Blue Group come up with the ideal solution for Fortis.
Fortis IBA Ltd (Fortis) are a leading UK Incinerator Bottom Ash (IBA) Processor with over 12 years IBA processing experience. The business invests in the latest technology to ensure quality secondary aggregates are produced and distributed into the construction industry to reduce reliance on primary aggregates.
As a country, we are facing a limited availability of primary aggregates and IBA Aggregate plays a key part in for highways and construction projects as well as being a part of the solution for our country’s waste. For every one tonne of IBA Aggregate used in construction, approximately 400 black bin bags are successfully diverted from landfill. IBA Aggregate been approved as a sustainable alternative to Type1/6F4/6F5 by the Environment Agency, Highways England and local authorities such as Hampshire County Council and has been widely used within the construction industry for over 20 years.
Fortis were looking to set up a new semi-mobile operation at their site in Buckinghamshire, to help process and extract ferrous and nonferrous metals and produce a saleable recycled aggregate out of their IBA. Their plant was to consist of two Mobile Screeners and several Eddy Current Separators. After contacting a number of suppliers, they decided to work with Blue and purchase two Powerscreen Warrior 1400x Screeners.
Terry Moore, General Operations Manager at Fortis explains: ‘’We decided to go with the two Powerscreen Warrior 1400x Screeners because of their aggressive screening action, build quality and reliability and their unique patented screen media. Powerscreen are a good value product and along with Blue’s excellent support and backup it seemed the obvious choice. We also have a longstanding relationship with Brian McNabb and the Blue Group.”
The processing aspect of the plant is as follows:
The IBA material is transported from the Greatmoor Energy from Waste Facility which is located close to the Fortis site. This material is then stockpiled for several weeks, until it matures, and the moisture content has decreased sufficiently to allow processing. The feed material which is Approximately minus 150mm is fed into the first Warrior 1400x which is fitted with patented self-cleaning fingers separating the material into three different sizes. The oversize material, in this case +55mm, is sent to a mobile picking station where pickers retrieve Non-Ferrous items then an overband magnet removes any large Ferrous items. The mid-size product of +20-55mm material comes off one of the side conveyors, fitted with an overband magnet and further separated with an Eddy Current Separator to remove any remaining Non-Ferrous and Ferrous materials. The <20mm material will then move up through a specially covered conveyor and into the second Warrior 1400x screen fitted with 28mm breaker deck and 6mm self-cleaning bottom deck. the material into a further two sizes. The <6mm material will flow into an All Metal Separator and anything >6mm will go right through to the front end and into a final All Metal Separator- with any metals left removed for resale.
Alan Rudd, Unit Manager, at Fortis offers his thoughts on the two Warrior Screeners: ‘’I like how mobile the two machines are and they are very easy to use, our operators have had no problems in getting to grips with operation and giving us very good access for any routine maintenance and cleaning. The machines are perfect for the application we are using them for and have been very reliable to date.”
The application that Fortis are using the Warrior 1400x Screeners for is quite unique in the UK and is very specialised. Blue Sothern’s Regional Sales Manager that sold the two machines, Brain McNabb, adds his thoughts on the deal:
“I have a very good relationship with Fortis. When Terry Moore and Steve Clasby approached us about this project, we had to put our heads together to come up with a solution. With some help from the Powerscreen dealers in the Netherlands, Van der Spek, and their representative Peter Volstra we managed to get some guidance in what they do over in Holland.
“We managed to get a proposal drawn up and Terry and Steve knew what they wanted in the metal recovery end of the business. We got the right media in place and we eventually came up with final concept. I would like to thank Terry and Steve for trusting us with the designs and equipment and hopefully we can continue with our particularly good relationship in the future.”