Crushing victories

“Apart from the quantity, a high, constant quality is our mainstay in the recycling crushing of asphalt and concrete. Quality is what enables us to guarantee our end customers the efficient and diverse reuse of recycled materials.”

That was how Mika Hiironen, managing director of Finland’s largest recycling crusher Kivikolmio – part of Kuusakoski Recycling – described his company’s operating strategy.

The company offers asphalt and concrete crushing and screening contracting services using five mobile impactor plants throughout Finland. It recently purchased a Metso Lokotrack LT1213S.

“It has had a promising start – even better than we thought,” said Mika.

“Using this modern plant, equipped with an impact crusher and screen, we are able to meet the growing need for recycling crushing.”

Since 2008, Kivikolmio has used Metso’s track-mounted Lokotrack LT1315 impactor plant that has crushed altogether more than two million t of asphalt and concrete. The hourly recycling crushing capacity has varied between 100 and 180 t.

According to Mika, the plant’s excellent transportability clinched the decision to downgrade to the next smaller class of Metso impactor plants:

“Despite including a screen, the LT1213S is easy to transport without having to be dismantled. The feed hopper extensions and side conveyors fold hydraulically, which makes it faster to prepare for transport. We save at least one flatbed-load per transport, which creates considerable savings during the year,” he pointed out.

“We selected Metso as the supplier based on earlier, positive experiences.

“We also have confidence in the maintenance it offers.”

Kivikolmio has a multi-year agreement with NCC Industry to crush recycled asphalt at eight different locations in southern and central Finland.

The LT1213S plant’s first, approximately 60,000 t, asphalt job started at the end of April in Nokia at the Myllypuro quarry.

“We crush and screen asphalt for NCC to a grade of 0 to 16 mm (0 to 0.63 in) for recycling. On the very first days we already reached an hourly capacity of about 170 t and on the best days 2,400 t, even though we are still in the process of fine-tuning the machine,” said Mika.

The new Lokotrack works in closed circuit, with the overflow from the screen – roughly one third of the material flow – looped back into the crusher by a return conveyor. In the first few days, fuel consumption was around 40 l/hr.

Screen module

The screen module of the machine is a dual-slope DS series single-deck screen with 22-mm (0.87 in) steel mesh at the top and 20 mm (0.79 in) steel mesh lower down.

Kivikolmio uses Metso’s X-win-type, martensitic blow bars for recycling crushing. The goal is to crush about 40,000 t using one set of blow bars. In the LT1213S, the spacing between the blow bars is adjusted hydraulically.

“We will gain more specific consumption and wear data as we are able to fine-tune the crusher settings. In addition, how abrasive the recycled asphalt is varies significantly from one worksite to another,” said Mika.

“The objective is to use the LT1213S to crush around 200,000 t this year, of which half is asphalt and half concrete. We also invest in quality when it comes to concrete. We take care of all of Rudus’s concrete crushing needs that the company markets under the Betorock product name.”

A renovated asphalt plant was started up at NCC’s Myllypuro quarry at the beginning of May, which has a capacity of 300 t/hr. The plant supplies remix asphalt for areas requiring surfacing in the Pirkanmaa region.

NCC Industry supervisor Jouni Hakunti said: “We continuously monitor the quality of crushed and screened recycled asphalt. We fetch weekly samples that we analyse at our in-house laboratory in Raisio.

“The amount of recycled material added to a new asphalt mix varies according to the requirements of the client.”

A need for crushing and recycling is not just a northern European phenomenon. In South America, Rockster’s Colombian dealer Sanymaq, which specialises in both the rental and consignment markets, has ventured into some very interesting recycling projects and recently purchased a Rockster R700S.

“Our main activity will be relying on Austrian technology to venture into areas where no other Colombian company can compete,” says Jose Saturnino Barajas, owner of Sanymaq.

Recycling law

“There has been a new recycling law just signed in congress which requires all companies in Colombia to reuse and recycle skip and demolition waste,” he adds.

One of the newer projects Sanymaq is working on is the emerging metallurgic coke recycling market. There are many smelters and foundries that have never recycled before and the new law is requiring them to recycle coke waste.

By at first using a two-deck screen to separate the coke material combined with the Rockster machine as an oversize reducer, Sanymaq is able to get two grades of clean material which is required.

“Two grades of clean cubic material is what we were looking for, so we can sell the aggregate for road base material,” said Jose.

The metallurgic plant gets the recuperated metal fraction which is also paid to Sanymaq a per tonnage price to reuse in its smeltering process.

Another Austrian company, SBM Mineral Processing, attended this year’s Bauma exhibition in Germany and is delighted with the response it received at the time and in the three months since.

The SBM mineral processing and concrete mixing technology teams attracted the attention of visitors through a range of innovations.

For mineral processing technology, the new STE 100.60 jaw crusher with a gap release control that has already been put through its paces, the SMR 13/7/4 impact crusher to shorten the process chain and the next generation of the vertical impact crusher rotor with tripled tool life went on show.

Mineral processing technology featured the Remax 1111 Maxi.

“It is especially good to hear from our customers that SBM systems focus on the essentials, and that the innovations of the mobile Remax series also impress,” said Helmut Haider, sales manager in Mineral Processing Technology.

“We could not have predicted a full order book from the fair to the sum of nearly €7 million (US$7.7 million). For over half of the orders, there was no preliminary in-house contact, and orders were made directly at Bauma, instantly and without hesitation,” said managing director Erwin Schneller.

“We are particularly proud of the vote of confidence and satisfaction of our customers, and yet again we have proved that we can stay the course as a unique full-service provider within the industry.”

This article is taken from the July-August 2016 issue of Demolition & Recycling International magazine. To register to see the article in full, including additional images, or to receive the magazine on a regular basis, please visit www.khl.com/subscriptions