K3 - Combo, a cost-effective option
The family business BERTRAND CH. has been an established name in the Belgian Ardennes for generations. This small quarry proves that a Keestrack Combo screen can improve the efficiency and profitability of even the smallest quarry.
The quarry in Bra sur Lienne is known for its specific blue and brown slate. This is used in construction of walls, roofs, terraces, floors and dry walls (without mortar). The slate is also used for monuments, graves etc.
Mining the quarry is already 50 years in progress and this was mainly done manually. The quarry operates in a niche market where color, size and shape of the stones are selected on demand of the actual order. Bertrand delivers mainly direct to end users and local contractors.
Nowadays the manual selection has been brought back to a minimum. Only a manual selection is done on color and on specific shape of the stones.
Another advantage is that the fines and middle fractions are very specific now, resulting in higher proceeds up to 15 times more.
Also, production has doubled leading to a shorter delivery time. Besides these economic solutions the Combo also provides a less labor intensive and much cleaner work environment.
Quarry Bertrand has expanded their product portfolio because of the 3 different fractions in the new working process. The 0-50 mm fraction is used for paving forest tracks and roads and gardening decorations. The 50-120 mm fraction for drainage stone or as decorative stone.
The choice for the K3 - Combo, the smallest screen of the Keestrack range, was easy one after a testing period of 2 days. Because manual sorting is still to be done at the oversize conveyor it is essential to have picking stations on both sides. Also, the speed of the hopper and the main conveyor is easy to adjust from the picking stations. The easily interchangeable screens of the Combo are also an advantage. A capacity of 250 (metric)Tons an hour is more than enough in this application. Of course, the possibility of doing a real test played an important role, because seeing is believing!
This story clearly shows that even in niche markets, with small production needs, there are enough advantages using a Keestrack screen. Keestrack can offer a solution to you as well.