Maximus Crushing & Screening invest £4m in a new manufacturing facility in Dungannon, Co. Tyrone

The HUB visits N.Ireland...

Maximus have been at the forefront of crushing and screening design and manufacture in Northern Ireland since 2007, when they first launched their 512 screen. The word Maximus means ‘big and strong’ in Latin and the business has certainly proved that in recent years. The HUB team went along to their brand new facility on the Coalisland Road in Dungannon to take a tour.
Meeting with Shane and Louise O’Neill, we learnt more about Maximus. Shane O’Neill started by telling us a little about the business “Since day one I wanted to make sure that the machines that we produced were heavy, over engineered, and capable of handling more than expected of them and the name Maximus fitted this ethos perfectly. Since that beginning we have designed, developed and manufactured over 25 new products across our crushing and screening range which now include a full range of cones, jaws and impactors. We’ve also developed our own range of stacking & radial conveyors to compliment the overall offering to our clients.”

“Being from an in-depth engineering background myself, I wanted to make sure that the development of new and existing products was a key priority and I have worked intensely with our engineering team to make this happen. Since 2007 we have manufactured over 650 machines, with around 125 leaving the factory each year. We have only just moved into this new 72 acre site which has a 100,000 sq ft manufacturing facility, and my 100 strong team have worked non-stop to transfer the manufacturing logistics over here in record time, so I’m very proud of them. From here our aim is to ramp up production to over 200 machines per year within the next 12 months, and that’s without any extensions to the buildings here. Our longer term plan will allow us to utilise the vast site that we have here in line with our growth strategy.”
Louise added “With the purchase of this new site and the new equipment that we have put in, we have recently invested a total of £4m and that will continue to grow as we expand the business further. This new site will allow us to be much more efficient in our manufacturing process and will allow us to achieve a solid return on investment over the coming years.”

Shane then commented “There is also a lot of history here - this building is the old Tyrone Brick building and has been here for over 100 years. When we moved in we had to demolish the old brick kilns and replace most of the floors, but we made sure that we left the chimney stack as it’s a well-known local landmark. My father Charlie O’Neill project managed the new facility preparation and has worked tirelessly on this project, so I’d like to thank him too for all his effort.”

Shane then went on to talk about the latest in product development. “We have released an incredible new product. After an intense 12 months in design we are pleased and very proud to introduce the all new "Direct Drive " MXJ-1100 Jaw Crusher.

The MXJ-1100 features a fully direct drive system with full reverse and an optional unblocking system.

The 1100 mm x 700 mm (44” x 27”) Jaw Crusher runs on a Cummins QSB 6.7 Tier 4i engine which can save the user up to 30,000 litres of fuel per year compared to a standard Jaw Crusher .
We have also developed our cone range to include a 1220 diameter cone weighing in at 50 tonne and a 1,000 diameter cone which is 31 tonne and will be aimed at the contractor. We’ve developed a new 1100 impactor this year, first seen at Bauma as a prototype, and this will be launched later this year. Our chassis is also revolutionary in the industry as we have the engine under the feeder for ease of maintenance and for a more compact design.”

“Our screening range has seen continual development and improvement, but our main focus this year with R&D has been around our crusher range. We now have three jaw crushers, two cone crushers and two impact crushers.”

Louise and Shane then walked us around the site. Louise commented “We manufacture everything from scratch here and for efficiency we’ve clearly divided the building into cutting and folding, welding and fabrication and final assembly. We have recently installed twenty new cranes, a new laser cutter, a new plasma cutter and a new shot-blasting area. Here all the major parts of a machine are put through the shot-blasting process to take them back to a ‘raw’ steel finish in preparation for painting. We also have a brand new paint facility here and oven so that all the parts can come straight out of the painting process into the double oven.”

Looking at the production line Shane explained a little more “This screen box we are looking at here is our 522, meaning that it’s 5ft wide and 22ft long on the top and middle decks, and it’s one of the largest mobile screens on the market. This other screen here is our brand new model, and importantly was designed by a team member who has been with me since 2004. He started as a welder, then went onto assembly and electronics, and he then went through college to learn how to use SolidWorks software. Now he works in the drawing office and designs complete machines. It’s important to me that my staff remain with me and they are well looked after.”
Louise talked to us about the dealer network “Currently we have three OEM’s and 15 of our own dealers, and moving into 2017 we want to focus heavily on increasing our dealer network around the world giving us access to new markets and opportunities. This will allow us to grow the business and increase our dealers’ technical understanding and capability to provide Maximus clients with the best possible service.”

Maximus Crushing & Screening Ltd is a leading manufacturer of high performance, high quality crushing & screening equipment for a wide range of applications. Maximus Crushing & Screening has a portfolio that encompasses a variety of products essential for maximum productivity. They also supply an extensive range of high quality crushing & screening spare parts with approximately £1m in stock at any one time, their aim to reduce client downtime to an absolute minimum, maximizing profitability.

For more information please visit www.maximusscreening.com or call + 44 (0) 28 8774 8873