Rattlesnake Quarry’s new plant boosts production and improves quality.

by Carl Emigh

Kobyluck Inc. doubled production of hard granitic gneiss from 150 tons per hour to 300 tons per hour and greatly improved product quality, especially cubicity, at its Rattlesnake Quarry in Salem, Conn. A tracked crushing and screening system consisting of jaw and cone crushers and dry screening and scalping/screening equipment helped with this accomplishment.

The quarry – part of a family-owned business – has been in operation since 2004 and produces virtually everything from man-sand to 7-inch materials, especially 1 to 0.5 inch (#67) for making portland cement concrete (PCC). Other crushed materials are used for making pre-stressed concrete and as road base.

Addressing the problem

“We needed more production and greater product quality to meet growing demands and handle increasing customer concerns about product cubicity,” says Josh Kobyluck, vice president and quarry operations manager of Kobyluck Inc. “Plus, our operating space at Rattlesnake is limited, so we wanted a new system with a compact footprint that would still allow for smooth operations and good maintenance access.”

The plant is achieving that through a combination of equipment that includes a Terex Pegson Premiertrak 1165 (26- by 44-inch) jaw with hydraulic adjustment and Terex Pegson Automax 1300 Maxtrak cone, plus a Powerscreen H6203-R scalping/screening plant and Powerscreen Warrior 1800 capable of dry screening, three-way splitting, and stockpiling a variety of products.

“The whole system fits into an area that’s only about 125 by 75 feet,” Kobyluck says. “No other manufacturers we had checked out could give us that small footprint, much less the increase in product quality and throughput. Also, I had our dealer, Powerscreen of Connecticut, custom build a larger hopper – 17-feet long and 16-feet wide – on the Premiertrak 1165 jaw plant to accommodate large loads of incoming material from our Cat 988 loader. The 1165 is well able to crush the increased input.”