Once you go into mining, you are starting to see that the machine is being applied in a more intense operation, almost 24/7. There?s a higher requirement for equipment with very low service intervals, more robust constructions and extra long life wear components. We are starting to now see many quarries operating and meeting demand almost as intensively as mining operations. These quarries are requesting features that are traditionally requested your mining customers. Therefore, we are incorporating mining-specific features into the machines that we sell in the aggregate market.?
EXPLORING SUSTAINABLE OPPORTUNITIES
Metso is a key solution provider in the recycling industry and takes into account its core competencies and values related to its commitment towards the environment. Krish believes that the V300SE VSI could play its own part in environmentally responsible solutions. ?We are providing solutions to customers who are venturing into the recycling business to complement their quarry operations,? Krish explained. ?In fact, as an example, it is remarkable how advanced glass recycling applications have become,? he continued. ?Finely-crushed bottle glasses are being used for a variety of applications such as sand-blasting, replacement sand in concrete, addition to floor and wall tiles, blended bunker sand as well as filtration media. Barmac VSIs are used to produce excellent shaped crushed glass particles that provide the consistent quality that those applications demand.
?That?s all quite fascinating for us at Metso,? Krish concluded. ?Glass recycling is not our traditional industry but it?s gradually becoming a crucial industry. We believe it is an environmentally sound industry that we can assist by providing technically and environmentally sound solutions.?
The Barmac V300SE is manufactured at Metso Minerals? Matamata factory and is being exported globally.
Damian Christie attended the launch of the Barmac V300SE VSI in Matamata, New Zealand, courtesy of Metso Minerals (Matamata) Limited.
