With a shift towards more stringent emissions regulations in Europe, crushing, screening and materials handling equipment provider Pilot Crushtec says its latest TwisterTrac VS350E Stage V crusher helps customers meet these requirements. The machine was showcased at the recent Hillhead quarrying, construction and recycling exhibition held in England.

“Designed to comply with the European Union’s stringent Stage V emission standards for non-road mobile machinery, this model reflects a continued refinement of a highly successful concept,” says Pilot Crushtec sales and marketing director Francois Marais. “The original design has already established a strong and proven track record in demanding applications worldwide.”

The company notes that there are over 100 units operating globally in Tier 3 countries, and that the machine features the widely supported Volvo Penta engine, said to boost sustainability in terms of emissions compliance, long-term reliability and serviceability.

The crusher is designed as a dual-powered unit capable of operating either on its onboard diesel genset or, where available, directly from a grid electricity supply.

“This is a very important feature for emissions-regulated markets,” Marais says. “Plugging directly into the grid to run the machine electrically gives customers the option to reduce emissions even further and, in many cases, lower their operating costs as well.”

The Twister vertical shaft autogenous crusher is designed to boost the machine’s productivity and cost efficiency, says Pilot Crushtec product specialist James Atkins, explaining that material is fed into the top of the crusher and directed into a high-speed vertically mounted rotor.

“From there, the material is accelerated outward by centrifugal force and thrown against a surrounding rock box or anvil ring,” Atkins says. “Crucially, much of the crushing action is achieved through rock-on-rock impact rather than metal-on-rock contact.”

The autogenous crusher is able to produce a consistently shaped cubical product that is highly valued in aggregate and sand production and, because the material itself forms a protective bed inside the crushing chamber, wear on internal components is significantly reduced.

Ease of access during maintenance is another feature of the TwisterTrac VS350E, engineered to help customers achieve high levels of equipment availability. Features such as the onboard jib crane for rotor handling, hydraulically operated lid lifting and modular wear components are all designed to reduce downtime and simplify routine service tasks, Atkins explains.

The machine boasts throughputs of up to 350 tonnes per hour depending on application and configuration, making it suitable not only for high-volume aggregate and sand production, but also for demanding recycling and mineral processing applications.

“While the core European market is firmly rooted in quarrying, construction and recycling, the technology has also proven itself in more specialised applications including glass recycling as well as electronic waste and precious metals recovery,” Marais says.

The growing installed base of TwisterTrac VS350E units across the UK and eastern Europe, together with an increasing number of direct sales enquiries from continental Europe, has prompted Pilot Crushtec to expand its distributor network, affirms Marais.