Continued on next page 2
ROC’N
FEBRUARY 2017 ISSUE
Manufactured Sand Production Invigorates California Quarry
Fine crushing hard basaltic rock for making asphalt
sand and C33 sand for ready-mix concrete is a tough
job. This is what now makes up about 30% of the
overall production at BoDean Company’s Mark West
Quarry near Santa Rosa, CA. “That’s business we never
had before,” says Director of Production Bill Reid. “And
we’re planning to expand our production capabilities to
meet growing market demands. Adding manufactured
sand to our product mix is one of the best business
decisions we’ve ever made. It kind of evolved over
time.”
The quarry was opened in 1910 and run by various
operators until BoDean purchased it in 1989 and
updated and replaced the quarry’s existing equipment
and systems. For several years, the quarry successfully
produced base rock and two sizes of drain rock. At that
point, making sand was 10 to 15 years in BoDean’s
future, but never far from their minds.
“When we first took over the quarry, it was very vertical,
with large faces,” Reid said. “The quarry is located on
a steep hillside. We were mining rock 400 feet above
our plant. We had to do a lot of benching—that is,
cutting flat ledges into the hillside to form what we
called ‘work benches’ where we could drill and blast
the basaltic rock. When we finished with an area, we
would drop down to a lower level and cut a new work
bench.
“As we came down the hillside, we ran into some
water, clay and broken up rocks from time to time.
We had to learn how to handle that to maximize our
resource. But for the most part, we were crushing
and screening relatively dry material. Over the years
as we started thinking more and more about making
sand, we knew disposal of clay and wash plant water
would be a major problem because we have no room
for settling ponds at our cramped vertical site.”
The Mark West Quarry, equipped with a jaw crusher,
horizontal impact crusher and dry screening system,
was very successful at that time. Base rock and drain
rock were their main markets. But market demands
were volatile, changing yearly or even monthly. They
saw the next shift in the aggregate industry moving
towards asphaltic and concrete rock.
Also, Sonoma County, along with other counties in the
State of California, was telling aggregates producers
to stop taking alluvial gravels from rivers and streams.
That further increased demand for certain types of
crushed aggregates. The quarry’s product mix at that
time included drain rocks and base rocks.
Figure 1: BoDean purchased their
first REMco crusher for the Mark
West Quarry in 1995: a Dual Drive
SandMax 9000 VSI with two 250-
HP, 1800-rpm electric motors, and
a 37-in. 5-port rotor. It replaced a
44-in. Fine Head cone crusher. The
original objective was to balance
plant production while making the
asphalt product more cubicle.
REMco Operators Council Newsletter –!–
Model 400 SandMax VSI
Max Feed Size 3” (75 mm)
Speed Range * 1000 – 1800 rpm / BC8
HP/KW Range 300 hp / 225 kw – 400 hp / 300 kw
Rotors 30-4-14; 33-4/5-14; 37-4/5-14
Chamber Type Rock-on-Rock, Sand Type
Weight 30,000 lbs. / 13,608 kgs.
*Higher speed available with oil lube system.
Continued on next page 4
Enlarging the Quarry
In 1994-95 BoDean decided to enlarge the Mark
West product line by including rock that could be
used in asphalt and concrete products. “To fulfill all
our fluctuating demands efficiently,” Reid said, “we
developed a system with swinging product gates that
provided diversification with one simple plant. That
took a lot of creative engineering and design. But it
means we didn’t have to change screens each time
we changed product lines.” While the fine crusher
produced an abundance of the small 3/8” chip, it did
not produce enough of the sand product. Both of
these products were not being produced in the right
shape—it was too long and flat. So the fine cone
crusher was replaced with a REMco 9000 rock-on-
rock vertical shaft impact crusher.
“The jaw-cone-VSI system with dry screening
enabled us to produce our existing product mix
Figure 2: In 2007 a second REMco Model 400 crusher was added
as part of a plant expansion to produce cubicle concrete rock and
C33 concrete sand. This required a REMco SandMax 400 Single
Drive VSI crusher with one 400-hp, 1800-rpm electric motor and
an updated 37-in. 5-port rotor.
plus the asphaltic material with a very good cubicle
shape,” Reid said. “This added to our product
sales potential, and overall we had better quality
products with greater durability and workability at
lower production costs. Further, it added to our tph
capabilities and cut maintenance time and expense
significantly. Plus, we were a step closer to making
sand.
“With this equipment and system we operated very
successfully for a number of years,” Reid said. “But
since we were so dependent on contracts that can
come and go, we decided to enter into the asphalt
business ourselves, and purchased an asphalt plant
nearby.
“At first we were buying sand for the plant from an
outside local source, and that was working out. But
the sand source began to dry up. Sand was becoming
more expensive, and the supply was sporadic. We
were at the mercy of our suppliers, some of whom
were our competitors. So we knew we were going
to have to take control of our own destiny and make
sand.
“Further, we thought it was potentially very
profitable,” Reid said. “But we still had to solve the
problem of disposing with wash plant water and clay
waste. The rock we mine contains 15% to 20% clay,
or cake as we call it. With no room for settling ponds,
we had to find a good way to deal with the cake if we
wanted to make sand. So we did our homework.”
BoDean started checking out various solutions,
including belt presses to move waste off site, but
Figure 3: Typical REMco Model 400 SandMax application specifications. –!–Continued on next page 4
Rock Engineered Machinery Co. Inc.
263 S. Vasco Road • Livermore, CA 94551 • USATel (925) 447-0805 • Fax (925) 447-7038
Website: www.remcovsi.com/offer.html
A WORLDWIDE PRODUCT OF REMco – AN AMERICAN COMPANY
Unbeatable Package Price
New REMco 4510 PROcone:
• Cast steel body
• Bronze bushings
• Changeable eccentric throw
• Hydraulic adjustment and tramp relief
• Unitized oil system
• 250 HP electric motor and V-belt drive
• Fabricated steel sub-frame with six HD
rubber dampeners
$ 270,000
Limted
Time
Offer
buys a new 250 HP cone and a new 6 x 16 TD screen
Act now… Get $10,000* of the price of any REMco VSI crusher purchased with the above Cone/Screen package.
New 6 x 16 TD Inclined REMco PROscreen:
• HD side plates
• Integral feed box and discharge lips with
bolt in liners
• Clamp rails with quick remove/install wedge locks
• Single crown decks
• Coil spring trunnion suspension
• 20 HP motor with pivoted motor base and V-belt drive
• Grease lubricated vibrator mechanism
with adjustable throw
DISPLAY STAND
NOT INCLUDED
*Price is quoted in US dollars, discount not available separately and can not be combined with any other order.
(925) 44
Offer expires
3/11/2017
Pre-Show Deal …Why pay more, buy now and $ave!
* –!–Incoming material is deposited by front-end loaders
onto a vibrating grizzly feeder and fed into the jaw
crusher. From there, the crushed material goes to
a surge pile with an underground reclaim tunnel,
equipped with two belt feeders, to feed the secondary
plant with a 7×20 three-deck screen. Here aggregate is
separated out: the smallest is ½-inch minus. Everything
else goes to the secondary cone or tertiary VSI. Then,
it is collected on a common belt that feeds to a closed
circuit system that consists of a 6×20 three-deck screen,
a 6×20 two-deck screen, and the cone and VSI. From
there, the material can go to individual stockpiles or
to a blending belt. This blending belt feeds a stockpile/
surge pile that feeds the wash plant.
Under the surge pile is a reclaim tunnel with a
belt feeder that feeds a quality control screen that
eliminates clumps. The material then goes to the
blade mill (for agitating and scrubbing) and on to a
7×20 triple-deck horizontal screen. It then moves to
stockpiles or back to the REMco 400 VSI and on to the
blade mill in closed circuit. The smallest material goes
to a sand pump to a cyclone to a dewatering screen to
final stockpile as C33 spec sand at higher than 3.1 FM.
“We use a cyclone instead of the much larger sand
screws because of our lack of space,” Boyle said. “We
found that the gradation consistency is beautiful.
And with two VSIs in the system, we have all cubical
product—nothing flat or elongated—and we’ve
eliminated oversize and out-of-balance material.”
Plant Superintendent Anthony Boyle explains
the crushing circuit, consisting of a primary plant with
a feeder and jaw, and a secondary plant with a cone
crusher, a REMco SandMax, and three screens that
combine to produce all the various aggregate products
and sand needed for market demands.
Figure 4: C33 spec manufactured sand.
Figure 5: (left to right) REMco General Manager Kevin
Cadwalader, BoDean Director of Production Bill Reid, REMco
Founder Damian Rodriguez and REMco Western Regional
Manager Terrence Costa.
nothing seemed quite right. Then they found a plate
press system from Europe that enabled them to stack
the cake and bring it back up the hillside. There it was
mixed with overburden and placed in the reclamation
project required for all quarries by California law.
“That was our ‘aha’ moment,” Reid said. “At that point
we knew we could make sand efficiently at this quarry
site. We were jubilant! Our next challenge was to
determine how to revise or add to our existing plant to
produce the sand. Again, we went to REMco. They’re
the sand experts. We liked that they know all there
is to know about cone crushers versus VSI crushing
capabilities. In the process, we looked at a lot of
numbers—a premium plant versus more economical
plants—what would the payback be? We chose the
premium plant, and the payback has been about four
years.”
“In addition to a wash plant, we installed a REMco
400 SandMax. The result has been everything we’d
hoped for. We make top quality sand, including spec
sand products, very efficiently in terms of production,
capital cost, wear parts cost, and balancing production
to meet market demands. Further, REMco gives a
production guarantee on their equipment; so we went
into sand making with great confidence. It’s one of
the wisest business decisions we’ve ever made at this
quarry.”
Crushing Circuit –!–After supplying their own asphalt plant with sand,
BoDean still had an abundance of sand to sell to other
markets. They determined that the best market for
their purposes was ready-mix concrete, but producers
resisted.
“They were so used to the super smooth alluvial sand
that they felt manufactured sand wouldn’t finish well,”
Reid said. “They thought it would leave marks, would
be rough, would be unstable, and wouldn’t pump well.
“We pointed out that manufactured sand was being
used all over the world,” Reid continued, “But they
still resisted. We tried several ready-mix suppliers, but
to no avail. So we did our own test pours, using the
concrete for our own equipment footings, and that
worked very, very well. We offered to give sand to
concrete companies to try out, but they didn’t want it.
It was like they had a mental block.”
“We saw that as a chance to go into the cement
business ourselves; so we became affiliated with a
ready-mix concrete company. That was in 2010, and it
has been a great opportunity for us. The only difference
we see between concrete made with alluvial sand and
manufactured sand is a little bit of our natural stone
color once it dries. Otherwise, there’s no difference.
Manufactured sand is at least as good as natural sand,
sometimes better. And what’s more it’s available when
natural sand is in short supply or is too expensive. The
ready-mix companies we’re partnering with are selling
concrete for finishing and everything else: bridges,
overpasses, buildings and so on. The strength is high,
and there have been no issues.
“A lot of times problems are lead-ins to opportunities,”
Reid said, and pointed out some examples:
“As electric costs soared, we
experimented with solar power in our
offices in 2007. That worked well; so we
installed solar panels on our reclaimed
hillside to power the entire quarry.
That has saved us a lot of money and
has ecological benefits. Now other
California aggregate companies are
trying solar and/or wind power
“We don’t have room for settling
ponds; so we found a neat, efficient
way to use waste material as part of
the reclamation process. It’s far better
than messy, mucky, hazardous settling
Figure 6: The Mark West Quarry is powered almost entirely with
solar panels installed on the reclaimed hillside above the plant.
“To any quarryman who thinks making sand is a can of
worms, I’d say it’s more like a can of opportunity. Just
do your homework, talk to manufactured sand experts,
then make the investment and reap the profits you’re
not getting now. It’s a big market. There’s room for us
all.”
ponds, and it will save us money over
time.
“Same with manufactured sand.
You ask the great majority of quarry
operators and they’ll say it can’t be
done successfully. Well, we’re doing
it very successfully. And it’s a huge
market. But usually it can’t be done
with a quarry’s existing standard
crushing equipment like primary
jaws and cones or primary horizontal
impactors and cones. We found the
VSI to be the solution.
“We’re selling all the sand we can
make. Currently our run time is 65
hours a week with about 700 tph from
the jaw crusher, 500 tph from the cone
and VSI combined, and about 80 tph
from the SandMax. We can only run
the sand plant long enough to digest
our waste mud. So we’re planning to
expand our reclaimed water system to
double our run time.
By: Carl Emigh (As seen in Rock Products, 04/2016) –!–Tech Tip Talk
Avoid Crusher Failures this Winter spring/
Cold weather can create havoc on any machine; your
REMco VSI is not immune to winter’s cold. Being
that your crusher is all steel, the cold overnight
temperatures linger on in the machine even when
the air temperature begins to warm. Whether you
are operating a grease lubricated machine or an
oil lubricated unit, any drop in temperature can be
detrimental to your daily production goals.
The oil lubricated machines are designed to operate
under variable temperature conditions. The system
includes temperature monitors and controls that
provide protection for proper lubrication to the
crusher. A silicon, imbedded heater is part of the
standard oil lube system. This is located on the
outside bottom of the tank. This is effective when the
air temperature is consistently below 45ºF or less. The
oil heater’s function is automatic as it is controlled
by a preset thermostatic device located in the return
line or oil tank, depending on the model year of your
crusher.
While the morning air temperature at time of crusher
start up may be below this, the crusher may not
start due to lack of oil flow to the crusher caused
by the higher viscosity of the cold oil and a greater
amount of by-pass when the oil pressure exceeds 70-
75psi. The oil tank heater is set to 60ºF and when the
power is turned on, it will raise the oil temperature
in the 40-gallon tank, reducing the oil pressure and
increasing flow to the crusher.
Depending on the actual ambient temperature, it
may take 30 to 45 minutes for the oil in the tank to
heat up to 60ºF. Under these circumstances, it is
advisable to allow the oil heater to operate by turning
on the electrical power to the system approximately
one hour before the crusher is put into service. When
the air temperature at the time of start-up is 60ºF or
higher, the crusher should start without any delay
waiting for the oil tank to warm up. This is based on
using the correct viscosity and specification lubricant.
Normal Temperature Conditions – Above 45ºF
Cold Temperature Conditions: Below 45ºF
Extreme Cold Temperature Conditions: Below 32ºF
The time to heat the oil in the tank may extend well
beyond one hour. Care should be taken to not attempt
to run the crusher with a temperature of less than
60ºF in the tank or to defeat the temperature control
or flow control systems as this may cause damage to
the bearing assembly from insufficient lubrication at
time of start.
REMco recommends that if possible, the electric
power to the lube unit be left on during non-crushing
periods so that if the oil temperature is below 60ºF the
heater will automatically turn on to warm the oil. With
this condition, if the oil pump is operated during non-
crushing periods, the automatic heater will maintain
the crusher at a temperature which would allow it to
start crushing promptly without a warm up period.
Users with Oil Lubrication System
REMco defines extreme cold temperature operation
as any time the crusher is to operate with an
ambient temperature lower than 32ºF. Under these
conditions, it is possible that the heating time to
warm the oil tank may be greater than desired and
it may interfere with the crusher’s operating cycle.
Because these conditions can vary greatly, additional
measures may be required to assure smooth and
continuous operation of the crusher. It is suggested
that you contact REMco for guidance for your specific
conditions.
Typical REMco Oil System
/ –!–Extreme Cold Temperature Conditions: Below 32ºF
Typical REMco Oil System
Special consideration is needed to pump grease
during cooler weather when running with a REMco
automatic grease system. It is typically recommended
to allow the crusher run at no load for 15 minutes
o r s o t o b r i n g u p t h e b e a r i n g t e m p e r a t u r e b e f o r e
bringing the machine to full load. This allows the
grease to warm up and the bearings to be properly
lubricated before the machine is put into operation.
Users that operate a REMco unit with a single point
system, it is recommended to grease when the
crusher is warm and rotating. Grease is delivered
to the bearings through the walls of the bearing
cartridge which is warmed by the heat generation
of the rotating shaft and bearings. By greasing the
crusher when it is at operating temperature the
grease flows easier making the grease gun easier to
pump.
Cool Temperature Conditions: 50ºF to 38ºF
Cool Temperature Conditions: 50ºF to 38ºF
Cold Temperature Conditions : 37ºF to 25ºF
Users with an Automatic Grease Lubrication
System
A small space heater mounted inside the cabinet of
the grease reservoir is sufficient to make the grease
pump through the grease lines into the crusher.
A larger space heater or a special insulated and
heated wrap around the grease reservoir may be
needed and grease may still have trouble flowing
through the grease lines until the crusher is running
and warm.
Users with a Manual Single Point System
The crusher should be running and warm when
greased.
Extreme Cold Temperature Conditions: Below 24ºF
It may be necessary to use a heated wrap on the grease
reservoir and electric heater tape and insulation on
the grease lines that deliver grease to the bearing
cartridge to allow the grease to flow. Additionally
the crusher will have to be running at operating
temperature (above 60ºF) to allow the grease to flow
through the grease portals inside the steel walls of
the cartridge to deliver grease to the bearings.
It is recommended that the grease lines be wrapped
in heater tape and insulated to allow the grease to
move through the lines freely.
Don’t forget about yourself in cold weather, ice and
snow can cause slip and fall injuries and no one wants
that, dress warm, be safe, and we’ll have more REMco
Tech Tips for you in our next news letter.
Cold Temperature Conditions: 37ºF to 25ºF
The crusher should be running warm but the lines
will be cold which may make pumping the grease
difficult. REMco suggests storing the grease gun in
a warm environment to aid the process as much as
possible.
Extreme Cold Temperature Conditions: Below 24ºF
Typical REMco Automatic Grease System
Typical REMco Single Point Grease System –!–This newsletter is produced for REMco users and its intent is to make your life easier! We want to hear what has been
happening with the REMco crusher in your plant . Send us your questions, comments and job stories to the email below.
Rock Engineered Machinery Co. Inc.
Kevin Cadwalader • kcadwalader@remcovsi.com
Chalin Luizinho • cluizinho@remcovsi.com
Tel (925) 447-0805 • Fax (925) 447-7038 • www.remcovsi.com
Upcoming Events
ConAgg/ConExpo 2017 in fabulous Las
Vegas, Nevada is upon us once again. Visit
our booth #C32649 located in the Central
Hall to see REMco’s latest development.
On display will be our latest technology developments in:
• New and improved Rotors
• New and improved crushing chambers
• New and improved crushers
• SmartBox crusher monitoring system
• Ask us about Tech Speak
The REMco PROcone is a heavy-duty secondary cone that is available in three head sizes, 36-in., 45-in.
and 51-in. The crushing chamber is designed to maintain its feed opening throughout the life of the wear
liners, providing consistent feed acceptance even when liners are worn. The crusher’s large feed opening is
designed to receive angular, elongated material typically produced from a jaw crusher.
The REMco PROscreen with built-in feed box, discharge lips, heavy-duty coil springs and adjustable vibrator
mechanism is available in widths from 4 ft. through 8 ft. in one-, two-, three- or four-deck designs.
REMco will have its latest VSIs on display, these are no nonsense crushers built for the tough aggregate jobs
that lesser machines just can’t do without breaking the budget, true cubical product shape, increase product
quality, strength and durability, manufacture all types of sands; concrete sand with the right F.M., asphalt
sand with the right grading, durability and volume, blast sands, and much, much more. All these materials are
produced with less power, lower wear cost and lower cost of ownership then our competitors.
It ’s that time of year again!