PARTNERSHIP OFFERS NEW HEAVY DUTY PLANT, SOLUTIONS<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\nPosted July 29, 2016<\/span> | By Damian Christie<\/span><\/div>\nA new partnership will provide quarrying and recycled aggregates operators with access to international plant and equipment solutions. Damian Christie<\/strong> spoke to Simon Toal<\/strong> of Skala Australasia about what BlueMAC Manufacturing has to offer the industry.<\/span><\/div>\nSkala Australasia, a specialist in bulk materials handling<\/a> and vibratory process equipment<\/a>, has been appointed as the exclusive distributor across Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands of heavy duty and severe duty plant and equipment for Northern Ireland-based BlueMAC Manufacturing.<\/p>\nBlueMAC, which is a joint venture between UK plant and equipment manufacturers Blue Group and DMAC Engineering, fabricates and design engineers complete plant and equipment for the processing of construction and demolition (C&D), commercial and industrial waste<\/a> (C&I), and\u00a0municipal solid waste<\/a> (MSW) streams. In Ireland, BlueMAC\u2019s plant solutions are ideal for fines clean-up in recycled concrete building materials.<\/p>\nSkala, which was formed in 2012 and recently celebrated four years in operation, is the Australian distributor of General Kinematics heavy duty and severe duty density separators, screens and feeders, MATEC dewatering and filter press systems, Spaleck flip-flow screens, Masaba radial and telescopic conveyors and BRT Hartner recycling systems. Skala also assists customers with equipment selection and design, installation, commissioning and in-service maintenance of plant and equipment. Skala\u2019s customers to date have been in the mining and recycled aggregates sectors but some of its products are starting to attract the attention of quarry operators in Australia.<\/p>\n
Some of the BlueMac equipment that will now be available to the Australian market will include all-metal separator and density separators, which are used for cleaning up aggregates, trommel screens, hopper feeders, and conveyors.<\/p>\n
\u2018A perfect fit\u2019<\/h6>\n
The foundations for the alliance were established in late 2015, when Skala began working with BlueMac in an informal capacity on several projects. The New South Wales-based company had been seeking a specialist manufacturing partner that could deliver large recycling solutions after finding that its customers\u2019 inquiries were increasing in size and complexity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe met BlueMAC in September and October last year,\u201d Skala\u2019s managing director Simon Toal said. \u201cThere was a couple of products that we were interested in at the time. One was the all-metal separator, so we started dealing with BlueMAC specifically for access to that product, as it was one our customers didn\u2019t have. Concurrent with that, we\u2019ve also designed and built some full recycling systems ourselves in Australia. They\u2019ve been very bespoke, individually engineered projects,\u00a0 and then we\u2019ve gone out to market and individually procured the components and delivered them more like an EPCM. That\u2019s been very time-consuming for us and not cost-competitive for our clients. That\u2019s how we came to understand BlueMAC more and what its full capability was. BlueMAC does a complete integration of individual components and complete systems.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toal added that Skala and BlueMAC began to submit combined tenders for work at the end of 2015, with BlueMAC focusing on the design, fabrication and installation, and Skala sourcing the components that it is a dealer for in Australia. After securing a number of projects in early 2016, the two parties agreed that the best path forward was for Skala to become the new Australasian distributor of BlueMAC\u2019s integrated solutions. Further BlueMAC had already completed a number of installations with many brands of plant and equipment that Skala already represented, eg General Kinematics (GK), Spaleck.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\nAn excavator loads the GK screen with C&I waste.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\u201cThe fit seemed perfect,\u201d Toal said. \u201cThe beauty of BlueMAC is that their plants globally utilise those brands as well. Their engineering processes and systems already are equipped with the end brands that we represent.\u201d<\/p>\n
BlueMac is already in the process of building two plants for a Skala customer, which will be two of the largest construction and demolition processing facilities in Australia. Although Toal could not disclose a name, he indicated that the client was a major NSW waste company. He added that the plants would be \u201chighly automated\u201d and incorporate equipment from other Skala brands, such as General Kinematics feeders and destoners\u201d.<\/p>\n
Toal said the first of the plants, which will be located in Western Sydney, should be active by September this year, with the second to come online in December. The footprints of both C&D processing plants will be 140m long by 50m wide, and they are expected to process in excess of 150 tonnes per hour of just about any C&D and\/or C&I waste application.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe C&D plant will start with processing pieces of inferior material that could be a metre by a metre,\u201d Toal said. \u201cHuge chunks of recycled concretes, timber poles, metal, soil aggregates, plastics, light papers, any size of C&D waste, could follow. Out of those we would separate timber, processed timber, ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals, light plastics, heavy plastics, rubble. On the aggregates\/concrete side, it should be able to produce a -6mm or -8mm clean soil, followed by a 6mm to 25mm aggregate product, then a 50mm to 150mm +150mm rubble.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robotics and automation<\/h6>\n
The two recycling plants will, for the most part, be automated, although they will still require some manual labour on picking stations to ensure that various contaminants do not become mixed in with specific waste streams. Toal predicted that, though, is likely to change in the coming years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next step for us is we\u2019re exploring the use of robotics to minimise labour on this plant and most BlueMAC plants that have been installed still have an element of manual labour,\u201d Toal said. \u201cWith the equipment that we\u2019ve put on this C&D plant, we\u2019ve reduced that quite a bit from some in the past. There still is manual picking quality control on this system and the challenge for us on next generation models is to introduce robotics to replace manual labour.\u201d<\/p>\n
Skala Australasia, a specialist in bulk materials handling<\/a> and vibratory process equipment<\/a>, has been appointed as the exclusive distributor across Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands of heavy duty and severe duty plant and equipment for Northern Ireland-based BlueMAC Manufacturing.<\/p>\n BlueMAC, which is a joint venture between UK plant and equipment manufacturers Blue Group and DMAC Engineering, fabricates and design engineers complete plant and equipment for the processing of construction and demolition (C&D), commercial and industrial waste<\/a> (C&I), and\u00a0municipal solid waste<\/a> (MSW) streams. In Ireland, BlueMAC\u2019s plant solutions are ideal for fines clean-up in recycled concrete building materials.<\/p>\n Skala, which was formed in 2012 and recently celebrated four years in operation, is the Australian distributor of General Kinematics heavy duty and severe duty density separators, screens and feeders, MATEC dewatering and filter press systems, Spaleck flip-flow screens, Masaba radial and telescopic conveyors and BRT Hartner recycling systems. Skala also assists customers with equipment selection and design, installation, commissioning and in-service maintenance of plant and equipment. Skala\u2019s customers to date have been in the mining and recycled aggregates sectors but some of its products are starting to attract the attention of quarry operators in Australia.<\/p>\n Some of the BlueMac equipment that will now be available to the Australian market will include all-metal separator and density separators, which are used for cleaning up aggregates, trommel screens, hopper feeders, and conveyors.<\/p>\n The foundations for the alliance were established in late 2015, when Skala began working with BlueMac in an informal capacity on several projects. The New South Wales-based company had been seeking a specialist manufacturing partner that could deliver large recycling solutions after finding that its customers\u2019 inquiries were increasing in size and complexity.<\/p>\n \u201cWe met BlueMAC in September and October last year,\u201d Skala\u2019s managing director Simon Toal said. \u201cThere was a couple of products that we were interested in at the time. One was the all-metal separator, so we started dealing with BlueMAC specifically for access to that product, as it was one our customers didn\u2019t have. Concurrent with that, we\u2019ve also designed and built some full recycling systems ourselves in Australia. They\u2019ve been very bespoke, individually engineered projects,\u00a0 and then we\u2019ve gone out to market and individually procured the components and delivered them more like an EPCM. That\u2019s been very time-consuming for us and not cost-competitive for our clients. That\u2019s how we came to understand BlueMAC more and what its full capability was. BlueMAC does a complete integration of individual components and complete systems.\u201d<\/p>\n Toal added that Skala and BlueMAC began to submit combined tenders for work at the end of 2015, with BlueMAC focusing on the design, fabrication and installation, and Skala sourcing the components that it is a dealer for in Australia. After securing a number of projects in early 2016, the two parties agreed that the best path forward was for Skala to become the new Australasian distributor of BlueMAC\u2019s integrated solutions. Further BlueMAC had already completed a number of installations with many brands of plant and equipment that Skala already represented, eg General Kinematics (GK), Spaleck.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fit seemed perfect,\u201d Toal said. \u201cThe beauty of BlueMAC is that their plants globally utilise those brands as well. Their engineering processes and systems already are equipped with the end brands that we represent.\u201d<\/p>\n BlueMac is already in the process of building two plants for a Skala customer, which will be two of the largest construction and demolition processing facilities in Australia. Although Toal could not disclose a name, he indicated that the client was a major NSW waste company. He added that the plants would be \u201chighly automated\u201d and incorporate equipment from other Skala brands, such as General Kinematics feeders and destoners\u201d.<\/p>\n Toal said the first of the plants, which will be located in Western Sydney, should be active by September this year, with the second to come online in December. The footprints of both C&D processing plants will be 140m long by 50m wide, and they are expected to process in excess of 150 tonnes per hour of just about any C&D and\/or C&I waste application.<\/p>\n \u201cThe C&D plant will start with processing pieces of inferior material that could be a metre by a metre,\u201d Toal said. \u201cHuge chunks of recycled concretes, timber poles, metal, soil aggregates, plastics, light papers, any size of C&D waste, could follow. Out of those we would separate timber, processed timber, ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals, light plastics, heavy plastics, rubble. On the aggregates\/concrete side, it should be able to produce a -6mm or -8mm clean soil, followed by a 6mm to 25mm aggregate product, then a 50mm to 150mm +150mm rubble.\u201d<\/p>\n The two recycling plants will, for the most part, be automated, although they will still require some manual labour on picking stations to ensure that various contaminants do not become mixed in with specific waste streams. Toal predicted that, though, is likely to change in the coming years.<\/p>\n \u201cThe next step for us is we\u2019re exploring the use of robotics to minimise labour on this plant and most BlueMAC plants that have been installed still have an element of manual labour,\u201d Toal said. \u201cWith the equipment that we\u2019ve put on this C&D plant, we\u2019ve reduced that quite a bit from some in the past. There still is manual picking quality control on this system and the challenge for us on next generation models is to introduce robotics to replace manual labour.\u201d<\/p>\n\u2018A perfect fit\u2019<\/h6>\n
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Robotics and automation<\/h6>\n