Pit & Quarry, October 2013

SCREENING ger life and accurate sizing The Tufflex wire is specifically durable against abrasive material such as Porterville Rocks red rock and Unifieds SuperFlow concept is designed to handle damp and sticky material with vibrating wires that reduce binding In addition to making suggestions for Porterville Rocks middle and bottom decks Sailer made recommendations for the operations top deck Rather than use the wire cloth screen with the 2 in opening and 3 8 in double wire Sailer suggested trying another screen with a 2 in opening yet one with 1 2 in diameter wire Porterville Rock made the switch and Unified replaced the feed end with its rubber impact screen Put to the test With the new setup Porterville Rock embarked on a series of tests to prove the validity of the system SuperFlow screens were tested in a 6 ft x 16 ft screen box with four 6 ft x 4 ft sections impact end secondary screen a third screen and the discharge screen section Test product ran on both the top and middle screen decks with maximum production scheduled According to Brown the plant passed 200 to 250 tph through the screens on an eight hourper day schedule Compared with one previous setup Brown found the new system yielded longer lasting screens Porterville Rock was forced into a change out just three weeks into using a previous screen set The system Sailer recommended lasted three months according to Brown The SuperFlow screens outlast any Mining Red Rock at the Wilcox Site above Mitch Brown is owner of Porterville Rock Recycle below previous product we have used says Brown who adds that he tried testing as many as four types of wire With the material wearing longer weve had a cost savings benefit due to the longevity of the screens In todays economy it helps to have a dependable product that can improve your bottom line The mining site where Porterville Rock Recycle currently sits was reduced to a concrete bagging plant at one point but owner Mitch Brown acquired it in the 1990s got the land permitted and fired the plant back up More recently after nine years of trying Brown received a hard rock quarry permit to mine the red rock available to Porterville Rock In terms of quality the red rock is two to three times better than the sand and gravel the operation produces Brown says Porterville also recycles concrete and asphalt so its responsible for processing a variety of materials But crushing those different materials is no easy task The challenge is that each one of them runs at a different rate Brown says You have to set crushers at a different setting Your hauling equipment changes your loading equipment changes and the place where you put it each time is different It just takes adjustments every time you change materials As Brown puts it every action has a reaction And not every reaction is a positive result Still having a variety of materials at its disposal helps to make Porterville Rock competitive in a market that primarily includes two cities Porterville and Tulare Calif Were in a small farming community here in Porterville Brown says Theres not much of a market here In 2009 Brown says Porterville Rock produced 625000 tons The operation was reduced to 325000 tons in 2012 leaving Brown with tough decisions to make for his 100 acre site Were faced with the challenge of going to half the face and still using the same amount of people Brown says What do you do with your employees the other four hours of the day now Thats been a big challenge for us figuring out how to be productive Porterville Rock overcame one daunting challenge though how to screen that hard abrasive red rock P Q Porterville Rocks key equipment 42 in x 48 in jaw crusher from Telsmith WF 400 cone crusher from Omnicone 6 ft x 20 ft screen from Terex Tertiary cone crusher with a 4 1 4 ft short head cone from Symons 5 ft x 16 ft three deck screen 5 ft x 16 ft wash plant screen Unifieds Superflow screens pictured 38 PIT QUARRY October 2013 www pitandquarry com