A fledgling quarrying company in Romania is going from strength to strength through its use of Metso’s PREMIER screens. Guy Woodford reports
Starting a new quarry with a concrete and asphalt production plant is a big challenge for which you need to involve a reliable partner. Since taking the decision to enter the quarrying business in 2013, the Romanian company Florea Grup says it has found this kind of partner with
“We were astonished by the size of the vibrating equipment, especially the PREMIER CVB and ES type screens. The large screen feed box size guarantees good capacity and also makes maintenance very easy and safe thanks to the big gap between the decks. With Metso’s screens we reduce downtime and increase plant availability,” comments David Florea, who, with his brother, Marcel, established the Florea Group as a private company in 1996.
“The big capacity of the PREMIER screens impressed us. Switching between rubber/polyurethane modular panels and side tensioning screening media along with the installed automatic lubrication option are other big advantages, likewise the E-brake system for the electric motors,” David adds.
“We were also happily surprised with the high quality of the delivered plant components. No modifications like cutting or welding needed to be made on site. Now we fully understand why engineering and design of such a plant is crucial in these kind of projects,” Marcel comments.
Having started their business activities 20 years ago in the fuel market, the brother entrepreneurs developed an impressive network of petrol stations throughout the county of Alba.
The pair’s business vision quickly shifted towards the production of construction materials. In 2005, they acquired a modern high capacity sorting station, moving on into 2006, with the founding of five
As a further step in the company development, they took the decision in 2013 to invest in a new business area of exploiting a quarry and producing concrete and asphalt fractions. “We took this decision considering that this was the logical next step in our company development. More than that, we wanted to deliver the highest level quality products and services to our Florea Grup customers. Therefore finding a trustful partner which could deliver high quality final fractions was one of main topics when we started our business plan in this quarrying industry,” explains Marcel.
Needing a wide selection of end products (0-4mm secondary crushed sand, 0-2mm, 2-4mm, 0-4mm, 4-8mm, 8-16mm, 8-11mm, 11-16mm, 16-25mm, 32-50mm), produced with a throughput of 180 – 200 tonnes/hour, the Florea brothers contacted Metso. They were sure that, with the long list of required fractions and flexible operation, they needed to search for specialised consultancy.
At first, Florea wanted to go for mobile equipment, but after numerous discussions with Metso professionals, they decided, that a primary mobile crushing unit combined with stationary secondary and tertiary crushing and screening was the best option for them from operational and economical point of view.
The final delivery included a Lokotrack LT116 mobile jaw crushing plant, two Nordberg HP200 cone crushers, one Barmac B6150SE vertical shaft impact crusher, one PREMIER CVB204 and one PREMIER CVB203 inclined screen, a PREMIER ES203 horizontal screen, and a full plant automation.
The mobile LT116 operates in a remote quarry site, at approximately 50km from the stationary plant, near the city of Zlatna. The stationary crushing and screening plant is located near the Alba lulia ring, about 5km away from the city.
A big challenge in the whole project was the fine screening of the 0/2, 2/4 and 0/4 mm tertiary crushed products. During the early discussions, the customer was impressed by the new ES type screens and was eager to see them in action. A couple of days of checking the final fine fractions, laboratory testing and analysis, convinced the company of the positive output capacity, precise separation and general performance of the PREMIER ES screen.
Crushing
1 x Metso Lokotrack LT116 mobile jaw crusher
2x Nordberg HP200 cone crushers
1 x Barmac B6150SE vertical shaft impact crusher
Screening
1 x CVB204 inclined screen
1 x CVB203 inclined screen
1 x ES203 horizontal screen
The customer systematically followed the assembly and initial start-up procedures. After eight months of engineering, assembling and checking, the plant was started on 6 April 2015, and is producing since then without problems.
As a consequence of the successful results, Metso teams are now already working on a new Florea wet screening application for their gravel plant. The Florea Grup has meanwhile also recommended Metso as a trustworthy and knowledgeable partner to other companies, resulting in one major company from Alba lulia county receiving another reliable and high-capacity Metso gravel plant.
“In the first half year since the startup of the plant, Florea Grup has been producing approximately 90,000tonnes of final fractions. This is still just the beginning and as the quarry site still needs to develop, we’re quite sure that we’ll be able to set our targets this year to 250,000tonnes. One of the main reasons for our confidence is that we’ve had no issues so far with the Metso plant,” conclude David and Marcel Florea.
Florea Grup’s main headquarter is based in the city of Alba Iulia, the Alba county, Romania. The company has operations besides aggregates production in petrol stations, hotels, road construction and rehabilitation, concrete and asphalt production, and concrete and steel structures prefabricated components.
