|
Operations Crushing November/December 2004 Impacting the Bottom Line A switch to horizontal shaft impactor pays dividends for V.S. Virkler. by Rick Zettler |
|||||
|
Conventional wisdom says to stay with what you know. There is little risk in choosing a piece of equipment which you have already operated and know the production capabilities and limitations. But, then again, there is little reward in standing still. V.S. Virkler & Son of Lowville, New York, found itself in a situation where the company could have stagnated with the status quo. For years, it operated sand and gravel facilities to supply aggregate for the company’s three concrete plants. In these pits, located in Martinsburg, Lowville, and Watson, New York, the producer used jaw/cone circuits for aggregate processing. A few years ago, however, V.S. Virkler jumped into the unknown to take advantage of an opportunity that has expanded its business and more than double its workforce. |
|
||||
|
Impetus for change The company began the new millennium by purchasing a competitor’s limestone quarry in Martinsburg, and Richard (Chip) Virkler, president of V.S. Virkler, had to buy new crushing equipment for the operation. With its vast crushing experience resting solely in sand and gravel processing, there was a question as to what type of crushing equipment would work best in the quarry. “Prior to this acquisition, our only equipment experience was with jaws and cones,” says Chip Virkler. Conventional wisdom, experience, and several equipment manufacturers led Virkler to believe that a jaw/cone circuit would work best for the limestone quarry. After all, the company had the experience with this type of crushing equipment, and it worked in the company’s sand and gravel operations. Mike Crotty of Capitol Equipment, Inc., the Eagle Crusher Company dealer in New York, analyzed V.S. Virkler’s equipment needs and expressed a dissenting opinion. “After looking at the overall operation, we told Chip that he didn’t need a jaw/cone circuit,” says Crotty. “It was over-kill for the quarry, and operating and wear costs would be high.” Capitol Equipment suggested a low-cost solution for the producer. Big return The dealer’s recommendation was to crush with a horizontal shaft impact crushing plant, specifically the portable Eagle Crusher UltraMax 1400-45 open-circuit plant, in the new limestone quarry. Initially, V.S. Virkler wanted only to make a 4-inch minus, gabion product for road base material, so there was no need for a screen to sort the processed material. The company took Capitol Equipment’s advice and bought the impact crushing plant in what turned out to be phase one of a three-phase purchase. The open-circuit UltraMax 1400-45 portable plant incorporates a three-stage UM45 impactor into its design. The UM45 has a 50- by 56-inch rotor diameter and width and a feed opening of 56 by 35 inches to easily handle the 2-foot, sized limestone feed material from the quarry. To make the 4-inch minus product, V.S. Virkler’s crew sets the primary apron at 6 inches for initial reduction and the secondary apron at approximately 3 inches for final reduction. Gap settings are easily checked through a side access door in the impactor’s main housing. Hydraulic power assist facilitates gap settings changes for the secondary apron. Although new to impact crushing, V.S. Virkler quickly picked up the plant’s nuances and, after some minor adjustments, began to profitably produce the gabions. Wear costs, as Chip Virkler would soon learn, were lower than anticipated and significantly lower than if the company had gone with a jaw/cone circuit, which prompted an equipment expansion. Screening phase Later that year, V.S. Virkler moved forward with phase two of the new equipment circuit for the quarry by purchasing an Eagle Crusher portable 6- by 20-foot triple-deck screening plant from Capitol Equipment. By adding the screening capabilities, the company began producing a New York State Department of Transportation-spec number-4 material, a 1-inch minus aggregate used as asphalt base-course material. With the number 4s and gabion material, V.S. Virkler was able to expand its spec product offering and customer base. However, the new crushing and screening circuit was not being used as efficiently as it could be. Although top screen deck oversized material could have been recirculated back into the impactor plant, it was being stockpiled and, when enough overs were collected, trucked to one of the company’s nearby sand and gravel operations for further reduction. While this was a workable short-term solution, trucking costs cut into the company’s profitability. Secondary solution The third and final phase of V.S. Virkler’s Martinsburg quarry equipment purchase eliminated the need for oversized material trucking. Last year, the company added a secondary crushing circuit by purchasing an Eagle Crusher UM04 impact crusher along with a second portable 6- by 20-foot triple-deck screening plant. Any material not passing through the top screen deck is sent to the UM04 for further reduction. The secondary UM04 horizontal shaft impactor accepts the oversized feed material with its 27- by 32-inch opening. The solid steel, 40-inch-diameter by 29-inch-wide rotor quickly delivers final reduction, and the screening plant quickly sorts up to three spec products simultaneously. The secondary crushing circuit has helped V.S. Virkler to significantly increase overall production and lower costs. According to Larry Virkler, vice president, “We’ve noticed a doubling in spec product output, and we anticipate the UM04 and second screening plant to pay for itself within three years just by figuring the trucking savings.” More importantly, V.S. Virkler has increased the number of saleable products at the limestone quarry. “We can now make up to six different spec products at one time,” says Joe Virkler, general manager and a fourth generation member of the family business. In addition to the gabions and number 4s previously produced, the primary/secondary crushing circuit now makes NY State DOT 1-A’s, number 1s, number 2s, and fines passing through the 1400-45’s grizzly bars in the feeder. “We couldn’t be happier with the performance of our Eagle impactors and with the support received from Capitol Equipment,” adds Chip Virkler. Low wear Extremely low wear costs serve as a reinforcing reminder to Chip Virkler that the company made a wise investment by choosing the impact crushing circuits. It’s hard for him to recall the last time his crew had to change the blow bars in the UM45 impactor. That’s because the bars have not been changed in nearly two full crushing seasons. “We’ve put more than 300,000 tons through the crusher, and we haven’t even flipped the bars yet. I wouldn’t be surprised if we get 1,000,000 tons on this set of blow bars,” Virkler says. Crotty puts blow bar wear costs at approximately $0.03 per ton. While this type of wear pleasantly surprises V.S. Virkler, it is not entirely unheard of by Jeff Hillis, Eagle Crusher’s parts sales manager. “Ultimately wear depends on the type of material being crushed, but we have seen operations in similar applications as Virkler’s crush more than 1,000,000 tons on a set of our blow bars,” says Hillis. Selecting the portable crushing plant and screening plant is proving to be another wise decision made by V.S. Virkler. This season, it bought another competitor, which had a limestone quarry in Lowville adjacent to one of the producer’s sand and gravel pits. In July, V.S. Virkler moved its portable UltraMax 1400-45 crushing plant to the new quarry to get it into shape for full-scale production. Chip Virkler says that the plant could not be any easier to move, with only the control panel and discharge conveyor requiring removal for transport. “We arrived at the new quarry at noon and had the plant running by 3:00 pm that same day,” he says. Even with the recent quarry acquisitions, significant expansion of the business and a doubling of the workforce, Chip, Larry, and Joe Virkler continue to remain focused on delivering personalized service to the customer. “We cannot lose perspective on delivering a quality product to the customer. They are the reason why we remain in business and are successful,” says Joe Virkler.
|
|||||
|
Reprinted from Aggregates Manager Magazine |
|||||
