Hybrid Mobile Quarry Plant Proves Its Worth

Short-term disruptions to quarrying and mining industries are not expected to severely impact demand for mobile plant, following several years of sustained growth.

In South Africa the impact of the coronavirus pandemic has been felt differently across various segments in quarrying and mining. Coal mining and gold mining have been less affected, while work in the diamonds fields came to a complete stop, says Tyron Ravenscroft, Regional Sales Manager at Bell Equipment, the dealer for Terex Finlay in southern Africa. Quarries were considered part of construction and were only able to resume work on June 1 when the country moved to lockdown level three. Ravenscroft says the outlook remains uncertain, with the focus on completing existing projects but no new contracts awarded.

One stand-out sector is coal, with new mines being opened up almost weekly, says Ravenscroft. “Coal mining is booming, and we only see more and more happening in the coal fields for the next 20 years. While there’s talk around the world of wanting to reduce coal mining and using other technologies to generate energy and power, in South Africa we are still mining the ground hard and flat.” Overall, Ravenscroft says the market outlook in sub-Saharan Africa is highly uncertain. He’s not picking a rise in sales of new crushing and screening equipment for the near future, but he’s not expecting sales to drop dramatically either.

Toni Laaksonen, Senior Vice President at McCloskey International, notes that globally the crushing and screening industry has been growing strongly in recent years, with especially rapid growth in 2018. With the spread of the pandemic, the market has slowed down a lot globally; however, they are seeing that once the disease is relatively contained in a country, the bounce-back in the market is fairly quick, says Laaksonen. “What we are expecting is that in all markets, when that situation is under control, the governments will start spending a lot of money on infrastructure projects, and after that we should be seeing good demand for our equipment range.”

Nevertheless, even if there is a slowdown in new equipment sales, buyers will probably spend more money on spare parts and after-market services or upgrades to maintain their machines. “Already this year we have seen a lot of growth in our after-market segment due to this situation. Buyers are avoiding capex investments, but instead using opex money to improve and maintain their assets, and that happens quite often during an economic downturn,” says Laaksonen.

Keeping it mobile

While there is typically fairly clear segmentation between the use of mobile and static plant in the industry, in certain cases where static plant might be a better solution ‘on paper’, mobile machines can have an advantage thanks to their mobility. Certain areas have good commodities to be mined, but political volatility makes it a high-gain but high-risk operation, notes Paul Chappel, Business Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa at Terex Finlay. “What customers do tend to like in certain volatile areas is that you can remove a mobile machine out of a trouble zone very quickly on the back of a low bed, whereas if you have a very big static plant that’s taken months to erect with electricity and civil construction, that’s not possible,” he says.

When it comes to key product attributes, Chappel notes that mobile and static machines often share some of the same attributes. For example, the mobile jaw crushers used within the Terex Finlay machines are identical to those used in the machines sold by Terex MPS, the sister company which produces static plant. Broadly, mobile crushers have higher purchase costs and higher running costs due to diesel consumption, sophisticated hydraulics and the maintenance costs including for the engine, but the advantage is much faster set-up and the ability to move between sites or within a site when machines are used for a shorter period.

Spending on service and spare parts typically rises during difficult periods.

However, the use of hybrid machines is a growing area for mobile plant, precisely because it can lower the operating costs across some of these key areas. Hybrid machines use a genset, so that the diesel engine is used to power the machine in remote locations, while it can be switched to a mains power source when available. A hybrid engine set-up will typically also be efficient than a regular diesel engine, and so will have lower diesel costs even when operating in this mode.

Terex Finlay offers a total of 18 hybrid machines out of its 50 models across its full range crushers, screens, conveyors and grids. A hybrid machine has a higher upfront cost, due to the additional hardware and software. The time it takes to earn back this cost varies between different markets, since diesel prices and other costs are not constant, notes Chappel. “Generally, in countries like South Africa where diesel is fairly expensive, a user may be able to pay off that additional ticket price within one-two years,” he says.

Another advantage is using them in a production train. If a customer is using the Terex Finlay J 1175 hybrid jaw crusher alongside a model such as the 694 + hybrid inclined screen, the jaw crusher generates enough power to run both the crusher and the screen as well. “There are big savings to be had there, and customers are buying into it,” says Chappel.

Use of hybrid machines can lower operation costs for mobile plant.

At McCloskey, Laaksonen says there is increasing demand for hybrid machines worldwide, though it varies between countries. Environmental regulation is one driver, while in some markets there is investment support for companies buying hybrid machines due to the reduction in emissions. When a machine stays in one place for a protracted period of time, say six months, then using it with external power becomes very efficient because of the huge fuel savings as well as significant maintenance savings, especially on larger engined machines, he says. “Therefore, many governments have decided they want to support this type of development, where end users are investing in solutions which are more environmentally friendly.”

Manufacturers are also developing telematics and remote control systems to improve productivity and safety. Terex Finlay offers T-Link, a remote monitoring and fleet management system, and recently announced it was extending the standard data subscription period to seven years for all crushers and screeners fitted with an electronic engine. It also offers Omni by Terex, a tablet-based control system that the operator can use from inside the safety of the excavator or wheel loader cab to monitor the production performance, including RPM, fuel status, camera feeds, and to adjust machine performance and processes, or do shutoff remotely. The tablet wirelessly connects to all machines.