IMS Calls for Coherent Recycling Strategy
Leading materials and minerals processing technology provider, IMS Engineering, says that it is time that there was a coherent strategy for construction and demolition (C&D) waste recycling in South Africa. “We need to take a leaf out of many European countries which have established well-organised, highly efficient recycling processes,” says IMS’s Shannon McEwan. “This would make a significant contribution to the quality of the environment while producing significant direct financial savings, not to mention business opportunities and jobs.”
He adds that one of the foundations of a successful recycling strategy is appropriate, fit-forpurpose machines for the job. “In essence this means machines that accept the right feed with a minimum of pre-preparation and produce clean separated saleable products in the fewest appropriate, economic steps.
“Companies are beginning to realise that, with the right technology and processes, they can unlock significant value from waste materials. In the construction industry this includes construction waste and demolition material in the form of rubble, concrete, steel reinforced concrete and asphalt. When one takes into account the rising costs of all building materials, rising dumping costs, the increase in the fuel price and the negative environmental impact of dumping unprocessed C&D waste, it makes sense to re-use what useful construction materials you can, or to benefit from income derived from the sale of the recycled material such as clean G5 filler or such as selling recovered steel reinforcing to another recycler, instead of simply trucking loads of discarded building material to landfill sites.”
To this end, IMS Engineering, as a subsidiary of HAZEMAG & EPR GmbH, Germany, has geared itself to provide a broad spectrum of recycling solutions to the construction and recycling industries including its range of HAZEMAG horizontal shaft impact crushers and MinPro horizontal impact roll crushers.
HAZEMAG are the world leaders in rubble recycling crushing technology. In fact, in 1947 it pioneered the horizontal shaft impact crusher for crushing the rubble of post world war Germany. Today HAZEMAG is still producing the most robust and effective crushing plant ideal for the crushing of demolition rubble and concrete debris – including steel-reinforced concrete, from which “cleaned” steel is effectively liberated – as well as broken road paving, asphalt, railway sleepers and blocks.
HAZEMAG’s AP-PH primary impact crushers are specifically made to process concrete and building rubble, and in their mobile crushing plant format can process feed material of 600 x 500 x 500 mm lumps or slabs of 1 250 x 1000 x 250mm, or the equivalent of four concrete railway sleepers at one time, at feed rates of up to 250 t/h, producing more than 90% <50mm product in a single pass.
HAZEMAG’s AP-S secondary impact crushers are manufactured specifically for lighter-duty rubble recycling and can process feed material from 400mm maximum edge length at a rate of up to 250t/h. HAZEMAG mobile crushing recycling plants and designed to separate reinforcing steel and crushed materials into two saleable products. A HAZEMAG screening and air pressurised soft and organic materials separating plant can be added to further clean up the saleable recycled material aggregate.
Use of these horizontal shaft impact crushers for the comminution process is noteworthy since they achieve a high crushing ratio and can also handle and separate the re-bars in reinforced concrete. Thus, the crusher product not only generates a usable construction aggregate, but also a considerable amount of valuable scrap metal, which is cleanly separated from the crushed rubble. Thanks to the design and ruggedness of the HAZEMAG impact crushers, wear rates are economical and downtime for maintenance and spare parts replacement is reduced.
HAZEMAG crushers are characterised in particular by the hydraulically supported impact aprons, the rotor with its high moment of inertia and the easy blow bar changing system. The operation of the plant is very flexible, which gives the opportunity to produce for a wide range of products, says McEwan.
State of the art HAZEMAG recycling crushing plants include a fixed crushing plant installation for Bentum Recycling Centrale B.V., on a wharf in the port of Rotterdam, Netherlands, where a huge AP-PH 2530 primary impact crusher (with a state-of-the art GSKtype rotor, 2.5m diameter rotor, 3m wide), the largest in the world, processes up to 1000t/h of “unspecified” rubble and construction waste that is delivered there from all over Europe, for example it is even delivered on barges from as far away as Italy. The crusher is powered by an 800kw motor. This plant is fed by two 3m- wide HAZEMAG apron feeders and processes feed material of up to 2.0m edge length and produces a product of 80% <45mm in a single pass. This arduous task includes processing the material including a variety of constriction reinforcing steel and tramp iron, which is magnetically removed after the crusher. Soft and organic materials are also separated from the crusher rubble by HAZEMAG’s air pressurised soft materials separation technology to give the highest quality specification recycled aggregate which is sold locally in the Netherlands and exported throughout Europe and Scandinavia, typically as construction filler and landscaping materials.
HAZEMAG has also developed one of the largest rubble recycling plants in the world for the Emirates Recycling Company in Dubai. This plant is based on a stationary plant that handles 1300t/h and two semi-mobile plants with a capacity of 280t/h each. In both systems, a product of at least 95% <60 mm is generated, which is very marketable as a high-quality building material in the region.
Another HAZEMAG technology used extensively in C&D recycling is the MinPro range of horizontal crushing technology, specifically the SB-type impact roll crusher feeder-breakers. These machines are capable of reducing very long feed material such as concrete railway sleepers, pipes, masts and columns, and produce a quality crusher product while liberating the reinforcing steel associated with these materials. In fact MinPro SB-type impact roller crushers were used to crush the Berlin Wall after it was torn down in November 1989.
Meanwhile IMS has invested significantly in a comprehensive modernisation programme, which has wide-spread ramifications. “Part of this process has been the implementation of all modernisations and developments within the complete HAZEMAG product ranges, including the HAZEMAG impact crusher and double roll crusher ranges, as well as adoption of the latest HAZEMAG products such as the MinPro technology. Also significant for IMS Engineering is the reengineering on machines in particular the Kawasaki Cybas cone crusher range, with considerable emphasis being placed on reducing costs and improving competitiveness by optimising component design while also engineering increased performance capability. The result is improved production performance at lower capital and operating cost,” says McEwan.
IMS has also developed a state-of-the-art, proprietary crushing plant audit and remote monitoring system which monitors both machine and production thus collecting both process and crusher data. “Through this process our engineers can give informed instructions to a customer that will help maximise crusher availability and performance. This will not only reduce cost of ownership of the machinery, but will also make the entire process significantly more efficient,” says McEwan.
Technology is not the only area in which the buoyant IMS is currently investing. To improve customer service, they have recently moved into new, modern premises in Spartan, which, for the first time, will house all of IMS’s main functions and services under one roof.
The new premises, apart form sales, marketing and general management functions will include an integrated service workshop and repair area. “Having brought together and centralised our service facilities, warehousing and engineering functions, turnaround times for refurbishment, repairs and the building of new crushers will improve as will customer service in general as a result of the facilitation of easier and better communication between our functions,” says McEwan.
Two important initiatives that will be housed in the new premises are a pilot scale crushing test plant and a crushing school, both of which are scheduled to open in early 2012, are also part of the current investment strategy.
McEwan says the test facility will ensure IMS’s ability to ‘Match the Machine with the Material’, IMS’s proven MMM philosophy for successful crusher selection and process specification.
“We believe that equipment selection needs to be focused on appropriate and holistic system design and the optimisation of the entire processing circuit. In this way we can lower costs and focus on our customers getting maximum value from the end products from which they earn their revenue,” he says.
The crushing school will do the job of training IMS staff, global representatives and customers in the latest technology and techniques as well as keeping them abreast with the basics. “Nothing is more important than constantly updating our knowledge base with the latest technology and best practice. In this way we can focus on maximising benefit and continuous improvement and the crushing school will play a key role in this.”
As part of the customer service growth and improvement programme IMS has opened a service centre in Kathu, which will service the buoyant Northern Cape, Namibian and Kalahari mining, quarrying and recycling industries. McEwan says that IMS is currently going through the process to indentify locals with the necessary skills to embark on a special training programme to become expert in IMS techniques and technologies. “We realise that service excellence means being available in the more remote areas as well and our number of users in the Northern Cape region and beyond certainly justifies this move,” McEwan concludes.
IMS Engineering’s product range consists of HAZEMAG primary, secondary and tertiary horizontal shaft impactors, double-rotor primary hammer crushers, , double roll crushers, mineral sizers, hammer mills, rapid dryers and apron, wobbler and reciprocating feeders, MinPro feeder-breakers and chain conveyors and Kawasaki primary and secondary gyratory, jaw and cone crushers and specialised milling technologies. Added to this range are the market-leading high-pressure roller press technologies of Köppern. These include HPGR for high pressure comminution, compaction presses and hot and cold briquetting technology.
