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After the success the company enjoyed with its first Sandvik jaw crusher from Porters, Southern Aggregates didn’t hesitate in buying another exactly the same when demand for their rock products increased.
Southern Aggregates does pretty much what it says on the tin – it supplies aggregates to the Otago and Southland regions. Headquartered in Invercargill, the company mainly extracts roading aggregates from various sites around the region.
Things got busy recently and operations manager Ross McKinnel says they needed another crusher in a hurry.
“We had bought a Sandvik jaw crusher from Porter Group about 18 months ago and were very impressed with it. Porters had another exactly the same sitting in their yard in Hamilton and we were very happy to take it off their hands.
“We’ve had such a good run out of the first one we didn’t hesitate to buy a second. We have four Sandvik crushers now and think they’re a good reliable brand.”
Southern Aggregates’ new QJ241 mobile jaw crusher is the most compact in the Sandvik series, nonetheless, is designed for maximum productivity with low operating costs.
The QJ241 has a substantial 1000 x 650mm jaw, powered by a 168kW (225hp) engine. And Sandvik says this means that, while the machine is compact, it retains a high level of power and productivity. Also, the jaw itself is adjustable, allowing operators to ensure the output is always at its optimum level.
The QJ241 also provides a greater discharge height and increased clearance for rebar discharge, due to the raise and lower facility on the main conveyor.
The hydraulically-adjustable jaw setting can be tailored to the application and the reversible crushing action can relieve blockages and deal with problematic materials.
Ross has his own list of the key characteristics he and his team particularly value in their new Sandvik crusher, “Their weight is good for transporting and on top of that, you can offload it off the transporter and have it crushing within 10 minutes.
“At the end of the job it’s just as easy to pack up – once the last bucketload has gone in the crusher, we can de-establish it and have it loaded back onto the transporter in 10 minutes. This makes it very versatile. They have a good throughput too.
“This new one is getting through the same amount of forestry road product by itself that previously was the job of two crushers.”
The new Sandvik is currently working in a quarry on the outskirts of Dunedin producing <65mm roading aggregate that is used for forestry and farm tracks.
It will soon be shipped to the Chatham Islands for six months to crush roading aggregate and sealing chip that will be stockpiled for the next three years’ of roading projects on the islands.
Thanks to its positive experiences, Southern Aggregates is a big fan of the Sandvik brand, and Ross says they are “well built and low maintenance”.
“They’re a good reliable brand; we like it. We’ve found the Sandvik diesel hydraulic to be very efficient compared with other brands, and their safety standards are up to New Zealand standard as delivered.
“They’re very well guarded and have magic eyes for feed flows – the electronic load level senses when the feed gets too full and stops, restarting when the level has dropped low enough.
“They’re very operator friendly, and we’ve found we only need one operator on most jobs. They also fit in well with our other gear. In all, we’ve been very impressed with all our Sandvik gear.”
“On top of that Porters are very good to deal with,"Ross says. “Their back-up service is great. If, for any reason there is an issue, Porters are out there straight away to have it sorted. For us too, with branches in both Invercargill and Dunedin, someone from Porters is never too far away, and it makes servicing convenient too.”
Ross is adamant that Sandvik will remain the crusher of choice for Southern Aggregates.
“We have some older crushers – up to 50 years old – that are well past their use-by-date which we will phase out. Some of these are wheeled, which means they need to be kept road legal and have a current WOF, and they also take several hours to set up and pack up.
“The Sandvik jaw crushers are tracked which means they travel via transporter and are very quick and easy to set up. And, as they say, time is money.”