Pilot Crushtec notes that there is a growing preference for larger mobile crushing units and dual-powered solutions in Southern Africa.

“At the centre of this trend is the changing face of the contracting sector. Instead of the traditional three to five year contracts, most of the projects coming to market are barely longer than six months,” explains Pilot Crushtec sales and marketing director Francois Marais, adding that there has been a noticeable preference for bigger mobile crushers such as Metso Outotec’s Lokotrack LT120 jaw crusher and the Lokotrack LT300HP cone crusher.

Larger mobile crushers enable contractors to execute shorter contracts quickly, facilitating an increase in the volume of work within a shorter space of time.

“In addition, larger crushing equipment allows contractors to minimise the number of machines that they have to mobilise on site. Having less kit to move between sites translates into reduced transport costs and quick setup on the next job,” explains Marais.

Dual-powered or hybrid crushing solutions also help reduce operating costs, with their ability to have both electricity and diesel as power sources, ensuring fuel savings and a reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Telematics and data also help contractors to gain a competitive edge and Pilot Crushtec offers the recently upgraded version of Metso Outotec Metrics, a cloud-based tool for real-time monitoring of Lokotrack mobile crushers and screens.

“The new system moves from the traditional satellite feed to a Global System for Mobile communication, or GSM, signal infrastructure, thus offering significantly better connectivity and optimisation benefits to customers’ crushing processes. Other features include CO2 tracking for sustainability benefits, 24/7 access to real-time data, a maintenance module, and critical dashboards for utilisation and geolocation,” concludes Marais.