Three Strategies to Check the Materials Before Loading the Crusher

To crush or not to crush? Some material should not be put through the crusher, unless you want to spend a whole lot of time digging it out and/or repairing your machine.

That’s why it is so important to check materials before loading them into the crusher. The way Ron Garofalo, president of DAG On-Site Crushing in New Jersey, handles this is by training operators to maximize the number of opportunities they have to check the material. “The first point is your ground man, and he’s looking all the time,” Garofalo said. “The second is the excavator operator is pushing that pile out [to see what’s in it] and scooping up that same pile each time.”

The third is by loading the back of the feeder for more time to see if anything undesirable is headed into the crusher so you can stop the feeder and remove it. “If you go to feed undesirable material into the crusher, you’re going to be inside the chamber getting it out,” Garofalo said.

DJ Cavaliere with Cavaliere Industries, Stamford, Connecticut, take a different approach. He uses a 2-foot bucket all day long. “I don’t care if the operator has to make an extra cycle,” he said. “[If you’re loading too much at a time] you may not know you’ve put a rock in there that’s way too big and they’re not getting material through because they’re overfeeding it and jamming it.”

“I’d rather do 100 tons an hour all day long than 200 tons an hour for two hours,” Cavaliere said. “You’ve got to reduce that black belt time, and that starts with the prepping and feeding.”

Eric Bruno, president at Midwest Crushing & Recycling, uses a 3-foot bucket for a similar reason, adding that versatility and the ability to use a smaller bucket is why he opts for excavators instead of wheel loaders to feed the crusher. He’ll sometimes use a 60-inch bucket on his excavators if he’s crushing asphalt and using his screens, “but we’re still watching what we’re putting in.”

Get more expert tips on mobile asphalt crushing in this article.