Gayatri Projects’ automation advantage

Article first published in Aggregates Business International March-April 2017, Route One Publishing Ltd.

Writer: Guy Woodford. Edited by Metso.

There’s a constant stream of trucks entering and exiting Gayatri Projects Limited’s (Gayatri Projects) crushing and screening site in Nuh, a town in Haryana state, North West India. Here, 220-250tonnes/hour of granite rock is being processed into 0-6mm sand, and 6-12mm, 12-20mm and 20-26mm-sized aggregate products for subsequent transporting to Gayatri Projects’ concrete batching plants, around 20 kilometres away. There, they are being turned into a million tonnes of high quality concrete, including 400,000 tonnes of sub base, for the 22km KGP Expressway, running along the eastern side of Delhi.

Similar works are being carried out on the KMP Expressway, running along Delhi’s western and southern side. Once both projects are completed, the six-lane KGP and KMP Expressways will form a triangular traf­fic route around Delhi, helping to reduce already chronic congestion on the roads of India’s capital city.

The granite rock being crushed and screened at Gayatri Projects’ Nuh base is particularly tough, with a 2.7 density, over 30% crushability and 1800gm/tonne rated abrasiveness. The company’s crushing and screening fleet needed to be able to process a minimum of 60,000tonnes/month of this material during 25 18-hour operating days a month. Due to the reliability and impressive performance of Metso models used by Gayatri Projects over nearly 20 years, the company, part of the highly successful and industry diverse Gayatri Group, opted to deploy Metso’s NW Rapid plant solution with Metso NW106™ jaw crusher, NW220GPD™ cone crusher, and Metso DS1855  three-deck screen on the KGP Expressway project.

Increased safety and production quality with automation

“We ­ first used Metso machines when we were working on the Golden Quadrant Project in 1998, which created six-lane highways between the cities of Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai,” explains Gayatri Projects’ Nuh site manager, Ravichandra Muthavanapu.“We were involved in a 120 kilometre stretch in southern India between Vijaywada and Ongole, working with a Malaysian partner.”

The Metso crushers installed at Gayatri Projects’ Nuh processing site include Metso IC™ crusher automation. “The automation on the Metso models increases safety and production quality,” says Muthavanapu. “It’s very easy to use – as simple as pushing a button.” This, he explains, had led to less skilled machine operators being required onsite, reducing labour costs.

“We used to have two or three skilled operators on site at any one time. Now we need only one.” “We did have one operator who did not understand the automation process and he detonated an alarm on a crusher,” continues Muthavanapu. “We had to call Metso and an engineer came out and recti­fied the problem. He then stayed a week and taught all our operators how to use the automation in the future.”

Production output increase by up to 30%

Metso IC crusher automation allows customers to maximize the performance of their premium quality Metso crushers. This is secured within carefully de­fined safety parameters for oil temperature, power draw and oil pressure, all indicators of the actual crusher load. Metso IC crusher automation monitors the crusher condition and gives an early indication if there’s a problem in the crusher. This can, crucially, help solve a problem before it becomes serious and costly.

Additionally, the IC crusher automation can easily be connected to any plant automation system used in the crushing and screening industry. This enables centralized control of the crusher and the whole plant, allowing the operator to safely control and alter crusher operating parameters according to production needs from a single location. This includes the prevention of any hydraulic pressure damage to the crusher through overloading.

Through the use of Metso IC crusher automation and the NW220GPD cone crusher, Metso says Gayatri Projects may save up to  EUR 115 000 in fuel costs, an even 6-7 rupees (EUR 0.10) in producing each tonne of granite rock and manufactured sand product, over the one-and-a-half year duration of the KGP Expressway project.

Metso also estimates that the same combination can increase production output by up to 30%, compared to production without IC crusher automation and the NW220GPD model, while also extending the working life of Gayatri Projects’ crushing fleet. The consistent final product cubicity secured by the ­firm is also aiding binding in its ­ final application on the KGP Expressway project.

Fast servicing of machines keeps the project on time

“Cone crushers are complex machines but with the automation that Metso provides, the mantle adjusts to allow for optimum throughput at all times,” explains Ramesh Kumar Prasad, Metso manager service – CSR, North India. “We are contributing to every highway project Gayatri Projects is doing. The trust has built up between us. It’s not only about buying equipment from us. We’ve been placing our engineering people at their sites and trying to help them work more professionally.”

A team of 10-15 Metso engineers are working with a large number of companies, including Gayatri Projects, whose raw aggregates are initially mined in the crushing zone of Ferozepur Jhirka (a town in Nuh district, Haryana state). The engineers are based in the crushing zone, leading to faster response times to any customer problems. The heart of the Ferozepur Jhirka crushing zone is around 70kms from Gayatri Projects’ Nuh processing site.

“The servicing of the machines is excellent,” says Muthavanapu. “The abrasive rock we work with can cause lots of wear and tear, but Metso has speci­fically designed plates that are suited to our jaw crusher. If there’s a problem that’s very simple, Metso engineers can help us over the phone. For any problems requiring a site visit, the maximum response time is four hours. We’ve had good experiences working with Metso and the best part of what they offer can be seen in the end quality of the products we produce.”

To gain its raw aggregates from the Ferozepur Jhirka crushing zone, Gayatri Projects carries out regular blasting in different mine faces. Oversized granite rock is reduced down to -500mm pieces using breakers attached to one of the company’s excavator fleet. The material is then loaded onto some of the ­firm’s 70 hauling trucks.

The trucks then haul the granite rock around 70kms to the Nuh material processing site. After the different graded aggregate and manufactured sand products are produced, they are then taken by truck around 20kms to Gayatri Projects’ Schwing Stetter 60m³-180m³ concrete batching plants, where the ­final concrete products are produced. From here, the material is taken once again by truck to the KGP Expressway work site.

Gayatri Projects’ part of the KGP Expressway project is due to be completed by autumn 2017. With Metso’s ongoing engineering support and the use of premium crushers bene­fiting from IC crusher automation, it’s a contract set to be completed in budget and on or ahead of time.

This will be highly welcomed by Gayatri Projects, who, like other leading road infrastructure companies, have many other national and state highways projects to bid for, as national government-supported investment in India’s transport infrastructure reaches new heights.