A quarry’s load-out operation is its main interface with customers on a day-to-day basis. Gains in efficiency here are not only important to site profitability but also to frontline customer service.

UK-based Raymond Brown Group is seeing a reduction in load-out cycle times at Eysey Manor Quarry after investing in a LOADRITE™ on-board scale for a new Caterpillar 962H wheeled loader.

The Express™ scale offers high level weighing accuracy, regardless of lift speed and loader movement, through a complex combination of multiple-point triggering, speed compensation and dual pressure measurement.

Accuracy is +/- 1%, helping the operator to load trucks to the correct value first time, reducing truck turnarounds at the weighbridge, eliminating the cost of double-handling of material, and avoiding overload fines.

Ian Wardall, quarry manager, said: “We have seen a downward trend in load-out cycle time since the Loadrite scale was introduced. Trucks are spending less time on site, using less energy and fuel, so hauliers are noticing the difference, too. Achieving correct load first time is obviously very important when we get busy, allowing us to send trucks out sooner and keep queues down.”

Raymond Brown Minerals and Recycling operates Eysey Manor quarry near Swindon under contract to Tarmac Southern Ltd. It extracts and processes around 170,000tonne of gravel annually, producing sharp sand and four grades of stone mainly for Tarmac production plant. The site runs two Caterpillar 962H wheeled loaders, including the new machine, as well as a Hitachi 210 excavator and Caterpillar D6 working on landfill.

Wardall says: “About two thirds of trucks we load are 44tonne artics with a tolerance of 500 kilos. If you are loading with a 5 to 6tonne bucket and the scale is out by, say, 100kg on each bucket, you will end up over or under the permissible load.”

He estimates that accuracy levels overall are up from 85-90% to 95-99% (?) with the new scale. Quicker start-up times are making a difference, too,

“We can spend half an hour each morning recalibrating the scales on existing machines while the hydraulic pressures build,” observes Wardall. “Set up with the Loadrite system is about 10 minutes. If the quarry is very busy first thing, we can establish cycle times much quicker.”

The technology weighs instantaneously and maintains accuracy across a wide range of operating parameters, according to Julian Athawes of Halomec, LOADRITE’S mainland UK distributor. He says: “Loading can be speeded up without loss of accuracy while in-built alarms keep the operation within desirable parameters.”

Halomec is providing Eysey Manor with on-going service support. The scale was initially supplied and installed by Finning UK which has an arrangement to spec LOADRITE systems as optional equipment on new Caterpillars.

Wardall points to Halomec’s close support. He says: “We have had very good back-up from Halomec to get us up and running the way we want, given that the machine is new to us as well as the scale.”

Although the LOADRITE system is packed with features and functionality, it is proving surprisingly simple to use. “Our operators have had no real problems in getting to grips with the new scale. It’s a very straightforward system, not that different to others we have used,” says Wardall.