Terex® Compact Cone Crusher Makes Big Impact

Withcott Quarry’s move to replace a tired impact crusher that wore through expensive wear parts with a new Terex® TC1000 cone crusher has seen production rates rise, reliability improve and wear part costs decline. By TOM MCKENNY at Industri Communications.

SUPPLYING a range of road and concrete products from the basalt reserve at Withcott , near Toowoomba to a region covering Gatton, Esk, Ipswich, and as far afield as Boonah, Withcott always harboured uncertainty about its ability to supply as a result of the unreliable impactor.

A veteran of the Queensland quarrying scene, Quarry Manager, Peter Jackson said the new TC1000 Cone, supplied by Terex Jaques, was a “100 per cent improvement on the impact crusher.”

“The South African impactor hammers were extremely expensive and every second day we were opening it up to maintain it; now we’ve got this little Terex and we’re crushing 1100 tonne per day, every day.We’ve had it seven months and haven’t looked like having to open it up. It’s the greatest thing since sliced bread,” Mr. Jackson said.

Supplying typical quarry products and servicing a strong market for by-product fines for local concrete plants, the TC1000 is working as a secondary crusher in closed circuit with a vibrating screen with a small Jaques single toggle jaw doing the primary workload and a Barmac vertical shaft impactor taking the first pass screen fines for shaping.

“In quarries you make a lot more 20mm minus that you do 10mm minus so when we’ve got enough of the 20mm we close the TC1000 up to 13mm and put the 20 mm back through to crack 10mm, 7mm and dust.” Mr. Jackson explained.

The Terex® TC Cone responds best to continual choke feed according to Mr. Jackson and has proved something of an eye opener with the concave and mantle service life far exceeding expectations.

“It has been the right crusher for us because we are only a small operation, if you were doing more you’d probably put in a Terex® Jaques gyro or something, but for our plant doing 1100 tonne per day we’ll be better off with the TC Cone.It’s only small but its like a dog that doesn’t want to stop eating,” Mr. Jackson said. “We’ve had lots of people come and look at it and
they’ve been most impressed.”

With strong demand for the plant’s manufactured sand, the TC1000 helps maintain the cascade in the Barmac but is also providing plenty of shape to the material in its own right.

With the source basalt featuring fractured face columns and producing material tending to elongation as a result of its water-cooled formation, shape is important in the plant design.

“The material is hard on mantles and we work the quarry face according to our needs, whether it is road base or concrete aggregate but the Terex® Cone is brilliant, we haven’t even looked like using a cone liner in seven months,” Mr. Jackson said.

A compact mounting frame featuring clever design considerations complements the compact crusher. Th e TC1000 live frame assembly, which can be supplied with the machine, consists of the crusher subframe ready to position and is delivered with four anti-vibration mounts for clients to fit to supporting steel work.

This reduces the machine’s vibration on the supporting structure but without restricting access.

Double acting hydraulic cylinders mounted externally between the upper and lower crusher mainframe allow fast closed side setting adjustment and protection against overload. The hydraulic control panel is sealed against dust and weather.

The Withcott quarry plant is being developed in stages, a process that allowed the TC1000 to slot in seamlessly to a ready prepared and designed structure. The next step will see a new primary jaw and perhaps a bigger Terex secondary with the TC1000 able to move into play next to the VSI.

“They’ve put quite a lot of thought into the design of this unit,” Mr. Jackson said. “Hydraulic lines are hidden so they don’t get damaged by oversize and we bought the plant with a live frame assembly rather than fabricating our own and it is a great little plant.”

Above all else, fitting the TC1000 into the plant has allowed Withcott to produce the material it wants with reliability – whether that is concrete aggregate, roadbase or fines.

“We are selling a lot of fines as manufactured sand which is popular and people are swinging over to 66 per cent manufactured sand, 30 per cent river sand and fl y ash and making a great concrete. We’ve got a market for it – others haven’t because they need the fines to go into their road base,” said Mr. Jackson.

While it has added to productivity, reliability is the small cone’s virtue according to Mr. Jackson. “We can now go into a tender and know we can confidently finish the job – with Department of Main Road certified material. When they want four or five thousand tonne we now know we can make that product and not be worried about whether a machine is going to break down.”

The Terex® TC1000 and the larger TC1300 cone crushers have recently been introduced to Terex Jaques’ static crusher range. The machines exhibit high productivity, excellent reliability and are very flexible with regard to the input feed.

For further information or images, please contact Tom McKenny at Industri Communications. Ph: 0418 132 911. tom@industri.com.au

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