For marquee projects, railway ballast, aggregates and sand is needed in massive quantities.

V. Venkataramana

- Vice President, Puzzolana

Could you brief us on the current crushers and screens market in terms of size and value? What are the growth drivers from different verticals like aggregates for roads and railways and from mining sector?

Highway projects require material for sub-base, WMM and aggregates including sand in very large volumes for both flexible and fixed pavements. As awarded stretches have become longer / larger and construction time lessened, average crushing plant capacities which used to be 200TPH earlier are now 250 / 300 TPH.

For marquee projects such as Ahmedabad - Mumbai Bullet Train, dedicated freight corridors, skyscrapers etc. railway ballast, aggregates, sand is needed in massive quantities. To meet stringent building specifications, the need for high quality sand has made it necessary to use classification circuits, either wet or dry cyclone type, producing plaster sand etc.

Brief us on the measures taken to support your customers during this crisis and what innovative, value-added products / service support solutions you have added / aim to add?

In this critical times, we have planned periodic visits to customer sites with all Covid precautions and interactions through VC and tale conferences with customer sites. Also spares planning, by consolidating the quantity to reduce the transportation costs, as the cost of fuel is raising and conservation is the need of the day. Also, increase in the operational efficiencies through digitalisation and automation 

Brief us on the latest technology trends in this space and what is your contribution in this area helping your clients optimize production?

We have introduced the single line concept with jaw crushers up to 600- 750 TPH capacity with stock piling and followed with cone crusher which can take in the output sizes of jaw crusher and produce up to (-) 45mm output especially for railway and airport jobs and produce 500TPH with just two crushers, saving the space and quarrying costs. These plants can be expanded to produce fine aggregates by adding two crushers in tertiary stage. 

How is digitization shaping up the control and monitoring systems, and also the back up support and maintenance areas? What are the major challenges in this area in terms of cost, acceptance level, integrating different stages of processes etc?

As mentioned above, the digitalisation of the complete process of the plant by introducing automation of all equipment for monitoring the feed and output and VFDs wherever required. Safety features for all the conveyors like pull card and zero speed switches. The plant operation can be monitored through PLC and CC cameras for the visualisation of plant performance.  

How do you assess the trends towards electrification of crushers and screens and also brief us on your contribution in this space?

I presume that you are referring the mobile crawler crushers which are with hydraulic drives. Puzzolana has introduced the 'diesel' electric drives. All the drives are normal electric motors, except for traction. This will be customer friendly and ease of maintenance and also easily repaired in case of break down. Over a long period, the maintenance will be negligible compared to complicated hydraulic drives and oils etc. One major advantage is when electric power is available, machine can be switched to grid power by changing the switch position,

What are the latest unique features from your stable you are excited about?

• The high capacity crushers like jaw crushers of 900TPH capacity with boulder sizes of 1000mm.
• Single secondary Cone crusher up to 500 TPH of (-)45mm and feed opening of 330mm.
• Innovative new VSI with 4/5 pole rotors & higher capacity Sanders - for quality and quantity sand.
• Launch of wheel mounted crushers for quick (two weeks) installation and dismantling.
• Surface miners of 1000TPH capacity.

Why should a customer opt for your solutions?

Our motto is to be a 'solution partner' to our customer by service and parts support and fixing the cost of operation for a given quarry and site conditions. Prioritize the safety and ease of operation by 'digitalisation'. Ultimately, economic cost/ ton of production.

Hits: 432