Skip to main content

Hydraulic breaker solves face stability challenge

UK QUARRY OPERATOR is now using a Sandvik hydraulic breaker for primary winning. This technique has been introduced to the operation to solve a face stability challenge and is being used instead of blasting. The 3.8tonne BR4511 was supplied by local Sandvik breaker dealer M&M Plant and is mounted on a Komatsu PC450-8 hydraulic excavator.
February 6, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Working from a 5m high bench, the breaker loosens the fractured rock which is then processed through the sites crushing and screening plant
UK QUARRY OPERATOR is now using a 325 Sandvik hydraulic breaker for primary winning.

This technique has been introduced to the operation to solve a face stability challenge and is being used instead of blasting. The 3.8tonne BR4511 was supplied by local Sandvik breaker dealer M&M Plant and is mounted on a Komatsu PC450-8 hydraulic excavator.

Previously used for the extraction of Devonian limestone, the site had also been used as an inert material landfill for the past several years. One of the first challenges facing new owners RF Aggregates after its recent purchase of the facility was processing some of this inert material as part of a reinstatement programme. The company is now recycling the material placed within part of the void space so it can achieve a future objective for the recycling operation and workings of the site. All the material being recycled is being tested to ensure that it is not contaminated and the new operator expects to be able to recycle more than 70% of all the remaining inert materials subject to permission.

Extraction had previously used drill and blast ztechniques. As the operation is bordered by commercial and residential areas, the swith to using breaking at the face made sense. And acording to a geotechnical survey, previous blasting had left several faces in an unstable and fractured state, making new blasting unsafe. It was decided even before an extraction license was granted that a primary breaker was the most logical solution.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Desert quarry supplies major road projects
    February 10, 2012
    Egyptian contractor Orascom has set up a new quarry site in the country's desert area, close to the city of Assuit. The quarry was opened specifically to supply Orascom's major road construction projects in this area of Egypt, with high quality aggregates.
  • Sila's Sandvik Thai success
    July 17, 2012
    The Sila Sanon limestone quarry in Thailand is playing a key role in providing high quality aggregates for the growing Thai construction industry.Recently the family-owned operation has invested in a full range of crushing and screening plant supplied by Sandvik Construction’s dealer in Thailand, the William Wong Group, and the quarry is now able to supply over 200,000tonnes of accurately sized materials on a monthly basis. The Sila Sanon Quarry in Saraburi Province, just over 100km north of the capital Ba
  • Tunnels eliminate bottlenecks
    February 10, 2012
    Some of the bottlenecks on the multi-lane Mittlere Ring, Munich, Germany, one of the main arterial roads circling the city centre have been eliminated by the addition of new tunnels. The Luise-Kiesselbach Square, the last section of this road improvement effort, is an important traffic hub south-west of the city where motorways A96 from Lindau and A5 from Garmisch meet, causing long delays in daily rush-hour traffic, writes Patrick Smith.
  • Bridge demolition easier with modern machines
    February 23, 2012
    The speedy and safe removal of old or unwanted structures is made easier with modern, sophisticated equipment, Patrick Smith reports. The power and versatility of modern demolition tools and machines was demonstrated when a bridge was removed overnight as part of a motorway widening project.