Page 55 - HUB-4 Issue 98

Gary Kernaghan ( left ) Noel Mitten (right)
Hillhead 2026 Preview
Jaw crusher unblock
system reduces downtime
Technidrive improves efficiency and safety at Rockfield quarry site in Northern Ireland…
Unblocking jaw crushers often involves
employing rock breakers, hammers or winches
to dislodge material — a hazardous manual task
for the operators involved. Here’s how
Technidrive helped RJ Mitten & Sons, a
Northern Ireland-based quarrying specialist,
with a significant upgrade to enhance the safety
and efficiency of its jaw crusher machines.
Teaming up with Technidrive,
renowned for its expertise in
industrial drive systems, RJ
Mitten & Sons installed two
new jaw crusher unblock
systems at its Rockfield quarry
site. The crusher unblock
systems were retrofitted onto
RJ Mitten’s existing Kue-Ken
primary jaw crusher and
secondary jaw crusher, powered
by 75kW and 55kW motors
respectively. As these machines
were over 40 years old, the new unblock system has given the
crushers a new lease of life both increasing energy efficiency
and safety.
Crushing plays a crucial role in the transformation of rock into
a usable product. At the onset, product enters the jaw crusher
through the machine's top and undergoes compression
between two surfaces — the fixed and movable jaw. This
process continues until the rock attains a size small enough to
pass through the opening. Properly matching the size of the
raw material to the jaw opening can help reduce blockage
incidents.
Strategies such as removing oversized products before
processing and meticulously controlling the crusher feeder can
aid in this endeavour. However, despite these measures,
blockages still occur. In fact, before the upgrade, RJ Mitten
was experiencing blockages a couple of times a month.
Clearing a blocked crusher necessitates shutting down the
plant and isolating the system.
Even with these precautions, crushers pose a significant risk
to personnel due to the release of kinetic energy during
unblocking. It was necessary to physically hang upside down
in the crusher and use straps and a rock hammer to release
blocked product.
Recognising this risk, Technidrive aimed to develop a system
that not only prioritised energy efficiency but also eliminated
the need for operators to manually remove blocked material
from crusher machines.
Stand PB24
www.hub-4.com May/June - Issue 98
| p55 |