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.”

Due to cramped operating conditions, Kobyluck managers had originally thought they would need to mount a stationary primary jaw crusher on a ledge of the quarry wall and operate haul trucks to transport crushed stone 800 to 1,000 yards to the secondary cone crusher and screens on the quarry floor. However, the small footprint of the crushing and screening system enabled them to keep the whole system in one place, eliminating the need for trucks and generally speeding up the operation overall.

Choosing the equipment

“A very big part of our business comes from rush orders,” Kobyluck says. “So we have to be able to quickly crunch a lot of stone through our system to keep up with sudden demands plus a generally increasing overall demand. We checked out several manufacturers’ equipment before we made our decision.”

Kobyluck has dealt with Powerscreen of Connecticut since 1991 and has been very satisfied with its knowledge of quarrying operations and equipment, as well as its parts and service backup, even on weekends. “They do whatever it takes,” Kobyluck says. “Once when we had a problem, the dealer brought their service team to the quarry that Saturday morning and told them simply: ‘Don’t leave here until the machine is working.’ Fortunately, it only took a couple hours or so, but that kind of dealer commitment is crucial.”