McHale promote the benefits of two new Metso machines.
With recycling now, a top item on every equipment distributor and plant operator’s agenda, investment in appropriate plant has become an even more focused operation. In that context, plant that straddles both mainstream crushing and quarrying applications and the somewhat individual requirements of a specialised recycling set-up ensures that buyers gain maximum return on their investment.
So said Metso’s UK & Ireland distributor McHale Plant Sales whose work on behalf of the Finnish manufacturer dates back to 2015, and now includes responsibility for markets in Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales.
Overseeing their UK operations in Tamworth and Edinburgh is their recently appointed Company Manager UK, James Cliffe. A crushing and aggregates professional, Cliffe has truly ‘been there, done that, and worn the T-shirt’ joining the McHale organisation with a clutch of industry-related qualifications to his name.
Acquired at University of Derby and Cork and Waterford Institutes of Technology, his ‘you name it’ list of qualifications includes industry-related awards in the fields of Civil Works, Asphalt and Paving, Concrete, Quarry Management, and Minerals Extractives.
That said, it was his time at CRH Roadstone that really qualified him for his Metso UK role. There, as National Mobile Crushing Division manager and Location Manager at their Huntstown Quarry near Dublin, Cliffe had his hand on one of the two largest and busiest quarries in the Roadstone network delivering an extraction volume of 500,000 tonnes of material per month.
“In my position at McHale UK, I am fortunate to have this experience to draw upon when advising customers, and when talking to quarrymen about the benefits of Metso equipment that is totally familiar to me,” he said.
In Cliffe’s estimation, two new machines especially worthy of note, and which dovetail neatly into any eco-focused recycling operation, are two all-new, diesel-electric powered Metso Lokotrack EC models: a LT400J 68-ton mobile jaw crusher designed for primary crushing of hard rock and recycled aggregates, and a 50-ton mobile LT350C cone crusher for use in secondary and tertiary crushing applications”.
To reach high capacity, the LT400J is equipped with a proven Nordberg C120 jaw, a unit Metso says that can be ‘seamlessly combined with conventional Lokotrack mobile crushers and screens to produce high quality aggregates’
Another showstopper which Cliffe says ‘is attracting a lot of interest’ is the Metso Nordwheeler NW8HRC. Mounted on an articulated truck trailer and ‘much talked-about’ in aggregates circles, the Nordwheeler NW8HRC has high-pressure grinding rolls (HPGR) making it ideal for producing fine aggregates such as those required in road surfacing, waste processing, and concrete products production.
Thanks to its tow-away, easy-move, trailer-mounting, the Nordwheeler NW8HRC is fully mobile and totally transportable within the worksite and from site-to-site as required.
Approaching one year since taking up his appointment at McHale, Cliffe comments on what he terms ‘the professionalism’ of UK aggregates producers. “Here, distributors like us must be ‘on our game’ when it comes to making judgements, giving recommendations, and knowing the machine best suited to each customer’s needs and priorities, and the applications they are gearing up to serve,” he said.
Asked about the drawbacks, Cliffe replied: “surely, it is the competition within the marketplace to find first-class, fully-qualified and dedicated people who will commit to the business and revel in the excitement and challenges that the industry presents.”