Continuous quality on asphalt chippings with new Metso NW™ crushing plant

The aggregate production area is only a few kilometers away from the Etzweiler lignite mining area. One can see everywhere the strikingly well-kept excavators and vehicles of the company Collas. The gravel washing is done in Morschenich Buir and it is used, among other things, as landfill for the excavation. The aggregate production is located in Merzenich Golzheim. The material is processed without primary crushing and directly through pre-screening into two fractions. While wall sand (0/4) is dumped directly, the 2/63 material for the high-grade chippings production, land into the mobile Metso Nordwheeler 100HPC cone crushing plant.

Fine crushing with proven standards

Their new Nordwheeler is a semi-mobile unit for fine crushing, equipped with an HP100 cone crusher, a CVB1540 circular vibrator, a complete belt system for three fractions, integrated bunker system, discharge chute and feed belt.

Collas processes the 2/63 material to final grain sizes of 0/2, 2/5 and 5/16 mm. Since the plant has proven itself over decades, they wanted to maintain the established quality standard level under all circumstances and decided in 2018 to go for the successor Nordwheeler model. Their old crushing plant is not completely retired and continues to serve as a supportive equipment.

"Surely a stationary installation would have been an option, but we would have had to build suitable foundations and the necessary steel construction. With the semi-mobile system, we have gained the best experience and are still a little more flexible," says Sebastian Collas.

The gravel material from Collas is very hard to work with and, according to the experience of the two entrepreneurs, can best be processed using the Metso system. Comparisons with crushers from other manufacturers turned out in favor of the Nordwheeler. "In addition to basalt chippings, we offer our flameproof gravel. Through our CE certification, we meet the requirements of TL aggregates for asphalt. In addition, we can provide well-founded test reports on the use of our material as paving gravel. We therefore did not want to shake up the stability of our results with regard to grain shape and compressive strength by further unnecessary experiments", continues Sebastian Collas.

The only company in the district to offer quality asphalt-suitable gravel

The installation and commissioning of the new Nordwheeler went smoothly. The young team also intends to expand the offer for the asphalt industry and individual civil engineering projects in the future. "We serve our own construction projects, private customers and smaller companies in the area, who appreciate our high quality end products." Collas is the only company in the district that offers asphalt-suitable gravel with these quality characteristics.