Lokotrack plants offer stability and fuel economy in crushing for Estonian contractor Purustaja

“Even though we operate as a contractor on site, our aim is to run a stable, continuous operation without any extra breaks and thus keep our operational uptime and profitability up. Our Lokotrack^® fleet of four different models combines high quality with prompt service, and this helps us to achieve our goals.”

This is how Kuido Kaskla, Member of the Board of the Estonian contractor Purustaja OÜ, comments on his cooperation with Metso. The company’s Lokotrack plants are often operating at recycling sites, oil shale and aggregates processing sites in Estonia and Finland.

Purustaja’s Lokotrack fleet was started with a LT116^TM jaw plant; later an ST272^TM mobile screen and an LT1213S^TM mobile impactor plant were added. The newest addition to the company’s fleet is a second, brand-new Lokotrack LT1213S^TM, introduced in April 2015.

Fuel costs down by 15-20%

“Comparing the new LT1213S with the older one, we have verified a savings in fuel consumption of 15-20%. The belt drive for the crusher combined with the idling mode when the feeder stays empty are probably behind the savings,” Kuido Kaskla notes.

The new LT1213S is primarily used to reprocess oil shale waste, which contains limestone and a high proportion of shale. During the process, material previously classified as mining waste is separated into oil shale and limestone and then crushed into aggregates. Recycled oil shale still has 70-80% of the energy intensity compared to newly mined and enriched oil shale.

“Besides oil shale processing, we can use the LT1213S flexibly to produce highly cubical aggregates from limestone and in future recycling contracts,” Kuido Kaskla says.

Capacities up to 250 tons per hour

To date, Purustaja has crushed about 100,000 tons of different materials with the new Lokotrack LT1213S. In aggregates production, it has reached a capacity of up to 250 metric tons per hour with the LT1213S.

At a subcontract at the Harko limestone quarry near the capital city Tallinn, the LT1213S has been operated in a closed circuit with capacities of 220-230 mtph. The limestone feed material is sized 0-600 mm, and all crushed materials exceeding 64 mm are returned to the crusher via a return conveyor.

A single LT1213S followed by a mobile screen produces 0-4 mm, 4-16 mm, 16-32 mm and 32-64 mm end products. The aggregates are used for construction, concrete and bottom layers for roadworks.

Prompt service secures uptime

Purustaja is highly appreciative of the prompt service provided by Metso and its distributor Wihuri AS.

“Service works very well and secures our operational uptime. Spares arrive very quickly from Tampere, Finland, and Witraktor takes care of regular plant maintenance, which is very important for us,” Kuido Kaskla emphasizes.

“In addition to the overall high quality of Lokotrack, we also choose the best impactor wear parts. With our stone types, Metso’s Xwin series hammers are very durable: we need to change them only about twice a year,” he adds.

Yearly production about 1.4 million tons

Purustaja crushed and screened about 1.4 million tons in different projects last year. The volume won’t be quite as high this year, because of the falling oil price, which weakens interest in reusing oil shale.

Thanks to the impact crushing technique, the company can easily bid on any recycling and aggregates production job. Today, oil shale accounts for over 50% of the crushing, recycling 15-20% and aggregates production15-20%.