Features

Replacement of screening equipment at Fercav's quarry has helped to safeguard the future of fine Italian ceramics Like construction materials, demand for ceramics is also high and driving quarries that extract clays used by this industry to invest in new production equipment. Italy's Modena-based clay extraction specialist Fercav is no exception - the company has just invested in a new Extec screen to boost production. The company, which was founded in 1964 by the father and uncle of present owners, Corrado

Development of mechanical drills represented a significant step forward for extracting aggregates. ABE takes a look at the development of the Tampella drill The crushing of rock has always been one of the most difficult tasks for man - the innovation of mechanical hand-held drills was a significant improvement in terms of productivity. Chisel and hammer required two men, but air powered hand-held drills were operated by one man only. Naturally the productivity increased tremendously through the fact that th

Producing carbon dioxide for a local sugar factory 100 years ago led Italy-based Edilcalce into the quarrying sector. Claire Symes visited the Perugia quarry to find out more The olive trees that surround the approach to Edilcalce Viola Olinda & Figli's limestone quarry in hills above Eraclio near Perugia in Italy give a hint to the company's origins. But it is only by delving into local history that gives the vital clues about how the business went from producing olive oil and into the building products ma

Installation of a new washing plant in Paekivitoodete Tehase's quarry in Estonia is helping to turn 50 years of waste into saleable aggregates Paekivitoodete Tehase - which translates as Limestone Products - first opened its Vao quarry near Talin in Estonia in the 1950s to supply the local construction market with limestone aggregates. But until now equipment at the site was unable to process material with a high clay content and this 'waste' from 50 years of operation had been stockpiled on site. Today thi

The Austrian aggregates industry is in motion - a slight, but constant growth is now being seen after a period of decline. Luise Weithaler reports Aggregate extraction is an essential industry in Austria - this industry and the companies using its products provide thousands of jobs, often in areas where jobs are not easy to find. The 950 sand and gravel pits, as well as 250 quarries, employ some 15,500 people and a further 250,000 people in the downstream construction industry directly depend on the extract

Transferring technicaland environmental knowledge about concrete to the contractor, client and specifier is an important task for the sector, according to the BRMCA'S Martin Hardwick Concrete has very good environmental credentials despite its high energy intensity requirements at the time of manufacture. But while this is well known in the industry, the concept is not so well understood in the wider construction industry or by construction clients. Drawing together both the technical and environmental bene