A larger crushing chain enhances the operations of a family business

“About a month ago, we got our latest addition, the Lokotrack® LT330D™ mobile crusher,” says Kari Judin, the father who established the family business.

Judin found the company in 1983 when he started to dream of running a company of his own, having worked as a driver for his home municipality and occasionally in the wood transportation business. Kari Judin purchased his first truck and loader and obtained traffic licenses.

Now, almost 40 years later, the company has nine trucks and six wheel loaders. The company has obviously grown and continues to do so.

Crushing operations in their own hands

In 2016, the company purchased its first aggregates production equipment, because there was increasing demand for aggregates. When using external companies, it was difficult to match sales with available capacity. They often had nothing to sell and the quarry was empty.

The company decided to purchase Lokotrack® LT106™ primary crusher and Lokotrack® LT220D™ crusher for the intermediate and fine crushing. Now, in 2021, the company has updated its chain, as there has been an increase in demand. Increased quality demands concerning asphalt grades, for example, also affected the investment decision.

“The machine handles even finer grades”

Today at Kitsarinkallio, the rock is crushed using a crushing chain with a Lokotrack® LT120™ primary crusher, Lokotrack® LT330D™ secondary crusher, and Lokotrack® ST4.10™ three-deck screen. Kari’s son Kristian conveys the crushed rock from beneath the crusher. He parks his wheel loader and comes to share his experiences.

“There’s more than 60,000 metric tons of stone to be crushed this time, asphalt grades and zero-based aggregates. When making asphalt grades, the shape of the stone is important. This new LT330D™ crusher produces really good shapes. It’s also very powerful and can handle finer grades as well,” says Kristian Judin.

Capacity has increased by approximately 25–30% thanks to the larger new crusher.

“The sales rep assured us we would manage with this equipment. And we have, at least for now. It wasn’t only sales talk,” says Kari and laughs.

Kristian also likes the ICr™ remote control system used in Metso Outotec’s equipment. In the Judins’ chain, it is possible to manage the central settings of the crushers from the excavator cabin. It is very useful when the crusher needs to be adjusted due to wear, for example. 

“It’s so handy. You no longer have to leave the excavator cabin to adjust the crusher,” says Kristian.

“We also took the extended warranty for this new chain, five years or 10,000 hours. We had it for our previous equipment, and it was a good decision,” says Kari.

Good service and rapid reaction

The Judins both thank Metso Outotec for the availability of its services. Father Kari thanks Jussi Mäkelä for his sales efforts and worries about what will happen to them when Jussi retires.

“Will they find a salesman as good as Jussi? One who takes care of customers and really tries to solve their problems. Jussi sometimes visits the sites to ask how we’re doing and if there are any problems,” says Kari gratefully.

Kristian praises the maintenance services of Metso Outotec. One reason why the Judins originally chose Metso Outotec was its simplicity. People are served in their first language, and Metso Outotec employees react rapidly.

“Although we haven’t needed much maintenance yet. Of course, we have to take care of daily maintenance – change filters, and clean and grease the machines. Maintenance items are easily accessible in this equipment, and grease nipples have been centralized in a couple of easy spots, for example. There are good steps and safety rails to the upper parts,” says Kristian.