Metso’s portable jaw plays a key role at Bröderna Björklund’s hard rock recycling

“After two years of usage, this portable crusher has proven itself to be just the right tool for us. It crushes even the hardest rock types at an average capacity of 300 tons per hour and includes all the features we need,” states the owner and Managing director Peter Björklund.

“Wheel-mounted unit is perfect for us because we do not need to move the machine on-site. Electric drive is highly economical while having a powerful generator readily available.”

“Our portable plant is being moved between our different sites on monthly basis. As a compact machine, NW130 can be transported during one, full day,” he adds.

A quarry needs recycling, too

In a rainy January day, Bröderna Björklund team runs their NW130 jaw in a Bjärlöv quarry near Kristiansand, owned by Scandinavian Stone AB. Production and cutting of high-quality paving stones creates a big amount of excess rock that can be recycled to different aggregates products.

This rock is extremely hard to crush, having crushability index of 25% and abrasiveness 1760 g/t. The feed contains leftover blocks of floor and road pavement production, even abandoned tombstones.

To start, the Björklund team hammers the granite blocks to 0-700 mm size to suit the Nordberg® C130™ crusher cavity. After that, Caterpillar 980 M wheel loader feeds the crusher, operated at 120 mm closed side setting.

Typical to Swedish and Norwegian quarries, the primary crushing is carried out as a separate process from secondary and tertiary ones for better overall control. After NW130, the materials are loaded into a nearby Jonsson crushing and screening plant for typical aggregates grades.

The whole process is being powered by Scania 450 kVa generator, consuming some 30 liters of diesel per hour. Because of the hardness of the rock, the NW130 jaw is equipped with a 200-kW electric motor.

“A powerful crusher with a long cavity is a must”

Listing the main requirements of the primary crusher at the company’s jobs, Peter Björklund stresses the benefits of the C130 jaw crusher design:

“This 40-ton weighing crusher is sturdy and powerful enough to process even the extremely hard materials we recycle. Long cavity is a must for us, and the increasing stroke in the bottom of the cavity ensures good reduction ratio while keeping production high.”

“Thanks to the large, 1,3 x 1,0-meter feed opening, the crusher can process rather large stone blocks with less need for extra hammering.”  

“Feed with no fines, just the hard granite blocks, creates another challenge for the wear parts. We use two-piece quarry profiled wear parts and turn them around to reach the full lifetime,” Peter Börklund comments.

Moving as two pieces

After approximately one month of crushing, its time to move the NW130 jaw to the next quarry in Skåne, Southern Sweden.

“For transporting our 67-ton portable jaw, we just lift the feed hopper and feeder from the main chassis and move them on a low bed trailer. The rest of the wheeled equipment goes smoothly attached to a truck via king pin.”

Bröderna Björklund has a compact genset for electricity and one container for tools and maintenance spares which follows the equipment. Including all site preparations, moving NW130 from site to site takes one, long working day.

102 years old company

Peter Börklund and his brother Thomas, who run the company together, represent the fourth generation in charge. Their grandfather Albin and his father started the company in 1922.

“Our company started the crushing works already in 1925, and the first jaw crusher we bought was the Finnish Lokomo, the predecessor of Metso,” Peter Björklund states.

Today, the yearly production of natural and recycled aggregates reaches one million tons. In addition to concrete and road grades, Bröderna Björklund produces materials at the company’s six own quarries for offshore and water building purposes, exporting to Denmark and the Baltic countries.

One interesting and important end product type is 55-130 mm aggregates blocks, prepared 60 000 tons per year for Hässelholm and Vilnius to produce mineral wool.