Manchester, England-based J. O’Shea & Sons has invested in a
Initially established in 1959, J. O’Shea & Sons provides bulk excavation, haulage, demolition and more recently aggregate recycling for the construction industry. Currently operated by brothers John, Paul and Des O’Shea, it has continually expanded its business over the years. In addition to contracting services, the company is now considered to be one of the leading suppliers and distributors of recycled construction and demolition materials for use as aggregate in construction sites across the North West.
In order to deliver materials and services, and to operate as a bulk haulage business, the O’Shea’s now operate an impressive fleet of 30 HGVs. Its fleet also includes eight wheel tippers and grabs, and approximately 25 other machines consisting of excavators, loading shovels, dozers, dump trucks, crushers and screens for their plant hire operation.
With demand for recycled material increasing, J. O’Shea & Sons decided to invest in a QE341 mobile scalper for its recycling depot in Manchester three years ago. Due to the confined space on site, it was decided to take advantage of the versatility of the QE341, and configure this unit with both the mid- and fines conveyor on one side of the machine. This is a claimed unique feature in this product category, which almost halves the size of its required footprint. Re-positioning of the conveyors is said to be easily be done on site with suitable lifting equipment. Over the past three years the QE341 has more than adequately been doing the job it was intended for, processing recycled soil from hardcore material.
More recently, however, the need for a scalper with the ability to quickly process sub-soil before it becomes too wet was identified, with a larger capacity scalping model also seen as important to the continued development of the O’Shea family business. Having used its equipment for many years, the O’Shea brothers approached Sandvik and the company’s North West England sales representative, Fintan Harkin. This led to the company investing in an up to 900tonnes/hour capacity Sandvik QE441 mobile scalper.
Developed for large aggregate producers, a key attribute of the QE441 is its large, highly aggressive 18 x 6’ screenbox, boasting a 40% larger screening area than the QE341. The larger model has been built with the same customer-focused characteristics as the QE341 with performance, ease of operation and maintenance at the forefront of design. This includes Sandvik’s easy to use control system and user interface with sequential start, whilst two-speed tracking via radio remote control helps to reduce travel time between jobsites.
Trouble-free operation is maintained through the apron feeder of the 8.5m³ wear resistant hopper and 1,600mm wide oversize conveyor, which assist with easy transfer of material to the product conveyors, even with large size or very difficult infeed material. With discharge heights in excess of 4000mm+, the wide, hydraulically folding and angle adjustable product conveyors on the crusher-style tracked chassis further provide a large stockpiling capacity, enabling highly efficient productivity through a remote controlled operation.
To segregate the C&D waste, the QE441’s screenbox was fitted with 75mm punch plate in the first section, then 50mm tines in the top deck. Elongated 12 x 100mm mesh was fitted to the bottom deck enabling the processing of the required fractions to produce materials for resale such as 6F5, 6F2, MOT and topsoil.
Des O’Shea, director of J. O’Shea & Sons, has been delighted with the increased production capacity with the QE441. “We are now producing 90-110tph more soil compared to the QE341 and are really happy with the machine. We have also found the machine to be very reliable with minimum downtime.” The QE441 has therefore replaced the QE341 in this application and the QE341 has since been transferred to J. O’Shea & Sons 20 acre quarry in order to size down aggregates.
“We have used Sandvik for the past 15 years and have always found them to be reliable and do the job they were bought for,” continued Des O’Shea. As well as the equipment, he explains how the engineering backup is reliable and very good. “The expertise and support from our local Sales Representative, Fintan Harkin, is second to none. Fintan, as an ex-plant fitter, is not afraid to get his hands dirty when the need arises,” said Des, who added: “This puts Sandvik ahead of the competition in my opinion.”
