Astec Industries’ strong reputation for hard rock crushing is on display at Regional Recycling in Victoria. Quarry looks at their partnership and how its benefitted the Victorian operator.
Dick Lewis knew there was a future in recycled rock, he just needed a system which could turn unwanted stone into a sellable product.
Lewis began the family-operated Regional Recycling in 2002, back when a lot of demolition waste and unwanted rock like farm stone would find its way to landfill.
With a few decades of experience under his belt, Lewis established his company to work across crushing, demolition, civil engineering, and site remediation with the aim of creating zero waste.
In the crushing arm of the business, especially working with paddock rock, Lewis partnered with Astec Industries.
“Paddock rock requires a good jaw crusher because you are putting the best and the biggest rock through the crusher all the time,” Astec Industries’ Adam Gordon, business line manager for material solutions at Astec Industries said.
“You’re crushing 80 per cent or more of this big paddock rock, and it has no stress points like the usual quarry rock.
“You can hear it in the machine from 500 or 600 metres away. It’s quite a tough challenge.”
Astec supplied Lewis with the FT2650 mobile jaw crusher, which has a 66cm x 127cm feed opening that can handle production rates up to 500 tonnes per hour. The compression from the crusher’s increased stroke can help operators achieve more relief, faster throughput, and up to 25 per cent more capacity.
It’s not uncommon for crushing equipment to have to process generally uncrushable material such as drill pieces or steel.
This can become an issue in a normal crusher as the foreign material can cause the machine to seize up or become damaged. But not the Astec FT2650. This heavy-duty, high-capacity crusher features an optional hydraulic tramp iron relief system that eliminates the issue.
The FT2650’s optional hydraulic relief. Image: Astec
The system, comprising two hydraulic rams, assists with controlling torsion forces at the toggle and protects the FT2650 from tramp iron overload. This hydraulic relief feature enables the jaw crusher to open up when overloaded with the energy being released instead of stressing the jaw or main frame.
“In a traditional crusher, a steel piece, which is stronger than the crusher, would cause enormous stress to the machine. You’ll bend a shaft or, next time it happens, it’ll break in half,” Gordon said.
“Whereas our hydraulic relief feature allows pressure to be relieved in the crusher, so the operator can hit reset and start again.”
When equipment breaks down the cost of lost productivity, unscheduled maintenance, and equipment hire adds up.
Depending on the operator’s volume, these costs can range from a few thousand to a few hundred thousand dollars. Which is why, Gordon said, the Astec FT2650’s optional hydraulic relief feature has become increasingly important. The hydraulic circuit enables the operator to cycle material in the jaw crusher and break it up without the need for someone to manually clear out the rock.
“With the FT2650, when an uncrushable comes through, it is not a problem. Dick Lewis can just hit relieve, open up the crusher and there’s no stress on the frame,” Gordon said.
“It also means someone doesn’t have to manually open the jaw crusher. They can stay safely outside the machine, and the rock is broken up without anyone being exposed to danger.”
Gordon said he was impressed with how the Regional Recyling business has grown.
“If I go back 10 to15 years ago, recycled product had a bad name, it was considered inferior. Today, it’s certified by VicRoads and you have everything from recycled brick to asphalt to concrete,” he said. “Recycling is now an industry worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and Dick was one of the first people to see its potential.”
Through its mobile crushing and screening range, including the FT2650 mobile jaw crusher, Astec is helping quarry operators recycle materials and create value-added products – which is a win for customers and for the environment .•
For more information, visit astecindustries.com
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