The hills and mountains that form a quarrying canyon in the Taweeyn region of Fujairah in the UAE feels like the ideal location for ILE Rental to showcase Keestrack’s mobile crusher and screen technology as PMV drives up to the Binlaj quarry hosting the event.
Mobile crushing and screening has been steadily gaining traction in the region post-downturn. For companies feeding road-laying and infrastructure projects, being able to offer screening that adds flexibility and productivity on the move can give them a distinct advantage.
Hoping to tap into this well of interest, ILE’s Bob de Weerd has invited PMV to an event that may be taking place at a quarry but many of the new, old and potential clients present will be looking at the road when considering its value.
“Quarrying is a nice market but not always for mobile machinery because they may already have their stationary plant,” he comments. “So, we have invited road contractors, general contractors and infrastructure contractors here.
They’re the ones that have move their equipment and where the running costs are not as big a factor as having mobility and flexibility.
“Having said that, quarries can increase production as you can drive your crusher to your blasting.
“In the long term, a stationary plant will be a lot more cost-effective however. Although and we do have one set-up here that is used to screen and scalp.
“I do think with demand going up and down for quarrying material, people may opt for a flexible option. And that’s what you get with mobile machinery.”
Like one of its screens, ILE has taken over one corner of the Binlaj quarry but hopes it will be bring multiple results. The two-day event serves the purpose of drawing people into one location, getting them up close to the machinery, letting them network and most importantly see the machines in action.
“We’ve targeted contractors in the UAE and Oman for the event, he explains. “You know you can go wherever you want with brochures or exhibit at an event, but it’s much easier to explain how it works and its advantages over other machines if they can see it in action.”
It’s also a lot more dramatic. As we’re driven up from Binlaj’s office on the floor of the valley and up one of its vertiginous sides, we’re treated to a view of escarpments as far as the eye can see.
Above us, excavators stand on the prows of hillsides knocking boulders away with their buckets and throwing them down the hillside. They smash hundreds of feet below.
We’re taken up to a platform near the top of the valley and guided towards ILE’s Keestrack machines.
Dominating the stoney arena is Keestrack’s Mobile Screen Frontier, which is attended to by a busy throng of Liebherr loaders and excavators. A blast earlier in the morning – approved with special permission from the local authority – has created plenty of rock to sort and the Frontier is soon conveying three different sizes of material.
The dolomite and limestone rock itself is directly fed to the machine through its 8m3 feed hopper and its heavy duty steel apron feeder. The rock is child’s play for the machine.
“The scalping screens on the Frontier as set up in the demonstration give it a huge hopper,” says de Weerd. “The mobile screens they are used to in the GCC, the fine deck screens with crushers, are limited to 100mm rock. Anything bigger than that can’t go through a screen.”
De Weerd explains that the screens on the Frontier can pre-screen, scalp, rocks up to 400-500mm. Although: “At this demo we’re seeing even bigger blocks than that.”
During the day we’re shown the machine screening objects up to 200mm, with the oversized boulders falling out the end of the Frontier’s front.
“We’re showing this as it doesn’t make sense to do anything larger (you can feed that into a crusher),” he continues.
“Effectively, before you start crushing you can already take out two products, that can be sold on.”
“Plus a screen compared to a crusher costs a lot less to operate, has less wear and tear, and fuel consumption. Roughly it’s one-third of crushing. It makes sense to start screening before you crush.”
Turning his attention to the products from screening, de Weerd stresses that the road builders present could greatly benefit from the Frontier’s
scalping ability.
“Scalping makes a lot of sense before crushing, and much more effective, for road, and base courses. There’s a lot of blasted and wade material between 0-2in that doesn’t have to be crushed and also has value.”
With an almost captured audience, ILE is free to talk about the value of its machinery with its clients.
De Weerd calculates the cost of using a typical setup at just under a Dirham per tonne for screen product although he thinks it is possible to go even lower with: “all the conveyors at optimum you can go down to half a Dirham.”
When the cheapest material on the market is 5 Dirhams per tonne, even with an excavator and loader working in tandem, there’s considerable margin to be had: “A mobile machine like this gives you a lot more possibilities because you don’t have to transport from the blast to the crusher. We can clean up the quarry and provide clean oversized to the crusher.”
While the demonstration is rolling one of the guests asks to change the settings on the crusher while he measures how long it takes. de Weerd welcomes the transparency.
“There are no secrets here,” says de Weerd. “This is one of the reasons we did the blast, it’s a real proper environment. You can see the boulders coming into the crusher, and he can check on the scale how many tonnes per hour the machine is doing.
“At a trade show you only get a few minutes to discuss with clients and limited access as you share them with all your competitors” he comments. “Up here they cannot go down without the bus!” He jokes.
“We’re so confident about this machine, we’ll pay for a shift for any serious customer. If they’re not happy we’ll take it back – and that’s not happened yet!”
Keestrack Vital statistics
Keestrack was established in 1988 to manufacture mobile aggregate equipment.
In 1994, the company was transformed into a shareholders company. This was a big step towards the creation of a production model.
In 1996 the first machine was completed, after years of development. The first model, Keestrack 45/18-1 was specially designed for the recycling industry to screen all kinds of stones, rubble, topspoil or clay, in addition to its use in the quarrying industry. The production of this screening machine started soon after the prototype proved succesful.
The Frontier’s own vital statistics include:
Feed hopper
– 8 m3
Screen Box
– Type KT-4518 Heavy Duty
Conveyor Belt Under Screenbox
– Length 4,200mm
– Width 1,400mm
– Drive Hydraulic 11kW
Oversize Belt
– Length 6,500mm
– Width 1,500mm
– Drive Hydraulic 13.3kW
Side Conveyor Left (fines)
– Length 8,650mm
– Width 1,000mm
– Drive Hydraulic 15kW
Side Conveyor Right (mid size material)
– Length 8,500mm
– Width 800mm
– Drive Hydraulic 11kW
Track Drive
– Length 3,750mm
– Width Trackplate 450mm
– 2 Speed Drive max. 1.5km/hod
Power Unit
Diesel/Hydraulic
– Diesel Engine Deutz BF2012 TCD 90kW/123hp/2,200rpm
– Hydraulic Sauer/Danfoss Rexroth, load sensing
Dimensions:
– Width: 2,680mm
– Height: 3,180mm
– Weight: 30 tons
