With skyrocketing diesel prices, the ability for an aggregate producer to reduce energy costs is paramount to remaining profitable. And portable operations realize this need even more keenly.
Ellensburg Cement Products, a ready-mixed concrete company based in Ellensburg, Wash., sustains its material needs with aggregate mined from 10 sites located throughout Kittitas County, about 80 miles east of Seattle. Using a single portable crushing and screening setup, Ellensburg Cement crushes stone year-round for its own batch plants -- including two full-time ready mix batch concrete plants in the county -- as well as for area asphalt producers. The company has five active quarries with an equal number of active sand and gravel sites. On average, Ellensburg Cement moves its crushing operation monthly to produce the ideal amount of stone for its batch plants.
“At one time, we used to travel all over the state of Washington, ” said George Seubert, the company’s crusher superintendent. “We did a lot of contract crushing, in addition to supplying our batch plants. But, recently, we decided to downsize and take care of our own area.”
Ivan Hutchinson founded Ellensburg Cement in 1945, and the company’s roots trace back to Hutchinson Sand & Gravel, which Ivan founded in the 1930s. Eventually, Ivan’s son Jim became president of the company. On January 1, 2008, Jim turned over presidency of Ellensburg Cement to his own son, Jeff. With Jim’s daughter Heidi Sny as secretary/treasurer, Jeff Hutchinson and his sister mark the family’s third generation to stand at the company’s helm.
Equipment upgrades
Up until late 2006, Ellensburg Cement’s portable crushing operation consisted of a 30-in. x 42-in. jaw crusher with a 42-in. x 16-ft. apron feeder, a 6-ft. x 20-ft. horizontal screen, a 58-in. standard cone, a 54-in. shorthead cone, two 6-ft. x 16-ft. horizontal screens, two roll crushers, a vertical shaft impact crusher and various conveyors. But, when they reached the decision to downsize the crushing operation’s travel radius, Seubert and the Hutchinson family decided it was time to upgrade equipment to further increase efficiency.
“We decided to replace the shorthead cone with a new portable cone that would give us better production, and eliminate the roll crushers and VSI crusher altogether,” Seubert said. “This would take our plant down from a four- to five-unit plant -- depending on if we were using the VSI -- to a three-unit plant.” Ultimately, Seubert and the Hutchinsons chose a portable Raptor XL400 cone crusher from FLSmidth Excel.
According to Jim Hutchinson, the 52-in. Raptor XL400 cone initially caught his eye at ConExpo-Con/Agg. “We’ve known Sam Braithwaite, the local territory sales manager from FLSmidth Excel, for years -- from back when he and his dad were into crushing in this area,” Hutchinson said. “I decided I liked the Raptor cones and their automation package, so we went with Sam to the factory and to a site in North Carolina where we could see one running. We were really impressed not only with the cones, but also with the level of service we saw -- and we were sold.” Hutchinson bought the XL400 cone in late 2006, and it was installed and running by January 2007.
“We installed the Raptor cone on the same chassis where the shorthead cone had been, and we kept the same 6-ft. x 16-ft. screen,” Seubert said. “But at that time, we worked with Intermountain Machine & Fabrication in Idaho to design and build hydraulic leveling jacks on our portable plants to speed the setup process for us.” With the new leveling jacks, his crew uses a skid steer to help raise the plants into a level position before locking the legs in place. “With these jacks, we can now tear down at 6:00 a.m., transport the plants 30 miles, and be set up and running by 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. the same day,” Seubert added.
This feature is especially helpful considering the plants only stay in place for about a month before moving to a new site. If Ellensburg Cement’s crew used traditional leveling methods with cribbing timbers and jacks, setup could easily require up to a week or more -- seriously cutting into production. And since Ellensburg Cement keeps its concrete batch plants running throughout the year, there is no real time to play catch-up by crushing in the winter months to stockpile material for the rest of the year.
In fact, Ellensburg Cement is somewhat unique in its ability to produce concrete year-round. At an elevation of 1,525 ft. -- located in a valley within the Cascade Mountains -- Ellensburg, Wash., typically sees temperatures as low as -20° F and up to four or five ft. of snow each winter season. But because the company’s state-of-the-art, fully computerized ready-mixed batch plants are housed indoors, with hot water tanks that supply steam to the aggregate bins to keep the stone thawed, the plants are able to produce concrete full-time, year-round. Therefore, they require a steady supply of aggregate material year-round, as well.
Meeting material needs
At most locations, which provide either river gravel or shot rock, Ellensburg Cement sets up the plant to send material through the 42-in. x 16-ft. apron feeder to the 30-in. x 42-in. jaw and then to a 6-ft. x 20-ft. two-deck horizontal screen. Material that is 1-1/2-in. minus or 1-1/4-in. minus (depending on the site) is scalped to go to one of two wash plants located at each concrete plant site.
The 1-1/4-in. plus material then travels over a 6-ft. x 16-ft. horizontal screen to the 58-in. cone. Material coming off of the 58-in. cone travels up a conveyor to a split gate, and goes to both 6-ft. x 16-ft. screens, with ¾-in. plus material heading back to the 58-in. cone and to the Raptor XL400 cone. The Raptor cone produces ¾-in. minus material at a ½-in. closed-side setting. Ellensburg Cement’s portable crushing setup also includes a lab that tests its own samples to meet state specifications.
“The Raptor plant has exceeded our expectations in its ability to crush,” Seubert says. “We’ve been able to downsize the number of plants we use, but we’re producing more aggregate with less equipment. We’re getting about 260 to 270 tph at a ½-in. closed-side setting for about 3,000 tons per day.” He explained that Ellensburg Cement’s crushing crews work three 15-hour days each, in rotating shifts, with each crew having four days off after three days. Each 15-hour shift includes 12 hours of production with three hours of maintenance.
Ease of operation
According to plant operator Bo Lorentz, the Raptor cone has made operation much more cost effective, without sacrificing productivity. The automation package for the power unit allows him to monitor the crusher from the control house. And he says he finds the new cone creates less recirculation of material than the 58-in. cone. “It breaks all of the rock, versus the other cone, which has to recirculate more material,” Lorentz said. From a maintenance standpoint, Lorentz said he prefers the bushing bearings on the Raptor cone over the roller bearings on the 58-in. cone. “Because we crush all year, freezing and heat are not an issue with the new cone,” he added.
“Our wear costs have gone down with the new cone because, even if the Raptor is being used to make all fines, it uses cheaper liners than our old shorthead cone,” Seubert noted. “Obviously, our fuel costs have gone down because we’re not moving as many loads when we move the plant. And our energy costs have gone down, too.
He explained that some of Ellensburg Cement’s sites are very rural, with no nearby source of electrical power to run plants. So fuel costs include diesel to move multiple plants, as well as running a generator onsite at some locations. “The Raptor draws 245 amps for about 95 percent energy efficiency,” Seubert added. “With the Raptor in place, because of its efficiency and the fact that we’ve eliminated units, we’ve been able to cut fuel by 15 to 20 gallons per hour on our generator.”
With diesel now up to about $5 per gallon locally at press time, fuel cost savings translate to between $75 and $100 per hour -- or up to $1,200 per day.
“The Raptor plant has really done a good job for us,” Jeff Hutchinson said. “It works faster than our other cone. The automation package makes it easier to run, and the service and support we’ve received have been excellent. It’s gone a long way toward helping us to downsize the operation without having to downsize production, which has all translated to better overall energy savings.”
