CRUSHING & SCREENING
The evolution of a
SCREENING LEGEND
W
hile new entrants have come and gone, ELB has stood the test of time as Powerscreen’s dealer since 1994 and Dickson has been part of the team from inception. An OEM with a proud history, Powerscreen was founded in 1966 in Northern Ireland, and is widely regarded as one of the pioneers in crushing and screening mobility – taking the machine to the material in a revolutionary breakthrough to improve efficiencies and productivity. “The past 28 years has seen significant research and development milestones, as the market shifted from wheel-mounted to self-propelled track-mounted mobile crushing and screening plant,” says Dickson, adding that the Powerscreen series meets niche application requirements in the aggregates, mining, and recycling segments. In addition to the Powerscreen range, ELB is also the dealer for Terex Minerals Processing Systems Products, which incorporates Terex modular, portable, and static crushing and screening equipment. A more recent development
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IMIESA February 2022
Forming part of Terex Corporation, Powerscreen is one of the world’s most recognised brands in the evolving field of mobile crushing is ELB’s introduction of Powerscreen’s and screening. It is represented in ProStack tracked South Africa by ELB Equipment (ELB). conveyors. “Initially, tracked Alastair Currie speaks to Heath machines were Dickson, applications manager and relatively small and compact,” recalls product specialist at ELB, Dickson. “Back in the about market 1990s, for example, one developments. of the largest mobile twodeck incline screens fielded by Powerscreen was the Chieftain 1400 with its 14-foot hopper and 440 tonne per hour (tph) capacity. Today, it’s one of Powerscreen’s midrange machines, with this class led by the Chieftain 2200 650 tph unit.” From the onset, ELB achieved major gains in South Africa with the Powerscreen MK 11 mobile screening unit, with hundreds sold locally, many of which are still operational. This was a wheel-mounted machine set up for an approximately 150 tph throughput. Targeted users included contractors looking for a lighterweight machine capable of screening a diverse range of products – from gravel and sand to topsoil.
Crushing developments Mobile screens were soon joined by their crushing counterparts following Powerscreen’s acquisition of UK-based OEM Pegson (now Terex Pegson) in 1996. Powerscreen was in turn acquired by Terex Corporation in 1999. Then in 2009, the Pegson and Powerscreen product lines united under the Powerscreen brand. Popular modern-day models include the 400 tph Premiertrak 400X jaw crusher, the 230 tph Maxtrak 1000 SR cone crusher, and the 350 tph XV 350 vertical shaft impact crusher.