7 mins
Purchase decisions: Redefining ‘return on investment’
Whether making a purchase or renting a new piece of equipment, ensuring a good return on investment (ROI) is key. But today, that return is no longer measured in purely monetary terms.
Deciding on the right crushing and screening equipment is no longer only down to whether it offers the right capacities and capabilities at the right price. It is also about the bigger picture and the longerterm impacts, with opinions and priorities shifting in favour of both the environment and the wellbeing of workers.
Indeed, contractors can no longer afford to invest in a high-capacity machine that offers a high financial ROI if that machine does nothing to help lower its environmental impact.
ELECTRIC CRUSHERS
With this type of thinking becoming more prevalent, manufacturers are taking note.
A case in point is the new fully electric heavy jaw crusher model from Sandvik Mobile Crushing and Screening. The model is part of the company’s continued “make the shift” strategy to develop products that offer greater sustainability.
The Mobirex MR 100(i) NEO.
PHOTO: ©KLEEMANN
Sandvik’s electric UJ443E heavy jaw crusher is a tracked machine that can handle hard and abrasive rock, such as those in the aggregates, construction, quarrying and mining sectors.
The OEM says that in comparison to its previous models, the electric UJ443E provides greater efficiency, with “up to a 30% reduction in fuel consumption and up to a 30% increase in material throughput”. The UJ443E is fitted with its latest generation CJ412 jaw crusher unit, electric final drives and an onboard genset, which enables it to be powered by either an external electricity supply, HVO or diesel.
Sandvik says: “Operating whilst connected to the external electric source can bring several advantages, including lowering running costs, extending drive train service intervals, reducing time spent refuelling, reducing onsite emissions and lowering noise levels.
Japanese dealer to offer trommels from MDS
Rock trommel and scrap recycling trommel manufacturer MDS has expanded into the Far East, with the appointment of its first equipment dealer in Japan.
The company recently signed a distribution partnership with Osaka-based company Kurimoto, which will now expand its product range for the demolition, recycling, quarrying and mining sectors with MDS’ range of heavy-duty materials processing equipment.
The distributor will be responsible for providing nationwide sales, service, and support for MDS’ products - including its M518R Recycling Model.
Yoshio Yanagida, Kurimoto General Manager, says: “There is great potential for MDS throughout Japan, which had recycling trommels, regular screeners and scalpers but was missing mobile heavy duty trommels. With the introduction of MDS, we will be able to better process overburden in quarries as well as in demolition concrete waste.”
The UJ443E heavy jaw crusher.
PHOTO: ©SANDVIK
“The fully electric track drives also decrease the use of hydraulic oil on the plant by up to 91%,” adds the company.
The UJ443E model also has a 125Amp downstream connection that enables equipment users to operate a downstream plant unit, such as a screener or scalper.
Hybrid crushers and screens launch
Metso is to launch a new diesel-electric range of Lokotrack crushers and screens in the spring of 2024.
The company’s new track mounted Lokotrack EC range is designed and built on a completely new platform that Metso has been developing since 2020. It features digital tools that Metso says will make operation and maintenance “easier than ever”.
While no details about the number of models included in the range have yet been revealed, the Lokotrack EC units are said to include a next-generation diesel-electric powerline, with all process functions electrically driven and controlled by automation.
According to Metso, this ensures the EC models “always perform at the optimal load level”.
Jarmo Vuorenpää, Director of the new Lokotrack offering at Metso, says: “The new Lokotrack EC range will be PHOTO: ©METSO transformational for the mobile crushing and screening of aggregates.
“This new hybrid equipment with higher efficiency and lower emissions will also significantly contribute to Metso’s Planet Positive offering and the company’s commitment to reach its ambitious climate targets.”
According to Sandvik, utilisation of the downstream configuration can decrease fuel consumption by up to 20%, compared to running separate units.
EASY OPERATION AND ONSITE FLEXIBILITY
Similarly, manufacturer Kleemann recently unveiled the first model of an entirely new impact crusher range.
Set to be introduced in 2024 via staggered launches in Europe and North America, the new Mobirex MR 100(i) NEO is designed for various demolition and recycling applications.
While the MR 100(i) NEO incorporates a crushing unit that has a 4-ledged rotor with a large impact range – enabling it to process concrete, rubble, asphalt and soft to medium-hard natural stone – its zeroemissions, electric powered NEOe sister version is an even more sustainable option.
The NEOe version may therefore seem like the obvious choice, but Kleemann has yet to publish the full specifications of the sister models, and there will likely be some pivotal differences.
Putting that aside, both versions offer a ‘return’ when it comes to ease of operation and onsite flexibility.
Kleemann says the compact dimensions and a low transport weight mean “the Mobirex MR 100(i) NEO/NEOe can be used flexibly, quickly and in a very wide variety of applications.
“Operation in tight spaces on work sites or in frequently changing places of work is easily possible”, it claims.
SCREENERS
The same approach is also being taken when it comes to screens, with OEMs helping to drive the shift to minimise the environmental impact of the equipment by focusing on, not just the lowering of emissions, but on the efficient separation of materials.
Take Sweden-based company Norditek for example. It says its new diesel-electric screener model offers cleaner and more efficiently recycling when it comes to complex waste materials.
The Norditek ES5200 screener incorporates an electric drive for reduced noise and low emissions. It also features a new control system for increased production precision and an extended screening surface with flip flow technology, which sorts waste and masses efficiently to provide cleaner fractions and reduced contamination.
The Trident 125 Hi-Stak from Screencore.
PHOTO: ©SCREENCORE
Johan Marquardt, Product Managet at Norditek, says: “Our new screener is more oriented towards sorting recycling materials than a pure coarse sorter which is more towards rocks and heavy shafts.
“What exists today are converted coarse sorters for waste, but these then suffer from their high energy consumption for lighter materials. So there we fill a gap in the range because our new scope has the same output but with significantly lower consumption.” As well as having a remote-control system that allows users to operate and drive the screener from a distance, the electricallypowered ES5200 is equipped with factoryinstalled overband and end roll magnets.
The ES5200 screener.
PHOTO: ©NORDITEK
Dr Andy Harris Advanced Engineering Manager at Wrightbus, Professor Roy Douglas CTO & Co-Founder at Catagen, David Trimble Group Engineering Director at Terex Materials Processing and Dr Andrew Woods CEO and Co-Founder at Catagen.
PHOTO: ©TEREX
Consortium to further decarbonise mobile crushers and screeners
Terex, Catagen and Wrightbus have been awarded £6.27 million (US$7.9 million) in funding by the UK Department for Energy Security & Net Zero, as part of a project to decarbonise non-road mobile machinery.
The project will deliver a decarbonised end-to-end demonstration of a Powerscreen Premiertrak 450E crusher and a Chieftain 1700XE screener.
According to Terex, they will be powered by green hydrogen and e-diesel at a working quarry site in Northern Ireland in 2024.
The company says the Powerscreen equipment will be fuelled by Catagen’s ClimaHtech E-Fuel Gen and Compressor technology, with Wrightbus supporting the development of a mobile hydrogen refueller.
David Trimble, Group Engineering Director at Terex, says the further development of the Powerscreen and Chieftain machines aims to “produce a robust set of equipment for the quarrying and recycling industries with net zero carbon emissions and a significant reduction in all engine emissions”.
Daniel Carlberg, CEO at Norditek, says: “The main reason why we developed the ES5200 is that we saw the need for a dieselelectric screener that draws little power and that fits together with our modules, because with these we are able to recycle more complex waste and production waste.
“There are many small and large details that make the customer earn more money thanks to increased recycling rates and lower operating costs.”
COMBINED CRUSHING AND SCREENING
Meanwhile, Screencore’s latest Trident branded scalping screen claims to combine screening and scalping with the larger stockpiling capabilities of “an advanced stacker”.
The Trident 125 Hi-Stak model is designed for use in the recycling, demolition and, quarrying, industries, and is suitable for applications involving sand, gravel, soil and mulch.
The 31-tonne machine is fitted with a Tier 4/Stage V compliant 100 kW engine from Caterpillar and features fixed catwalks on both sides. It is available in a dual-power version and has a transport width of just over 3 m.
Describing the model as “two machines in one”, Screencore says: “Although mobile screens have their own integrated stockpiling conveyors, they are generally compact and often need to be augmented by separate specialist stockpilers. This is unproductive, inefficient, and of course expensive.
The company adds that the Trident 125 Hi-Stak also helps contractors to lower their carbon emissions and fuel costs, as well as to eliminate the need for “double-handling fines”. ■
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