Turkish manufacturers key to aggregates equipment

Turkish manufacturers are important trading partners in the worldwide aggregate production sector, Mike Woof reports

Turkey occupies a key position geographically, allowing its industrial firms to trade with the EC, Russia, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, while the country's economy is strong at present. This is due in part to the Turkish Government, which set a diplomatic policy of improving and developing relations with all of its neighbours some years ago, reaping major financial rewards for the country's industries. Turkey's equipment manufacturers are in a good position as a result, having benefited from the healthy economic links with neighbouring nations. With its massive limestone sector (estimated at some 43% of the world's limestone reserves), Turkey has major quarrying as well as asphalt and cement production industries and it is no surprise that the country has developed indigenous manufacturers to serve these sectors. The Turkish economy is very active at present. Coupled with the country's strong links to North Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Russia for example where construction activity is also strong, Turkey's manufacturers are performing well both for the home market and with export sales.

Turkish crusher manufacturers have been building conventional jaw type units for many years, which have been used in the local market as well as being exported to North Africa and Asia for example. However the country's major crusher manufacturers have more recently broadened their product ranges, offering a wider array of machines and featuring a higher degree of sophistication. Burçelik and 1282 Nace are two of Turkey's leading crusher manufacturers, exporting units worldwide and that includes supplying equipment to Europe that meets the latest EC operating requirements.

Burak Saral is machinery factory manager at Burçelik. He said that much of Burçelik's export production, around 90%, is for the North African and Asian markets although the firm has also supplied mobile crushers to Greece and impact crushers to France. The current product line is broad and includes jaw, cone and impact crushers as well as VSIs, screening plants and dewatering systems. With Turkey's quarrying sector having focussed on using large stationary crushing plants, Burçelik has developed the capability to supply complete systems to customers that comprise primary, secondary, tertiary and screening equipment.

However, Burçelik has also widened its product line and is able to meet the tough European operating requirements for equipment, as well as supplying other manufacturers. Saral explained that the company also has a major sub-contracting operation, making components for other manufacturers. He said, "We also have a foundry and we cast up to 40tonnes at a time. Every kind of industry needs large castings." The firm has been building crushing and screening plants since the late 1980s and also sub-contracts crane components for 718 Liebherr that are specified with special steels to suit certain applications. In addition, Burçelik has manufactured mobile crushers for Austrian firm Hartl (now owned by 161 Atlas Copco) and for Swiss company 1283 Gipo. This has given the company particular experience of the tracked crusher sector and a comprehensive understanding of the design requirements for various international markets. Burçelik has developed its own design of machines to meet international needs and given the firm's strong sales into North Africa, the company could supply modern and high performance tracked crushers to the area should market demand prove sufficient.

At present Burçelik has a track-mounted machine range that includes 11 models; seven impact crushers, two jaw crushers, one cone crusher and a tracked screen. The two largest track-mounted impact crusher CP130 variants are powered by 313kW

engines, can cope with feed size of up to 600mm and can process up to 450tonnes/hour. The track-mounted CK120C and CK120R jaw crusher variants are driven by 280kW engines, can also cope with feed size of up to 600mm and offer maximum outputs of 250tonnes/hour. Meanwhile the track-mounted CC900SC cone crusher has a 280kW engine, can handle a feed size of 200mm and delivers a maximum throughput of 185tonnes/hour . Also track-mounted, the EU1855C screen has a 118kW diesel, handles a feed size of 120mm and offers a maximum throughput of 200tonnes/hour. However the company also has a comprehensive line-up of jaw crushers, cone crushers, impact crushers, VSIs, industrial sand producing equipment, screens and dewaterers to meet a wide array of stationary plant requirements.

With highway construction a major focus in markets such as Russia, North Africa, Asia and the Middle East where Burçelik already has strong sales, the firm is well-placed to capitalise on growing demand for new equipment.

Meanwhile arch rival Nace has also developed a strong position in the Turkish quarrying sector, as well as exporting its machines. Hakan Köseo?lu is general manager at Ankara-based Nace and he said, "For the time being we are interested in North Africa and the former Soviet Republics." Around 60% of the firm's crushers are for the export market and Köseo?lu explained, "There is not so much demand for our machines in Turkey now as there are too many secondhand machines." The firm recently installed a large plant in Algeria and Köseo?lu said, "We are doing very well in Algeria and Libya just now." He added that Kazakhstan is another important export market for the firm. Algeria has soft limestone deposits similar to those in Turkey and he said, "...so they buy impact crushers." By comparison, Libya has deposits of abrasive rock that is much harder, so the market there leans towards primary jaw crushers and these also tend to be much smaller plants than those used in Algeria for example.

The company has been considering developing a tracked mobile crusher. "We've been looking at this for a long time but we don't believe there is a market for them in Turkey. We designed a tracked crusher usng a 230 Hidromek excavator chassis, but the market was not sufficient to justify its develpment." However he added that there may be some potential for a tracked crusher in Libya and with that country's highway building programme now gearing up, this could provide sufficient incentive for the firm to further develop its own design. The Libyan stretch of the North African highway will measure some 1,750km long and connect the country with Tunisia and Egypt and will prompt strong demand for crushed aggregate. It remains to be seen whether Libya's existing quarrying industry will be sufficient to supply the country's needs for crushed stone but it seems likely that suppliers will see the need to invest in new crushing plant to increase output.

 Quarrying production The 1280 Simge Group holds an interesting position with regard to Turkey's quarrying industry as the company is a major producer of crushed stone from its own operations, as well as being a manufacturer of equipment for the sector. The company's Turkish quarrying operations produce some 12 million tonnes/year of crushed limestone, with around 4 million tonnes/year coming from its largest quarry site near the company headquarters in Bursa. This quarry has produced some 500,000tonnes/year of asphalt in the past and that output will increase, due to the installation of the site's new plant and recycling equipment. At the same time, the Simge Group's 208 E-MAK division has proven a technology leader in the asphalt plant sector, first with its Challenger and more recently with its RATech system. This large quarry has been the proving ground for the E-MAK equipment, including the novel Challenger stone storage system and the innovative RATech recycling equipment. Simge commissioned its first Challenger plant at the quarry and has now added a second system, with the company also proving its RATech concept at the site.

According to Emre Gencer a member of the Simge Group's board, this allows the company a significant advantage in the market. He said "Unlike our competitors, we're able to test our machines in our own quarry." And he explained that this is of particular importance in the asphalt sector, given the complexity of the equipment involved and the difficulties this poses for trialling asphalt batching plant.

The firm's proven Challenger system has now been in use for some time and E-MAK has supplied a number of other firms with this equipment and some Challenger plants are used with asphalt batching plants from rival manufacturers. This stores aggregates prior to use in an asphalt plant and because the material can be pre-dried, this helps reduce overall energy consumption considerably. According to E-MAK the Challenger's enclosed storage can cut overall energy consumption in asphalt production by up to 50% by reducing the amount of heating required to dry materials, as well as the emissions. And this equipment can also cut the use of electrical power by up to 20%, as well as optimising bitumen use and lowering its consumption by 10-15%. As the crushed stone is stored internally in the Challenger, the system also helps reduce dust emissions from a site and improves the environmental profile of the overall asphalt batching operation. According to E-MAK, using the Challenger can boost aggregate output by some 50%, while boosting the efficiency of an asphalt batching operation by 15%.

The innovative RATech is designed to boost the efficiency of using recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) in asphalt production. A key feature of this plant is that there is no direct heating of the recycled materials, so that the binder is not damaged in the process and improving the quality of the ouput material. The core section is the triangular profile dryer where the RAP is heated indirectly and which is conveyed cold in a vertical elevator so as to prevent sticking and build-ups that would otherwise require periodic shutdowns for internal cleaning. The flow of the hot material within the system is from top to bottom while heat losses are prevented as the RAP is stored in a heated bin.

The asphalt producer is able to use the entire output of a RATech plan to prepare a base course, using recycled asphalt that is mixed with a small proportion of fresh aggregate, bitumen and anti-aging additives. The RATech can also be incorporated with conventional asphalt batching plants to produce the higher quality binder and wearing course grades of asphalt. For this, smaller percentages of recycled asphalt are used and the the pre-mixed output from the RATech is then mixed again with fresh materials from the conventional asphalt plant to meet the required specifications of the binder or wearing course.