Conveyor upgrade for Tarmac
Tarmac have recently upgraded a 2.5km conveyor system at Blashford Quarry, near Ringwood, Hampshire, increasing the processing plant’s handling capacity from 150 to 350 tonnes/h.
Worksop-based Canning Conveyor Co. Ltd were appointed by Tarmac South West to carry out the project, which has helped bring additional benefits of improved reliability and reduced maintenance costs at Blashford.
The current plant comprises a barrel washer, sizing screens and an open crushing circuit, which is due for replacement sometime this year. Processed material is used in local Tarmac concrete plants and supplied to builders’ merchants and contractors operating in the Ringwood and Bournemouth area.
Canning began work on the project by extending the conveyor system at the face with a new 120mm x 750mm wide field conveyor. The company then split an existing C4 conveyor into C4a and C4b, and interfaced a new 20m long elevated lattice section with a walkway.
Canning have also supplied a new 22m long troughed belt radial stockpile conveyor, complete with a walkway assembly and three-sided head platform. The conveyor is of lattice frame construction and is designed to accept up to 250 tonnes/h from the C4a feed. Powered by a ceramic lagged 22kW SuperDrive motorized drive drum, the radial conveyor elevates at approximately 16° before discharging to a 5m high stockpile.
Other improvements undertaken by Canning involved the retro-fitting of all SuperDrive units to the existing conveyor system, including the supply of 10 ceramic-lagged Canning SuperDrive motorized- drive drums, a jib discharge replacement, and high- and low-tension bend drums. New belt scrapers were also fitted throughout the system, along with new heavy-duty mesh guards where appropriate.
In the latter phases of the project, the company supplied 34 new non-drive drums to complete the upgrade, as well as making modifications to an existing blending plant, which included greedy boards to three sides, a full-length walkway, access stairs, a hopper support structure and ancillaries.
Gordon Tuck, area operations manager at the quarry, commented: ‘The team at Blashford worked extremely close with Canning Conveyor on this multi-phase project. We are delighted with the immediate benefits, and are confident that Blashford will have significant energy-efficiency, quality and reliability improvements in the long term.’
