Crushing & Screening: Manufacturers Focuses on Profitability

India's crushing and screening equipment business is witnessing continued widening of product offerings backed by supporting turnkey solutions for optimal plant operations. P.P. Basistha takes a look at the newer solutions on offer.

Manufacturers of crushing and screening equipment continue to bring in newer products to enhance productivity and build up plant efficiency, which will further reduce the cost of operation and improve profitability.

Puzzolana Machinery Fabricators will introduce its new jaw, cone and screens at the upcoming Bauma Conexpo India 2016 event. Sharing details of the products, Mr. Abhijeet Pai, Director, Puzzolana says, "New 250 tph jaw and cone and three and four deck screens are the newer products from our stable. Both the PJC11076, 250 tph jaw and 26100, 250 tph cone have been produced through fusion engineering. The engineering inputs in the new solutions have been gathered from our existing solutions. The inputs were very carefully evaluated and further researched and tried at existing plants prior putting them in the newer products. This was done, so they deliver lower cost per ton of production, higher productivity and longevity, easier operation and maintenance for optimization of plant operations."

He explains, "The new 11076 jaw and 26100 cone comes with new improved metallurgy to crush hard rocks and also to have an extended life. The mechanical arrangement in the crushers with improved lubrication technology is easier on operation and maintenance. The new cone crushers come with bigger feed opening for higher plant optimization."

Puzzolana will also showcase its new hybrid variant cone crusher at Bauma Conexpo India. Mr. Pai felt that the details of the new 500 tph, which will be a 'game changer' in the crushing and screening industry will have to be seen and appreciated while displayed in its original form at the event.

Emphasizing on higher plant optimization, he says, "Puzzolana will focus on enhanced co-engineering with its customers for product development. We will not impose our standard products on to our customers. Our plants are designed, by our engineers followed by studying the customers crushing requirements. Factors like given space, where the plants will be installed, especially in eastern and northern India, generally having paucity of space is carefully studied. This is also done for ease of transportation of the plant to the site delivery, installation, commissioning and further dismantling. One of the key areas, where we have added value to our plants is designing of customized conveying solutions with appropriate lengths and heights for required volumes of stockpiles. This has gone towards optimization of our plants in big way."

Leveraging its initiative further towards parts support for its plants, the company has set up its new third 1500 tons foundry near Hyderabad. "With our existing two, 2000 tons, 1000 tons each capacity foundry supplemented with the new facility, we are now capable of producing 4500 tons of casting products per month. This will enable us to provide optimum parts support to our products. We have set up a new workshop with basic facilities for our equipments maintenance and refurbishments in Bengaluru and are in the process of setting up such additional six super base by the end of March 2017,in other parts of India. Informs Mr. Pai. Puzzolana has 2500 existing plants in operation. It claims to deliver between 25-30 plants each month.

South India based Proman Infrastructure Services, has expanded its product line with newer solutions.

"We have launched the new series of hydraulic VSIs with higher efficiency. With the newer solutions, we now have the widest range of VSI ranging between 30-1500hp. Further, we have launched three models of 'PRO sizers' high frequency screens for fine screening applications. On washing solutions, we now offering the Ortner in conjunction with Zyklones for cost effective sand washing. Our new launch also includes, the biggest circular motion screens of 2.4 mtr x 8 mtr for the aggregate and mining markets," says Mr. R.S. Raghavan, Managing Director, Proman, Infrastructure Services.

Carrying forward engineering advancements in its existing products, Proman have redesigned the profile of its jaw plates and cone liners. The improved liners comes with higher manganese component for extended life. The improvisation has been carried based on customer's feedback, says the company.

According to Mr. Raghavan, "To achieve consistent productivity and yield high quality aggregates, we have designed specific liner profiles for our crushers. Further, to provide higher plant optimization, we have gone towards incorporating newer designs in our crushing systems. These are featured in compact layouts of the conveyors, hoppers and feeders thereby giving flexibility to produce the aggregates based on the requirement and also to maximize production with having desired quality of aggregates."

The company claims its crushers have low power consumption for every tonne of crushed material produced. "Our installed power on the crushers is 20-25 % lower when compared to other machines in the market. We have achieved this with the design of the crushers along with the liner profile changes thereby facilitating a higher production per horsepower of installed power," says Mr. Raghavan.

Product support to Proman's crushing and screening plants is rendered through its service engineers. "Our engineers are trained to guide the customer and train their operating personnel for the optimum utilisation of the crushing plants. We conduct regular training sessions for the operators at the factory level and at the plant level to train the customers operators and also update them on the product improvements on continuous basis," concludes Mr. Raghavan.

Sandvik India has very recently introduced its new CH 550 fully automated cone crusher. "Successfully running in stationary application from last 2 years, this crusher is now available on wheeled as well. The first of its kind in India will produce aggregates between 0-20 mm at the rate of 300tph, says Mr. Ashoktaru Chattopadhyay, Business Line Head, Sandvik - India. "The Higher productivity in less power as compared to 2 nos of cone crushers required to produce the same amount of commercial aggregates will enable the owners to save on profit margins and capital expenditure".

He adds, "The advanced design of our plants delivers higher levels of productivity, while keeping the operation costs lower. The bolted structure design enables the owner for quicker setting up and dismantling of the plant. This is in contrast to other plants having jaw cone and screen configuration requiring welding for setting and decommissioning."

"For enabling our customers to increase productivity, optimize plant operations, and further cut down recurring operational expenditure, we are focusing on offering design solutions for setting up the plants. This is being done in close consultation with the customers based on their exact requirements."

The company has recently provided a custom designed stockpile conveyor to Orbona Stone Quarry (OSQ). OSQ is a major aggregate producer at Pachami in West Bengal produces 46,000-56,000 tons per month with one CJ211 and CH 430 Sandvik jaw and cone crushers and two PS 86 screens.

According to Mr. Prokasendu Sarkar, Proprietor, and Orbona Stone Quarry, "Our productivity has been higher by 10-15% (than the rated output) due to the Sandvik jaw crushers. Other than this, it has been Sandvik's design and commissioning support for setting up twelve meters high stockpile conveyor at our crushing site. Initially, we were skeptical on the commercial viability of the engineering intervention owing to higher initial costs. However, the benefits have been numerous in terms of raising productivity and bringing down operational costs. Adequate stock pile ensures constant feed to the cone crusher. This minimizes wear and tear of the crusher, which if run without optimum feed can damage the liners, creating higher recurring expenditure."

For plant condition monitoring, Sandvik India has also recently introduced, 'Sanremo' automated software in its plants. Product support by Sandvik India comprises regular equipment check up and parts support. The company says that 'special benefits' are rendered to customers as part of their service support offered through 15 dealers of Sandvik.

Expanding its product line, Tamil Nadu-based Propel Industries Private limited will soon introduce its track mounted crushers. The new track plants will feature jaw, cone and vertical shaft impactors (VSI). "The new, higher capacity products will be manufactured at our upcoming third 50,000 sq.ft. plant at Coimbatore adjacent to our existing plant, which is currently manufacturing products pertaining to mining & construction solutions. We are investing close to Rs.15 crores for setting up the new facility," says Mr. V. Senthil Kumar, MD, Propel Industries.

With the offering of track crushing solutions, the domain of Propel products comprising stationery and wheel mounted plants, will cover all the segments of crushing. Products to be manufactured at the new facility will be AVJ 1214, 600 tph jaw crusher, QM 450 fixed shaft cone 450tph capacity, AVVI 400 with 400 tph throughpit. The jaw crusher AVJ 1214 will have 1200x1400mm feed opening, which can accommodate feed size of one meter with advanced technology of hydraulic css settings. The new model Jaw crusher will supplement Propel's existing AVJ 912, 900x1200mm, 400 tph jaw crusher with capability to accommodate 720mm feed. The new products which are being targeted for aggregates crushing and also for the iron ore sector will be promoted for both the domestic and international markets.


To strengthen its business presence, Propel's new product line includes, AVC 250, 250 tph cone crusher. AVC 250, presently being produced at Propel's second plant is a new addition to its existing AVC 220, 200tph cone crusher. The new cone is Powered by 187 kW motor, which can deliver 20% more productivity than AVC 220. The automated cone crusher, with floating shaft and hydraulic css setting for getting the desired aggregates shape, is also capable of delivering a wider range of crushed aggregates between 0-63mm," informs Mr. Kumar. Propel has recently delivered one AVC 250 to a road building contractor in Andhra Pradesh.

Gujarat-based Apollo is looking to have a heightened presence in the rapidly growing crushing and screening equipment business with its wide range of stationery, portable and mobile solutions, manufactured at its Mehsana facility near Ahmedabad. Apollo manufactures the crushers under technical collaboration of KDS German Machinenbau Gmbh.

Mr. Brijesh Bhavsar, Senior Manager Marketing, Gujarat Apollo says, "Apollo, has proven track record in manufacturing of crushing and mineral processing equipment for one decade. We have converged our long drawn engineering expertise along with KDS to make wide range of crushing solutions. These includes, jaw crushers between 20-100-200- 250 TPH. We produce cone crushers between 100-200-250 TPH producing aggregates between 20-40-60 mm. Our horizontal shaft impactors range is also quite extensive between 200-500-800-900 TPH. We are the first Indian manufacturer of cone crushers with hydraulic pressure cylinder."

He adds, "Our new extended solution in crushing is the new bucket crushers made in technical collaboration with Ueda of Japan. The compact bucket jaw crusher can be used as an attachment for excavator. They are highly suitable for processing demolition materials and recycling." Apollo renders service support for its equipment through its own service channels. The product support comprises erection, commissioning and regular maintenance backup with parts.

Wider product offerings and engineering advancements augur well for plant owners as they will have a greater choice for equipment selection and improve their productivity and profitability. However, it will be vital for the equipment manufacturers to render necessary product support across the lifecycle of the plants.