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Hydraulic breaker solves face stability challenge

UK QUARRY OPERATOR is now using a Sandvik hydraulic breaker for primary winning. This technique has been introduced to the operation to solve a face stability challenge and is being used instead of blasting. The 3.8tonne BR4511 was supplied by local Sandvik breaker dealer M&M Plant and is mounted on a Komatsu PC450-8 hydraulic excavator.
February 6, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Sandvik Hydraulic Breaker at work
Working from a 5m high bench, the breaker loosens the fractured rock which is then processed through the sites crushing and screening plant
UK QUARRY OPERATOR is now using a 325 Sandvik hydraulic breaker for primary winning.

This technique has been introduced to the operation to solve a face stability challenge and is being used instead of blasting. The 3.8tonne BR4511 was supplied by local Sandvik breaker dealer M&M Plant and is mounted on a Komatsu PC450-8 hydraulic excavator.

Previously used for the extraction of Devonian limestone, the site had also been used as an inert material landfill for the past several years. One of the first challenges facing new owners RF Aggregates after its recent purchase of the facility was processing some of this inert material as part of a reinstatement programme. The company is now recycling the material placed within part of the void space so it can achieve a future objective for the recycling operation and workings of the site. All the material being recycled is being tested to ensure that it is not contaminated and the new operator expects to be able to recycle more than 70% of all the remaining inert materials subject to permission.

Extraction had previously used drill and blast ztechniques. As the operation is bordered by commercial and residential areas, the swith to using breaking at the face made sense. And acording to a geotechnical survey, previous blasting had left several faces in an unstable and fractured state, making new blasting unsafe. It was decided even before an extraction license was granted that a primary breaker was the most logical solution.

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