Anderson Columbia experiencing across-the-board advantages

Anderson Columbia, a construction-based company founded in 1958 by Joe Anderson in Dixie County, Florida, has greatly expanded since it was established.

The company, which operates multiple aggregate and asphalt plants in Florida and Texas, also serves as a highway construction firm in the Southeast, building roads, bridges and airport runways with its own materials.

In 2016, Anderson Columbia expanded into the New Braunfels, Texas, area to help meet infrastructure demands for the rapidly growing corridor between San Antonio and Austin. The company started at a greenfield site, mining limestone with a portable plant. But it quickly discovered that meeting the demands of the booming region was a significant challenge.

One specific challenge Anderson Columbia faced was the amount of heavy clays in the fault it was mining. Clay can wreak havoc on processing equipment, so Anderson Columbia required a solution that could handle the material without too much wear and tear – and without slowing production.

Finding a solution

Anderson Columbia reached out to McLanahan Corp. and ROMCO, McLanahan’s dry processing dealer in Texas, to see what equipment might best help with the heavy clays while allowing it to follow the veins of the quarry until it could get to a more stationary location.

After a material analysis from McLanahan’s in-house lab and working closely with McLanahan and ROMCO, Anderson Columbia installed a McLanahan pit portable MaxCap 600 primary impact crusher as its primary crushing plant.

“We’ve got quite a [few] places that we want to get into here, so we went with a portable primary at the moment so we can follow the face as we progress into the mine itself,” says Daniel Barrs, plant manager of the Tejas Quarry in New Braunfels. “Being such a new mine site, it gives us more flexibility and doesn’t choke us down to one individual spot.”

To feed the MaxCap and round out the portable primary, Anderson Columbia installed the unique configuration of an apron feeder, referred to as a Texas-style apron, and a wobbler feeder.

The apron feeder accepts bucketloads of quarry shot material and conveys it to the wobbler feeder, which scalps out some of the clay before it enters the MaxCap.

The MaxCap and wobbler feeder were installed on a five-axle chassis, and the apron feeder was installed on a separate quad-axle chassis for easy movement around the site.

For its secondary crushing plant, Anderson Columbia installed two McLanahan Universal NGS secondary impact crushers. Both impactors were optioned with a third curtain to provide additional material size reduction and eliminate the need for a tertiary crushing circuit.

Yielding results

Since startup, the McLanahan crushers and feeders have been an asset to Anderson Columbia’s limestone production at the Tejas Quarry.

On the primary side, Barrs says the wobbler feeder was a good choice and that equipment maintenance has been minimal.

“You have a wide variety of options you can do with a wobbler feeder, especially with the clay,” Barrs says. “Your buildup is minimal, and you’re able to keep a good, continuous run on average. Everything has been really sufficient in keeping our production rate at what we need it at.”

Anderson Columbia is also pleased with the MaxCap primary impactor.

“The MaxCap has been pretty bulletproof throughout this whole process,” Barrs says. “From the longevity standpoint, especially in the geology we’re in right now, it’s been a key asset.”

On the secondary side, Barrs says Anderson Columbia is impressed with the NGS impactors.

“It helped take the place of a VSI or cone or something like that to get the actual sizing and cubicity that we need for a lot of our HMA and ASTM products,” Barrs says. “By having that third curtain, and the availability to move it back and forth and get it dialed in the way we want it, we’re able to get a lot more longevity out of the secondary process with a lot less maintenance involved.

“With the third curtain, it allows you more options to change your final product size,” Barrs adds. “You’re going with two crushers versus a tertiary circuit, so you have less equipment involved in the whole process, which keeps your bottom line where it needs to be.”

Now, Barrs can fine-tune the crushers and feeders to meet Anderson Columbia’s needs. He appreciates the overall reliability of the machines, as well.

“My favorite part about the McLanahan system is the longevity and versatility of their products,” Barrs says. “We’ve had tremendous success on the wear life of blow bars. The bearings have held up excellently. Also, parts have been really easy to find – [either] on the shelf at ROMCO or McLanahan themselves keeping everything in stock for us. Especially right now in the climate we’re in, it’s been a huge advantage.”

Information for this article courtesy of McLanahan Corp.