Productivity is up, and expensive overburden campaigns are a thing of the past at Adbri’s Price Quarry, all thanks to a unique excavator bucket from ONTRAC Group.
For decades, Australian hospitals, schools, homes, roads, and infrastructure have been built with Adbri concrete.
The company is one of the largest pre-mix concrete suppliers in the country, providing vital construction materials to the residential, commercial, and infrastructure sectors.
The Price Quarry is critical to this. The site provides sand and other materials for more than half of Adbri’s South Australian concrete plants.
Success story
Adbri quarry operations manager for South Australia, Adam Schutz, told Quarry that on a site like Price Quarry, the little one per cent improvements stack up.
“The more time we can spend screening sand, the more concrete we can produce,” he said.
The site’s overburden ranges between five and 15 metres and was a consistent challenge.
“Removing the overburden is one of the biggest challenges, as the site is quite large,” Schutz said.
“Although the materials were both relatively soft, we used to run two buckets. The mud bucket handled the sand and tooth bucket with less capacity handled the overburden.
“That meant we were swapping buckets around when moving to different parts of the pit.”
On top of this, the buckets were beginning to show their age. The site team were finding cracks, and a replacement was needed.
At the time, Schutz was working with Australian manufacturer ONTRAC Group to supply rock breakers to Adbri sites. He mentioned the situation to ONTRAC Group, who quickly began work on finding the best bucket solution.
What Schutz didn’t expect was for ONTRAC Group to provide a “productivity study”.
“ONTRAC crunched the numbers for us, taking into account how abrasive the material was, and other information from the site,” Schutz said.
“It’s a service we didn’t even need to ask for, they just did it. The study considered more than just excavator size and lift capacity. It took into account cycle times and fuel efficiencies. It’s not often a supplier spends all that time and effort – it’s not a quick five-minute job.”
Instead of a two-bucket system, the study recommended a bucket that could handle both materials, the XMOR bucket.
The team at Price wasn’t afraid to dig deep when investing in new equipment. The new XMOR bucket had a price tag that paid off, as it delivered the promised return on investment.
Worth the price
The XMOR bucket exchanges weight for payload while maintaining the durability and structural integrity expected from heavy industry attachments. Many years of extensive engineering and development went into the design of the bucket, which allows excavators to move more material in less time, without increasing the total suspended load of equipment. The inverted shape of the keel (tub) helps minimise ground contact and wear on the bottom of the bucket, further saving time on maintenance and repairs.
At first, Adbri quarry manager Nicholas Pridham was sceptical. The shape of the bucket was unique, but would it actually deliver on what was promised?
“The ease of how it digs through the sand was surprising,” Pridham said. “It’s like cutting through butter. There’s a lot less drag and it’s easier to dig with.”
“The extra capacity has also meant we’re doing less passes per truck load, cutting the cycle time.
“Shifting more material with every bucket load means you’re getting more work done in a faster time span too. You notice that you’re shifting a little more material every time.”
Minimising bucket passes was vital when the site was doing overburden work. The overburden needed to be moved in dry conditions, which meant the site team did need to bring in contractors for overburden campaigns – which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“One bucket is saving a lot,” Schutz said. “The Price site is located 90 minutes from Adelaide, so any extra savings we can get is a big win for the business.”
Innovative construction
ONTRAC Group is a specialist manufacturer, it doesn’t aim to provide everything for everybody. Instead, it aims to provide the highest quality excavator attachments and that maximise productivity and increase profitability.
The company is a member of the ‘Hardox in My Body’ quality program, which provides direct and prioritised access to SSAB’s resources for manufacturing with Hardox wear plate.
The program is open to manufacturers that can provide their products and production methods meet the highest quality standards.
Being part of this program allowed ONTRAC Group to begin building the XMOR high productivity buckets, adding to its existing portfolio of traditionally designed buckets – ranging from traditional heavy duty quarry buckets to customised engineered solutions.
The XMOR Bucket was a perfect fit for ONTRAC Group to release to the Australian market in 2021.
Its patented design uses SSAB’s Hardox 500 Tuf wear plates and Strenx structural steel to ensure the bucket is robust and durable for the harsh demands of quarrying, while its unique keel design reduces weight and enables more structural stability.
Sustainability
In addition to durability, ONTRAC Group has also turned its attention to improving its impact on sustainability throughout the quarrying and mining sectors.
It aims to do this through the ‘Green Buckets’ initiative, which was launched at the Institute of Quarrying Australia National Conference in 2024.
The Green Buckets initiative aims to help quarries reduce their carbon emissions by improving production efficiency, which in turn leads to less passes needed to load out trucks and faster truck cycle times and less fuel burn. Lighter buckets move more material and also reduce fuel burn, as there is less machine idle time and less fuel spent per tonne of material moved.
An improved supply chain also benefits sustainability. As ONTRAC Group is an Australian manufacturer, buckets spend less time being shipped to clients and are made to Australian Standards.
Additionally, ONTRAC’s Green Buckets require less maintenance and downtime, have a longer service life, and have a lower total cost of ownership, reducing waste.
Supporting local manufacturers
The XMOR Bucket has worked well across the site for the past four months. Although sand is an abrasive material, the bucket shows no signs of wear. While it has not yet been needed, ONTRAC Group prides itself on offering extensive after-sales support.
Pridham and Schutz said ONTRAC are always available on the phone and willing to talk.
“There’s also a parts manual, that includes details and information to easily change out consumable parts,” he said.
“Supporting another Australian business is also very important to us. It’s great to see a product of that size and the work that goes into it, so seeing the green and gold sticker on the side is pretty cool.
“It also means we can help improve the local economy – they’re supporting us with their buckets, and we’re improving their business. It’s a win-win.”
Schutz added that ONTRAC Group, being located close by, is quick to provide support.
“With bigger overseas companies, you can become just another number. ONTRAC’s support has been exceptional,” he said.
“We are about to purchase a new excavator, and the XMOR is on the bucket list to be used with it.
“I would recommend anyone who is sceptical about the XMOR to give it a go. When you see it in action, it will change your mind pretty quickly.”
For more information, visit ontracgroup.com.au
