Agg-Pro and Breedon deliver high-capacity crushing at its finest with the LIPPMANN 1300Je

The quarrying industry can be said to be a little conservative when it comes to change, especially in respect of the brands of equipment they use. This, however, wasn’t the case for the Breedon Group when it came to replacing their primary crusher at Cloud Hill quarry in Leicestershire.

The quarry, managed by Neil Gamble, produces around 1.7m tonnes of limestone aggregates per year which end up in asphalt production, concrete batching plants and general construction works in the region.

The stone is extracted with a pair of CAT 775Gs with the quarry blasts split between two crushing teams. The first team is Wordsworth Crushing, one of the most respected names in the UK contract crushing and earth moving sector.

The second team is Breedon’s in-house crew who have for the past 6 years fed a static roll crusher and a 700m land conveyor, which conveys the crushed rock up to two large surge piles at the head of the quarry for further processing.

“Our decision to stop our own haul trucks having to climb out of the quarry was a sensible one to make. As the hole got deeper, the run out got longer, not only did this have a major impact on cycle times but the added increase in fuel costs and road maintenance made the cost of installing the conveyor system more palatable,” says Neil.

The static roll crusher and conveyor system allowed the quarry’s two 125t capacity trucks to tip directly into the crusher’s hopper with the material sent to a fixed secondary crushing plant at the top of the site. With the expensive failure of the existing primary crusher, Neil and his team needed to look at alternatives to ensure production levels were kept up and downtime was minimised.

Quarry Supervisor Paul Cresswell takes up the story: “We hired a large Gipo R150FDR Impact Crusher from Agg-Pro whilst we deliberated what to do with the crusher that was down. With substantial costs coming back for repair, almost as much as purchasing a new machine, we looked at alternatives.

“Off the back of the Agg-Pro rental crusher performing so well we enquired about a similar machine that had slightly more capacity, but with options for a larger and coarser final product to feed our fixed secondary plant.

“Charlie Eastwood, Sales Manager for Agg-Pro was very helpful in driving this project forward with his knowledge of both the catalogue of machinery available and insights as to what was the best long-term fit for us as a company. Charlie advised us on all of the primary crusher options before he took the quarry’s senior management to Europe to see a Lippmann crusher, a brand we’d not heard of before.”

The Lippmann name has over 100 years of crushing and screening experience within the United States but was relatively unknown in Europe. That changed in 2019 when Lippmann was acquired by Metso. Soon after the acquisition, existing European manufacturing facilities were made available along with shared sister company components and technologies which helped launch a new heavy duty mobile rock processing solution to the global quarry market.

Lippmann’s new heavy duty track mounted range has been in development since late 2019 and offers an impressive range of 4 new jaw crushers, 3 primary impactors, 3 different sizes of cone crushers, along with complimentary screening plants with a specific focus on the demanding quarry sector.

The addition of Lippmann to the Agg-Pro dealership has given Charlie and his team another quality rock processing solution to offer their customers.

Charlie says: “I was fortunate enough to have worked in USA earlier in my career and remember the Lippmann crushers being of excellent quality and outstanding reliability. A track mounted combination of the old school Lippmann heavy duty ethos and Metso’s world respected crushing technology is a very exciting prospect going forward.”

Following a senior management visit to the Lipmann state-of-the-art production facility in Europe and seeing the phenomenal service and back-up available, Breedon decided to purchase a 1300Je crusher.

Thanks to its innovative design, it can be hydraulically split easily into two pieces for transportation, which can be useful for owners wanting to move it between multiple locations. It took the Agg-Pro team just half a day to place the hopper and jaw section onto the crawler section, ensuring it was ready to operate in next to no time.

The Metso crusher box used in the Lippmann 1300Je itself is impressive with its 40t weight but its measurement of 1300mm x 1000mm makes it one of the largest mobile crushers available across the globe. The huge rubber lined feeding hopper allows a large quantity of material to be loaded at any one time. The feed material is then fed over a 2-stage grizzly and into the crusher box that is easily capable of taking a lump of 1000mm in size and therefore ideal for the material produced at each quarry blast.

The hydraulically adjustable closed size settings range from 100mm to 280mm and produce a consistent sized material from the limestone. However, the onboard remote boom and hammer can be controlled from the feeding excavator’s cab and used to remove a rogue piece of material bridging the jaws.

The wide, large capacity main conveyor has an initial material crashbox and unique skirting design with an adjustable discharge height between 3.6mm and 4.45m allowing direct feed into a variety of hoppers or a stockpile.

An operating weight of 115 tonnes and a top output touching the 1000 tonnes per hour mark depending on the material and CSS, the team at Breedon have high hopes.

Neil adds: “We are looking at the moment to achieve a constant 600 tonnes per hour heading up the belt. But the added capacity range of the Lippmann will give us enough flexibility should we require additional output in the future.”

Productivity gains aside, the dual power operation of the crusher was a huge factor in Breedon’s decision to buy the Lippmann 1300Je as they continue to focus on investing in machinery with new environmentally friendly technology for their operations.

The 1300Je brings to the table substantial reductions in operational costs thanks to its hybrid diesel/electric design. Using a 13 litre StageV Volvo engine to power a 400Kva Stamford generator allows the Lippmann to easily produce 750 tonnes per hour using just 20.2 litres of fuel per hour.

“This hybrid combination of an onboard generator and mains plug in facility is the best on the market for me and will beat the fuel figures and reliability from the leading brands out there hands down,” says Charlie.

The crusher boasts a large IP rated control panel allowing ease of use and monitoring at all times. At Breedon, the control set up is also mirrored to a smaller screen mounted inside the cab of the feeding excavator which is operated by Simon Ferguson.

He says: “During my time on this machine, I’ve found it to be really easy to operate. It does exactly what I want it to do and does it easily. Having the screen in the cab also allows me to tweak the settings quickly if needed safely within the excavator cab.”

Another plus point for the 1300Je is the integrated telematics system that allows live remote monitoring of the machine’s production and component running statistics. This information is also saved allowing management easy access to daily, weekly, monthly or annual production figures and running costs. The continuous machine monitoring will also send early problem alerts.

The arrival of the Lippmann to Cloud Hill was the final cog in delivering a reduction in fuel consumption and ultimately a more sustainable operation. Having the robust build and proven design of the Lippmann, supported by the first-class service and support from the Agg-Pro team can only serve to ensure Cloud Hill continues to meet their ambitious production targets.

Agg-Pro are authorised suppliers of Lippmann. Established in 1996 to provide a personal, customer focussed approach to the supply of equipment for the quarrying and recycling industries, the company is currently experiencing an exciting period of growth.

Contact the team at Agg-Pro on 01827 280139 to register your interest today for the Lippmann 1300Je. 

“With the delivery of the first 1300Je to the Breedon Group, Lippmann is proud to offer a high-productivity hard-rock primary jaw crusher to the UK market. The future of Lippmann in the UK and rest of world is bright, with additional new products in development." 

Kevin Kiesgen, Vice President at Lippmann.