Here are the answers of Mr V Senthilkumar, managing director, Propel Industries to the questions posed by B2B purchase magazine team.
In the current scenario, what is your assessment of the crushing and screening market in India and abroad?
I see an optimistic future ahead, both in the domestic and international markets. The Covid-19 pandemic has applied brakes but the aggregate sector is already showing signs of a strong recovery and the demand is steadily increasing. Our focus is more on helping customers in achieving better returns through quality and quantity output and reducing cost over wear and tear. The feedback from our customers has been excellent which motivates us to introduce innovative products.
What are the criteria to select the crushing facility in India?
While selecting a crushing facility, the type of the end product is the prime deciding factor, though there are other factors like Capex (Capital expenditure), operating and maintenance costs, skilled manpower and environmental conditions. For example: If sand has to be supplied to a national highways project or dam, a Vertical Shaft Impactor is a must. The quality of the end product improves with VSI but then we must be prepared to face the additional cost.
How can crushing and screening operations be made risk free, how can we offset the health hazards it poses?
Safety is paramount and we should not take it for granted. Work in the crushing industry is dangerous but accidents can be prevented if we take the right approach. It is important to report unsafe practices or conditions. Employees must be taught that they should not rush through work to meet specified deadlines. Workers must be educated about the proper techniques to use on site. They must understand that safety is everyone’s responsibility. Training aboutnew safety features is important. The equipment/crushing plant must be made to undergo regular maintenance in the interest of all. A designated person must oversee the safety measures at the site. Workers must be taught to wear personal protective equipment properly.
What are some of the important features to be noted while designing a crushing and screening plant?
A crushing and screening plant must be designed keeping in mind that the installation must meet the production requirements. It must operate at a competitive cost while also adhering to the environmental regulations. It must be built at a reasonable price despite the ever increasing expenditure of equipment, energy and construction labour. Process design, equipment selection and layout are the three main steps in designing a good crushing plant.
Process design and equipment selection are decided based on the production requirements and design parameters. The layout shows the type of input and the preferences. Production requirements, capital and operational expenditure, safety and environment, project location, maintenance requirements and climatic conditions are other conditions to be considered.
What are the innovations in your product range?
We are proud to share that Propel Industries has designed and developed a gyratory cone crusher which can deliver an output of more than 600 tons per hour. We are the one of the first companies in the India crushing industry to attempt this feat. The AVGC 600 model offers a higher reduction ratio and higher input material size range of 340mm to 450mm. Customers can benefit from optimal crushing by utilizing its large and stable feed opening, steep cavity and wider range of effective strokes, along with automated setting change. The product has a reliable hydraulic power pack and IP55 electrical panel box which can control and monitor equipment performance using PLC solutions. Propel’s Horizontal impact crusher (HSI) is the new version of the ‘Hammering rock’ configuration. The material feed is crushed at a very high intensive impact produced by the rotations of the rotor and blow bar, attached to rotor. The material hitting the impactor arm gets crushed further. Hydraulics-assisted impactor arm and grinding path adjustment reduced time onsetting the gap. Sideliners are made of HARDOX400 steel and this provides the required wear life. It is provided with JIB crane for easy replacement of wear parts like blow bar. Propel’s HSI is suitable in processing soft and medium hard materials with its high reduction ratios. It has been designed to handle oversized rocks for higher capacity crushing, equipped with large feed opening and with heavy duty apron. We have recently launched a higher capacity washing system called Prowash 250 along with a dewatering screen DW 300. The equipment is unique, easy to manufacture and assemble, modular in construction, robust, silent and ergonomically designed for better servicing. The washing system takes much less sand to fill up the truck as it avoids packing. It is suitable for areas with limited water resources.
This interview first appeared in B2B Purchase magazine, August 2020 edition.
