Pit & Quarry, February 2017

PHOTOS COURTESY OF HAVER BOECKER Haver Boeckers F Class vibrating screen features four bearing technology which is designed to minimize structural vibrations and delivers a consistent stroke with the goal of eliminating surging blinding pegging and material contamination concrete and asphalt In most circumstances the quarry would also sell the sand but because they are too far from large sand buying markets they are only able to sell about 50000 tpy severely limiting profitability Big Boy is in western Canada where pits are generally non sustainable and gravel is becoming harder and harder to find meaning most aggregate operations must use portable equipment so they can quickly move to the next job A single Lonesome Prairie crew could operate in as many as 15 to 20 pits per year spending anywhere from two weeks to two months in a single spot So its important that theyre able to set up take down and transport everything in as little time as possible LOOKING FOR A SOLUTION Lonesome Prairie had been using two portable vibrating screens in the Wakaw location but the equipment wasnt holding up to conditions causing decreased performance and productivity The sandy environment required screening equipment that not only produced maximum amounts of sellable rock but also stood up to blinding and surging to eliminate material contamination The existing machines regularly bogged down leading to sand going through the crushers and contaminating the sellable material resulting in wasted product and lost profit To maximize yields the operation used screen media with opening sizes as large as 7 8 and 9 mm and overloaded the screens with as much as 5000 tons of material a day The larger opening sizes meant smaller rock about 5 to 8 percent of the sellable rock was falling through with the sand the operation considers waste material The issue cost Lonesome Prairie about 200 an hour in production losses The larger openings were a quick fix for the material surges and for the blinding problems exacerbated by weather Regular rain frost and snow dampen the sand contributing to material clumping together and blinding screen media Production rates and lost revenue were only compounded by increased maintenance costs The sand caused the vibrating screens to wear quickly and required nearly continuous replacement of screen media Crews needed to change screen media every two weeks resulting in two to three hours of downtime and 1000 to 1500 tons of lost production for each changeout The many issues were frustrating for our crew and our customers says Henry Derksen operations manager Lonesome Prairie Sand Gravel Contamination meant our material wasnt as clean as it should be and we were concerned the issues would drive away our buyers Production amounts were also not as high as we wanted them to be We were tired of throwing away rock so we began looking for a solution CREATING THE PERFECT SPECS Lonesome Prairie management approached Hikon Industries an equipment manufacturer and supplier they work with regularly They explained what they were looking for a user friendly portable vibrating screen that would meet production requirements and be manufactured out of as many modular components as possible to allow for inexpensive repair Lonesome Prairie provided its desired tons per hour gradation samples and other specifications and Hikon started to look for a vibrating screen to match It talked to several manufacturers including Haver Boecker a company it worked with in the past and knew had a reputation of building high quality equipment and listening to customers needs They were also aware of the companys Tyler F Class vibrating screen which features an advanced double eccentric shaft design supported by four high performance double spherical roller bearings The technology minimizes structural vibrations and delivers a consistent stroke virtually eliminating surging blinding pegging and material contamination Hikon and Haver Boecker agreed to work together and started to design a Tyler F Class portable plant There are quite a few off the shelf portable vibrating screens out there We were tired of throwing away rock so we began looking for a solution HENRY DERKSEN LONESOME PRAIRIE SAND GRAVEL pitandquarry com February 2017 PIT QUARRY 43