ABE looks at the development of the cone crusher by the Symons brothers

Crushing heritage

Cone crushers are now accepted technology but in the 1920s the Symons Brothers innovation was an unknown quantity, although an enduring one with some original units still in use. Claire Symes reports

Metso Minerals unveiled its latest HP5 cone crusher at ConExpo in March but alongside it was its ancestor - a 1934 Nordberg cone crusher.
Until six months ago the machine was part of a 500tonnes per hour plant at the John S Lane Quarry in Springfield, Massachusetts, US and is still in full working order. The unit was only replaced because the operator wanted to increase production at the limestone quarry and the 910mm head, 150tonnes per hour cone has been replaced by a new HP400 unit.
Before introduction of the cone crusher, aggregate processing was generally undertaken using a jaw or roll crusher or an Allis Chalmers gyratory crusher. The development of the cone crusher helped to improve the quality of the aggregate produced.
The Nordberg unit is based on the design concept from the Symons Brothers, which was manufactured in the US by Finnish-born Bruno Nordberg in Milwaukee from 1926. Nordberg started out building regulators for steam driven engines and also collaborated with Rudolf Diesel on the development of engines for power plants, ships and submarines. He also owned the Rex Works business that still builds concrete batch plants and conveyor parts.
Symons sold 250 units in the first year and, after the design was copied they believed the cone crusher market to be saturated, they sold the design rights to Nordberg in 1927. Nordberg was acquired by Rauma Repola in 1990 and the company later changed its name to Metso in 2001.
Nordberg went on to sell numerous more units and the popularity and durability of the design also meant that the parts for the ..