CEMENT
The KEE Group has so far purchased three pugmills and has plans to buy more.
PROVIDING A KEE TO SUCCESS When WA civil support services provider KEE Group needed a new pugmill for a difficult job, it turned to Crusher Screens Sales & Hire.
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EE Group group director Damon Spiers knows what he’s looking for when he needs new equipment – and he doesn’t make the decision to engage a supplier lightly. “My peer group reputation is of the highest calibre: if I put my name into it, I stake my reputation on it,” he said. KEE Group is a multi-faceted business with four divisions: KEE Hire, KEE Transport, KEE Surfacing and KEE Fuel. “KEE Group is a synergistic powerhouse, with genesis in transport, then diversified into surfacing, starting with asphalt and then the other part of my business is rental hire,” Spiers said. “From a quarry point of view, our surfacing side of things has built up a reputation and is on every single road project. We are using our pugmills to condition sub-base and base course and pavers to lay that.” When Spiers came across a job that required treatment of contaminated soil that had to be neutralised with lime, he looked at equipment in the market and the longevity of the job meant it didn’t make sense to hire. “Everyone seemed to be using a particular pugmill. I looked into it, and I came across the IMS (Irish Manufacturing Services) and I liked it better,” Spiers said. And that’s where Crusher Screens Sales & Hire came in. As the IMS Australia distributor, Crusher Screens Sales & Hire builds a high-quality range of plant equipment including the track-mounted pugmill and blender, mobile cement silos, high-production track, link and radial conveyors, and feed hoppers from 12–45m long. “I’ve only bought pugmills from (Crusher Screens Sales & Hire),” Spiers said. “What’s hard is when things break down – can they
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Quarry April 2022
supply spare parts and repairs? – and they’re is good at it all. “Anyone can buy a machine and lay asphalt, it’s the sincerity of purpose – you’re there to give your clients and your community an end result that is quality. (Crusher Screens Sales & Hire) is definitely on the quality side.” Relatively uncomplicated machines, pugmills are ruggedly built and easy to manoeuvre. “I made a name doing my own fit and analysis and the IMS pugmill has been fantastic,” Spiers said. “One has turned into three and I’ll be buying more. We’re doing amazing things with them. They’re easy to transport – you can get 500 tonnes per hour coming out of them.” A pugmill can go from treating contaminated materials to conditioning materials for a road or barriers. The applications are largely dependent on what the client needs. Crusher Screens Sales & Hire’s IMS Track Mounted Pugmill is fitted with a twin shaft for anti-surging high-production material blending. Each shaft is fitted with replaceable 500-grade paddle tips that are rotatable through 180 degrees to equalise wear. The pugmill is fully hydraulic from transport to operational mode without removing any items of plant. The standard machine is manual controlled for adding water and can be upgraded to a fully automated programmable logic controller (PLC) and recording system for adding cement, lime, chemicals and emulsified asphalt mixing IMS has mobile 40-tonne cement silo options that refill the pugmill cement hopper with attached load cells automatically controlled by the pugmill PLC. The pugmills are highly accurate, a major advantage of which is the ease of making
sure things are always working as they are meant to be. The machine is set to its tolerances and everything else is run like clockwork. “They can meet any specific requirements in conditioning material, whether that be in base coarse material or pavement material,” Spiers said. “We can provide real-time reporting on the percentages of water, lime, cement at any part of the work. “You can even activate it via an iPad sitting in a car.” John Andersen is one of the co-owners of Crusher Screens Sales & Hire, and he is highly focused on customer service. “He’s just a pleasure to deal with. He’s thankful for the custom, he actively gets involved, he asks if he can do anything else,” Spiers said. “From a manufacturing and dealership point of view, I love dealing with John. “We do a lot of our own customisation, but John has provided levels of support when we’ve wanted to do certain things.” The machines and strong levels of support means Spiers is able to use the pugmills exactly as he chooses. “Kee Group has taken a fantastic product and customised it to meet our expectations,” he said “Our model is not to hire these pugmills out. I come up with the methodology to deal with contaminated soils, adding various compounds to lay in a road. The pugmill is part of the full chain of a division that can provide a full turnkey solution. “I can control the quality of each part of that supply chain.” • For more information on Crusher Screen Sales & Hire’s range, visit crusherscreen.com
