Maintenance, manufacturing expertise vital to driving industry forward

John Flynn is the Australian and New Zealand business manager for Terex Jaques, the local arm of Terex MPS. He talks about the importance of plant and equipment maintenance skills and expertise as the industry navigates its way through the post-COVID-19 era.

How has Terex Jaques performed in the pandemic?

Business has been consistent. It slowed for us but the aggregates and sand industries were consistent markets for us. Due to the global supply shortage, we’ve found it’s taken more time and effort to get the same outcomes.  It means we’re working harder to provide the services that our customers need. It’s been a challenge to maintain overheads without passing on extra costs to the customer base.

Has the pandemic changed the way Terex Jaques does business with quarries?

Probably better than most. It’s highlighted the importance of regional support when borders are closed. Although we’re part of the global Terex business, within Australia we operate with a high degree of independence. We have local engineering, applications and product support expertise, so we’re set up to work independently and also from a regional perspective. Although we haven’t been able to cross borders, our branch offices in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, with their own parts warehouse and service teams, have been able to support regional areas. The pandemic reinforced the importance to us of having a regional support structure.

What are some of Terex Jaques’s most popular products?

Consistently, our Cedarapaids TSV horizontal screens have been a strong product. These robust machines operate with high G-force for high efficiency screening and can incline at up to 10 degrees to minimise bed depth and prevent pegging in large apertures. 

Within our Terex Washing Systems (TWS) range, our Finesmaster compact units are popular. The FM Compact range of static washing and classifying units are cost- and energy-efficient, combining a collection tank, centrifugal slurry pump, hydrocyclones and a dewatering screen on a compact chassis to produce up to two clean sands.

The Cedarapids screen and FM Compact range will have new features in 2022.

How can Terex Jaques assist quarries with their crushing and screening challenges? 

Terex Jaques sells a broad range of equipment which allows us to provide many options for the end user. The industry applications are quite varied, and the more options you have to come up with the best solution, the better advantage for the end user. The best way to approach the industry is to have numerous options to find the best fit. No two applications are the same.

The end user is increasingly asking for something “standard”, targeting best cost and availability, which aligns with our modular equipment range. By the time you get to the final design, some customisation is generally required but we can accommodate this with our experienced engineering team.

Operators are more aware of the cost of downtime. Often when they buy a new piece of equipment, the purchasing decision will be based on a small saving on capital cost. But that saving can be eaten up by one episode of downtime. You have to look at the long-term costs of your operation when making decisions about the equipment you install. The independent, family-orientated operators are pretty good at that because they look at the long-term impact of their decisions.

Does Jaques offer programs and services beyond the key plant and equipment? 

Regular equipment inspections, oil sampling and screen vibration analysis are preventative maintenance activities that we provide to assist our customers to minimise their downtime and operate with certainty. We have trained service teams, an engineering support team, and product support personnel that can assist.

What innovations are your products adopting to save time, cost and energy?

Innovations are most prevalent within water management systems and washing processes. TWS is focused on recycling water in washing applications to save energy and reduce waste. It offers complete tailored solutions for water management and treatment, including a full range of flocculant dosing systems, thickener tanks and a full range of filter presses. Combined, this equipment can remove the need for settling ponds.

What will be the quarrying industry’s major challenges in the next three years? 

It’s the skills shortage, particularly for maintenance. In the fixed quarry game, there’s a reliance on a small number of experienced independent service providers to provide equipment maintenance, and in the long term, these personnel won’t be replenished. We have to service our customer base as well as we can on an ongoing basis.

How can Terex Jaques best assist quarries with meeting these challenges?

If we can build on the expertise we have and even broaden that maintenance and after market support, that’s how we can best do it.

For us, it’s about utilising Terex Jaques’ 135 years of history and ensuring the service personnel in the field get the benefit of the knowledge and the experience we have. We currently have four apprentices in our service system. Our aim is to maintain a flow and continue and improve the number of high quality service personnel that we have. We service non-Terex equipment as well as Terex equipment, so maintenance is a potential growth area for our business and the industry.

For more information about Terex Jaques products and services, visit terexjaques.com