Three new Powerscreen machines for Malcolm Group

Blue Scotland supply Chieftain 2200 mobile screen and two Premiertrak 400X jaw crushers

THE Malcolm Group have recently purchased three new Powerscreen machines from Blue Machinery Scotland to work in various areas of the business. A Chieftain 2200 mobile screen will process whinstone at the company’s Loanhead Quarry, while two Premiertrak 400X jaw crushers will be working at the organization’s facility on South Street, in Glasgow, crushing the construction and demolition (C&D) waste deposited at the site, and at Shewalton Quarry, also crushing C&D waste.

Having started out as a family-owned business in the 1920s, The Malcolm Group are now considered to be one of the leading providers of construction, logistics and maintenance services in the UK. The organization employs more than 2,000 people across the business and is quoted on the London Stock Exchange with turnover in excess of £200 million.

The new Powerscreen Premiertrak 400X was launched just a few months ago, and whilst one of the new purchases by The Malcolm Group replaces a highly reliable Pegson jaw crusher, Willie Gregory, operations manager at the South Street recycling site, has already noticed a number of benefits.

‘We take in a lot of waste that contains rebar, so the adjustable deflector plate and skirts beneath the jaw chamber help ensure it doesn’t get snagged and affect the machine’s processing; plus, of course, it protects the belt. On the rare occasions this happens, however, there is excellent access underneath the machine, allowing us to get the machine back up and running quickly,’ he commented.

Other aspects of the machine highlighted by Mr Gregory include its processing power and its reliability. ‘The machine has not missed a beat since it came to the site and it’s also very quiet compared with the old machine,’ he said.

The second Premiertrak 400X is working at Shewalton Quarry, crushing material for the wash plant. Material from sites throughout Ayrshire is crushed by the mobile jaw crusher before being fed to a Chieftain screen that takes off the –45mm for the wash plant, whilst the remaining 100mm–45mm is sold as 6F5.

‘John Edgar, site manager at Shewalton, said: ‘After-sales and customer care has been spot on.  One of the reasons we bought from Blue is the support we have had in the past, plus Owen Gourlay, customer support manager at Blue Scotland, came in and did a day’s training with the guys to get them all up to speed. You will always have a few niggles with a new machine and Blue have been in right away to sort them out.’

Meanwhile, the new Chieftain 2200, which is processing whinstone that has been crushed by an existing Powerscreen 1150 Maxtrak cone crusher, has impressed the team at Loanhead Quarry for a number of reasons. First, Gordon Lawns, operations manager, has noticed a considerable increase in production, from around 125 tonnes/h to around 250 tonnes/h.

Not only that, but the separations into the 40mm–20mm, 20mm–14mm and 14mm–6mm, as well as dust, are said to be exceptionally accurate due to the large screening area and aggressive screenboxes, which can switch between a two- and four-bearing set-up. This aggression on the screenboxes also helps to keep the screens clean, which again helps with product specification even though the material at Loanhead can be very sticky, especially in damp conditions.

Commenting on the machine, Willie Nisbet, site operator at Loanhead Quarry, said: ‘We can work the Chieftain 2200 with the big Premiertrak 600 jaw crusher and the 1300 Maxtrak cone crusher. It’s the first time I have seen a screen able to cope with that amount of material and provide such a quality product.’

These three latest additions to The Malcolm Group fleet take the company’s total number of Powerscreen machines to nine.