A big and potentially influential plant launch and the deployment of proven premium solutions make the global water recycling and management sector an eye-catching one within the wider aggregates processing industry. Guy Woodford reports.
The Dungannon, Northern Ireland-headquartered global market original equipment manufacturer (OEM) says that with the AggWash 300, pit and quarry operators can look forward to more intelligent ways to wash sand, gravel, aggregates and C&D waste. The up to 300tonnes/hour materials processing model brings together rinsing, screening, scrubbing and sand washing capabilities in a single plant.
The AggWash 300 is said by TWS to have been months in design and development, engineered specifically with large-scale production processing in mind. While primarily designed for the efficient processing of C&D waste, the plant is said to be equally suited to virgin material applications. The new plant can produce up to six grades of saleable product. Offering quick set-up, a compact machine footprint and class-leading walkaround access for maintenance, the AggWash 300 is said by TWS to have been designed with an uncompromising approach towards robustness and reliability.
A big brother model to TWS’ popular AggWash 60 and AggreScrub 150 modular wash plants, the AggWash 300 was launched at the
Elaine Donaghy, TWS marketing manager, said: “The market for the AggWash 300 is global, but currently there is a lot of C&D waste wash plant demand in the UK. There is also a lot of interest in France and Germany. Some of this is driven by tighter regulations in this area.”
Hillhead 2018 also included the global premiere of TWS’ new water management offering, Terex AquaClear. The range includes clarifying tanks, flocculent dosing systems, filter presses and all associated equipment. Crucially, this enables TWS to offer an end-to-end solution for washing and water management.
TWS has a dedicated technical team to support Terex AquaClear, consisting of a product manager, engineers and applications specialists, together with a new cutting-edge laboratory specifically designed for material testing and sample pressing. This ensures optimum equipment selection and specification for customers.
From a date to be announced in 2019, all TWS washing and water management plant manufacturing will take place at an expanded manufacturing facility in Dungannon.
BPE Lecieux, a stone and gravel company located in Saint-Maximin, in the department of Oise, northern France, is using a custom-made CDE wet processing system in the production of its high-quality and rare limestone products.
Headquartered around an hour’s drive north of Paris, BPE Lecieux exploits the deposits of three limestone sites: at Verbois, the Ouachée and Corpechot quarry at Les Dormants, and, since recently, at the former
In 2015, BPE Lecieux chose a
Established in 1957, BPE Lecieux has become a big name in the construction and public works industry. The quality of the firm’s materials, whose applications include the restoration of the Château of Versailles, the Louvre and the Panthéon, as well as many other historical monuments, is the result of years of innovation and technical improvements in the processing of the stones found in the Paris Basin. BPE Lecieux owns 300 hectares of quarries of Lutetian limestone, a creamy light beige stone typical of Paris’ most famous buildings. The company works in full accordance with the Environmental Charter of the Quarrying Industries (UNICEM France) to preserve the Oise-Pays de France regional natural park.
Until 2014, BPE Lecieux had used a washing system to treat alluvial sand deposits. However, after the acquisition of Lutetian limestone sites, the company had to adapt its technological requirements to the production of new products corresponding to the standard specifications for ready-mixed concrete. The site of the treatment platform in Saintes Barbes presented the ideal conditions for the installation of a washing system specially developed to produce materials meeting ready-mixed concrete standards, while protecting the natural environment.
The raw material obtained from a combination of materials is essentially soft limestone with a particle size of 0-20mm or 0-40mm, processed by a custom-made CDE solution comprising a wet processing unit combined with a waste water recycling unit. The Saintes Barbes site produces between 80 and 100tonnes/hour of materials for the concrete industry and public works market. Three products are processed simultaneously by the CDE system: 0-4mm, 4-10mm and 10-20mm.
The gravels graded 4-10mm (known as mignonette gravel) and 10-20mm are used to produce concrete and products for landscaping projects. The quarry material also allows the production of a dry sand with a grain size of 0-4mm, which is highly polyvalent and especially well suited to masonry as well as some construction and public works applications requiring sand which is fine and easy to work with.
Jean-Luc Roussel, sales manager for BPE Lecieux, and Dominique Lecieux, the company’s extraction manager, add: “BPE Lecieux’s Saintes Barbes site is ideally located a few kilometres away from our Parisian markets, which allows us to remain competitive in terms of the price of the materials thanks to strict management of transportation costs and close attention to the environmental impact of our operations.”
The CDE M2500 E3X wet processing solution co-developed with BPE Lecieux to meet its Saintes Barbes’ production needs, integrates a feeding system, a cyclonic sand treatment unit, a sand and gravel washing and classification system and stockpile conveyors on a single chassis. It is combined with a waste water treatment unit - an AquaCycle A600 CDE thickener with a capacity of 600m³/h - which allows up to 90% of the used water to be recycled for immediate re-use into the system. The tailor-made feeding system has been completely modernised and increased in terms of throughput, while fully adhering to the required plan.
Marc Sopransi, business development manager for CDE France, says: “The M2500 E3X demonstrates the efficiency of CDE’s cyclonic technology and the adaptive ability of our process and engineering teams, who designed a bespoke process for the needs of BPE Lecieux, who wanted to extract from the sand the smallest possible amount of fine material. This is highly appreciated by the company’s customers.
“The hydrocyclones were built in accordance with the client’s specific needs, after analyses of the feed product carried out directly by the CDE laboratory during the preliminary phase of the project.
“The used water carrying unwanted particles is expelled from the cyclone overflows, while the washed sand, having been processed, continues on to enter into the drying and storage stages. Thanks to cut points of unrivalled precision, the three products are processed simultaneously to the required standards and without any risk of cross contamination amongst the products.”
CDE’s machines are designed and constructed at the customer company’s facilities to adapt to the needs of each application, while maximising the quality and quantity of the materials produced. In the case of the Saintes Barbes site, processing of the rare type of limestone requires a high level of precision.
Around 90% of the material available - a soft limestone which is sensitive to the penetration of moisture - is made use of. The raw material therefore poses the risk of coagulating into a thick paste. To ensure fluid and constant feeding, it was essential to factor in key elements including the angles of the slopes and the size of the conveyors. The CDE team, in collaboration with the client, designed a tailor-made solution with a minimum of steep angles and with slopes calculated to avoid any risk of blockage. The management of BPE Lecieux says: “The design of our CDE system has proven itself over the past three years. The crushed raw limestone contains 28% of fine particles, which needs to fall to 12% to meet ready-mixed concrete standards.
“We pursue a goal of ‘zero waste’ and the CDE machinery offers a range of high-tech products which allows us to achieve this. The modular nature of the equipment allows us to consider and visualise future improvements which integrate perfectly into the existing system.”
Each CDE materials processing project benefits from the company’s own ‘customer for life’ methodology. This provides regular and consistent service, with a minimum of intermediaries, preferring a single point of contact to ensure clear and efficient communication from the start of the planning process through to the end of the plant’s lifespan.
Jean-Luc Roussel concludes: “We are happy with the quality-price ratio of our machinery and especially appreciate CDE’s after-sales service, with its team in France being always on call.”
