GOING MOBILE
CRUSHING PINNACLE
GROWS FAVOUR AROUND AUSTRALIA The Metso Lokotrack LT120 tracked jaw crusher has been a mainstay of the Australian mobile crushing market. Tutt Bryant Equipment principal Paul Doran explains why.
T
utt Bryant Equipment unleashed the Metso Lokotrack LT120 mobile jaw crusher some years ago and has since grown its national fleet to 24 units in Australia. The authorised Metso Outotec distributor turns to this machine when it knows nothing else will match up with the demands of a crushing job. The LT120 manages oversize with ease and turns multi-operator jobs into the one-man variety. Paul Doran, Tutt Bryant Equipment’s business development manager for Metso products, said the Nordberg C120 jaw crusher was at the heart of the LT120’s reputation. “The C120 jaw crusher is internationally renowned,” Doran told Quarry. “Metso jaw crushers are rated to 500 megapascals (MPa) so these things will handle almost anything you can throw into them – they are a weapon. “We have a number of case studies from customers all around the country who have done amazing volumes and have a good, long history of high serviceability and production.” Tutt Bryant offers a five-year, 10,000-hour warranty on the Lokotrack machines which is considerable in the context of their 10,000- to 20,000-hour-plus lifetime. The LT120’s raw power is enabled by a range of design features that Metso has implemented based on customer feedback. “They have a very aggressive nip angle, and a high inertia flywheel to generate a lot of
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power to the crushing process,” Doran said. “Metso crushers are also pinned and bolted together, allowing for greater flexibility and better resistance to cracking compared to a welded machine. “The machine’s portability is another drawcard. It weighs between 60 and 68 tonnes, but you can get it on a float and drive it off at the other end to operate soon after.” Once set up, operators will enjoy the convenience of a conveyor magnet for steel or similar material which finds its way among the rock. Tutt Bryant equips a large hammer and boom to the LT120 as standard, to mitigate the issue of oversize material in the feed hopper. “This pairs great with the rest of the machine as usually when you find some oversize material in your feed hopper, you’d have to alert an excavator with a hammer on it to make its way over to the crusher,” Doran explained. “But with the hammer and boom attachment, the crusher operator – sitting in the comfort of their cab – can use a remote to get to work on the oversize themselves. Unless you have subsequent crushers involved where it’s good to have someone else taking a second look at the material, it almost becomes a one-man job with the LT120.”
SAFER, SMOOTHER TECH Metso Outotec has also made a name for itself in the technology space with Metso
IC and Metso ICr both enabling safer and smoother operation.The IC is the in-built operating system for crusher automation, monitoring and control of key parameters; the ICr is the remote-controlled sibling. “The operator can then wirelessly manage some of the basic parameters on the LT120 via Bluetooth without leaving the cabin of their machine,” Doran said. “This is totally unique to Metso and Tutt Bryant brings this is in as part of our standard offering.” “The operator can start and stop the feeder and widen or narrow the jaw’s closed side setting, all from the comfort and safety of their seat.” Operators can not only control the LT120 but monitor its performance and perform fault-finding duties. Higher up the company ladder, Metso Metrics allows machine owners to monitor a machine’s performance from anywhere in the world via the internet. This includes performance metrics such as fuel consumption, uptime, location, service requirements, log maintenance tasks and which alarms have come up recently. As an added measure, Metso has designed the LT120 with a bypass arrangement under the feeder, sending all the fine materials directly to the chosen conveyor – product or side – if the operator so chooses. “Alternatively, you can send certain size
