Pioneer in asphalt recycling in Finland
Recycling asphalt is generally a difficult business. On the one hand, landfilling is very expensive and on the other hand ever fewer landfills are prepared to accept the slabs of asphalt. Even more difficult is the processing of Finnish asphalt on account of its very special composition. On the one hand, it must be very flexible to withstand the extreme changes in weather in Finland and on the other hand it is mixed with a very hard base material. dsb is carrying out pioneering work here and has supplied the first machine for crushing asphalt in Finland in summer. In June this year, KH Koneet OY, the dsb Innocrush partner in Fin-land handed over an Innocrush 50 and an Innoscreen 25 to its customer (Fig.).
Up to now, temperature conditions in Finland have only permitted crushing with a jaw crusher during winter months. dsb has now set new standards by crushing and processing asphalt in an impact mill over the entire year. The wear costs are somewhat higher for an impact mill, but the possibility of crushing over the entire year and the production of perfectly cubic finished material mean a much higher profit.
Thanks to the unique crusher geometry, the Innocrush 50 with its 1300-mm rotor diameter guarantees extremely high capacity. This is obvious in this application: 270 t/h processed asphalt with a feed size up to 1000 mm. One criterion for the high capacity is the double-deck heavy-duty screen supplied as standard. This screens off material that has the final grain size, and transfers this past the mill directly to the main discharge belt. The fine material can also be conveyed on the side discharge belt to the stockpile. Another criterion is the hydraulic monitoring of the main discharge belt, which guarantees problem-free operation. If necessary, it is possible to intervene in the control of the vibrotrough. The downstream double-deck screen separates the material into the required fractions: 0-11 mm, 11-16 mm and 16-80 mm.
As this was a pioneering contract, dsb technicians stayed at the customer’s site for the first few weeks to provide support. The experience gained with the special Finnish asphalt led directly to machine optimization.
