QUARRY APPLICATIONS AND HEAVY EXCAVATION

By: Evan Lucyk

At Bit Service, we have adopted a mindset that focuses on being proactive in our approach to helping our clients in any way we can. This includes providing solutions to wear problems in excavating and material handling equipment and empowering them to make the most out of their mining equipment. We’re focused on educating our clients on how best to optimize the efficiency of whatever task they are tackling. Today, we take a closer look at quarrying and heavy excavation.

QUARRYING Q & A

So, first things first: What exactly is quarrying? In short, quarrying is the process of removing rock, sand, gravel, or other minerals from the ground to produce materials for construction or other various uses. You may also have heard the terms “surface mine,” “pit,” “open pit,” and “opencast mine”—all of which share similar challenges as a quarry.

So, in layman’s terms, what exactly do quarries produce? Typically, quarries are most known to produce sand, gravel, and crushed rock for construction (materials that are collectively often called aggregates) as well as slabs and dimensional stone. These aggregates include gypsum, limestone, granite, common clays, sandstone, and more, all carrying their own challenges in terms of extraction method, abrasion and dust generation.

WHY QUARRIES MATTER

If you’re wondering why all this matters so much, the answer is simple: The materials quarrying produces are essential to our everyday lives. Examples of this include: offering construction materials used to build the roads and buildings we use rely on, providing necessary minerals for agricultural needs, and even supporting the generation of electricity—and that’s just to start.

QUARRYING PROCESS: THEN AND NOW

So, how exactly is quarrying done? Fun fact: Did you know quarrying for architectural construction has been a practice since ancient times? Examples abound, such as the Egyptians’ construction of the pyramids—which depended mainly on limestone that was quarried using copper hand tools—to the Romans’ quarrying of rock for various monuments and construction projects. These earlier quarrying endeavors were forced to rely on more rudimentary methods—such as rock-splitting via wedging or fire setting—in the absence of the modern technology we have today.

Since those days, we have come a long way, and now, most quarries use drilling and blasting to fragment the rock, which is then loaded onto off-highway trucks or belt conveyors for transport to a processing plant of some sort. The process is far more nuanced—and involves numerous key pieces of equipment—but that is a good basic idea of what is occurring. Whether the operation is producing a crushed product or dimensional slabs, there are a multitude of areas involving abrasion and dust generation which affect the maintenance budgets and environmental impact of the site.

OPTIMIZATION

Now that you know the basics of the process, at Bit Service, we want to ensure that you are operating at maximum efficiency. Ensuring the optimization of your quarrying endeavor involves numerous factors, one of the most important being that your equipment is properly maintained and operating at peak performance. Bit Service has our favorites, including employing KenCast wear resistant segments to increase service life of chutework and transfer points as well as excavation equipment, which you can read more about here. For operations utilizing conveyor systems we are able to analyze and offer improvements with optimal rollers and reduces fines spillage. We also have plenty of resources that can help you maximize the longevity of your equipment’s performance and keep your maintenance game strong.

Still, need help and support? Bit Service is here to answer any questions you may have. Contact us today to speak with one of our experts.