When it comes to crushing and screening, conventional wisdom indicates that larger crushers and screens are key to high production. With the range of Jonsson mobile crushers and screens – now available from Pilot Crushtec – mines, quarries and their contracting counterparts in southern Africa can now meet high production requirements at high operating efficiencies.
P.J. Jonsson och Söner is a Swedish mobile crushing and screening plant provider that has traditionally operated in the Nordic Region. Established in 1953, initially trading in fur and eventually construction machinery and used crushing equipment, Jonsson started manufacturing wheeled crushers in 1984, before venturing into the tracked market in 1998. Over the past 40 years, the company has supplied more than 350 tracked machines and in excess of 400 wheeled units globally.
Following the 2018 acquisition by Metso, Jonsson has been on a drive to expand its business internationally. “Traditionally, we have always had a strong position in the Scandinavia, as well as other markets such as the United Kingdom, Australia and Germany. In recent years, we have embarked on a journey to expand into new markets, including the United States and southern Africa,” says Delbrant.
Adam Benn, Director, Capital Sales, North EMEA, CEA and Southern Africa at Metso, is excited to expand the existing partnership with Pilot Crushtec with the addition of Jonsson to the Pilot stable. Benn is confident that Jonsson will leverage Pilot Crushtec’s strong reputation and successful operations in southern Africa to achieve long-term growth.
In the past eight years, Pilot Crushtec has recorded massive success with the Metso brand. Testimony to its legendary service to customers in southern Africa, the company has been named Metso’s 2024 Best After Market Distributor and the Second Biggest Lokotrack Distributor globally in the Large Distributor category.
The latest accolades bring the total number of awards won by Pilot Crushtec to five since becoming the southern African Metso distributor in 2016. After bagging the 2017 Best New Services Distributor Award and the 2019 Best Sales Growth Award, Pilot Crushtec was named Metso’s 2022 Distributor of the Year for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region.
“Pilot Crushtec’s dedicated focus on crushing and screening has allowed the company to develop, over the past three decades, a profound understanding of the sector, which uniquely positions it to forge long-lasting connections with its customers in southern Africa,” says Benn. “Metso’s multi-brand approach, which started some ten years ago on the back of an aggressive acquisition drive, resonates with Pilot Crushtec, which already offers a wide range of products in its stable, including its own locally manufactured crushers.”
Why Jonsson?
Commenting on the thinking behind the introduction of the Jonsson crushing and screening products to the local market, Francois Marais, sales and marketing director at Pilot Crushtec, says the range complements the existing Metso offering, particularly at the large tonnage, heavy-duty end of the crushing and screening scale.
“Jonsson crushers are big! They are much bigger than anything that we have in our current Metso portfolio. To provide some perspective, the biggest jaw crusher in the Jonsson range weighs in at a mammoth 186 tonnes (t). Currently, the largest jaw crusher we offer in our Metso range is a 75-t machine,” explains Marais. “The scale of the equipment is unprecedented in the mobile crushing market. One of the primary jaws can take feed sizes up to 1 m, producing up to 1 200 tonnes per hour (tph), depending on the material.”
The introduction of this range, adds Marais, is informed by emerging trends in the mobile crushing market. The move towards bigger crushing gear has taken root in southern Africa in the past four to five years. “One of the major drivers of this trend is the changing face of the contracting fraternity. Traditionally, contracts were long term, allowing contractors to mobilise their equipment for three to five years on a single site. The situation, however, has changed in the past few years, with contracts becoming much smaller and shorter,” he says.
To operate profitably in such an uncertain business environment, contractors are therefore turning to bigger mobile crushing equipment to allow them to execute the fewer jobs more speedily. This allows them to increase the volume of work that they can complete within a certain period.
Game changer
Commenting on the range, Marais believes that the double crusher concept from Jonsson will be a game changer in the local market. The Jonsson L 120-330 double crusher – which combines the two Nordberg C120 and GP330 crushers and a screen on one compact tracked chassis – is said to be the only mobile unit of its kind available throughout the world.
Weighing in at 133 t, the double crusher concept comes with a Jonsson JF 1050H vibrating grizzly feeder which discharges oversized material into a Nordberg C120 primary jaw crusher. Undersize material passes through an independent Jonsson JS0812 vibrating screen where natural fines are removed and larger material is combined with crushed product from the C120 primary crusher.
Crushed material from the primary jaw is transferred to an on-board Jonsson JS1632/3H production screen for sizing. Any oversize material from the production screen is sent back to the GP 330 cone crusher for further crushing. Material is crushed in the cone and returned to the screen. The machine – which is capable of delivering products to two stockpile conveyors – can produce anything between 180 and 500 tph, depending on the type of material.
“The double crusher is a mobile concept that is unique to Jonsson and has been on the market since 1998. We have already sold close to 100 machines across the world, mainly in Scandinavia,” explains Delbrant. “This is a heavy duty primary and secondary crushing and screening processing plant that includes a primary jaw crusher, a secondary cone crusher and a finishing screen – all on the same chassis and a single set of tracks.”
“Where customers would traditionally need to mobilise and run three separate machines, we can now bring an entire plant on one compact chassis. This is a unique proposition for the market; instead of three engines to maintain and three machines to transport, now there is only one,” says Marais.
The Jonsson L 120-330 double crusher, adds Marais, will be a big benefit for mining contractors who, by their very nature, place value on ease of plant movement on and between sites. Once on site, they can mobilise and start production in a fraction of the time that it would take them to establish a traditional fixed plant.
New volumes
Apart from the double crusher, Pilot Crushtec is adding a range of Jonsson jaw and cone crushers. The models have been carefully selected to complement the existing Metso machines available from Pilot Crushtec. To provide perspective, Pilot Crushtec’s existing Metso jaws comprise the LT96, LT106, LT120 and LT130, offering a production capacity range from 100-700 tph. With the addition of the Jonsson L150 and L160, the capacity range increases from 700-1 200 tph.
The L150 is a powerful primary jaw crusher which is equipped with a Norberg C150 jaw which comes with a 1 400 x 1 200 mm Jonsson JF 1460 feeder. This machine can be offered with either a Volvo or Caterpillar engine, depending on customer preference. Fully electric and dual power variants are also available. Weighing in at 136 t, the L150 produces up to 700 tph, depending on the material.
The L160, the biggest jaw in the Jonsson range, is equipped with a Nordberg C160 jaw crusher that can efficiently process large quantities of hard material. Weighing in 185 t, the machine can produce up to 1 200 tph, depending on material. Testimony to its massive size, the L160 can take feed sizes up to 1 000 mm.
In addition, Pilot Crushtec will offer three large Jonsson mobile cone crushers – the L400, L500 and L550 with a capacity range from 400-550 tph. The range complements the existing Metso cone crusher line – the LT200HP/X/S, LT300HP, LT220D and LT330D – offering capacities from 100-350 tph.
The L550, the biggest cone in the Jonsson range, is equipped with a Nordberg GP550 cone crusher, in close circuit with a Jonsson JF 1030 feeder, a Jonsson JS 1214/3 pre-screen and a Jonsson JS 1623/3 production screen. The typical production capacity, says Delbrant, is up to 360 tph, when producing 0-30 mm material. Weighing in at 99 t, the machine can be transported in three pieces and takes up to three hours to assemble upon arrival on site.
On the screening front, Marais tells Quarrying Africa that Pilot Crushtec will offer the L 354 finishing screen only. The screen can process material up to 400 mm. An independent pan feeder controls the material flow. The feed material is carried up to an independently running double, three-deck screen, with four product conveyors stockpiling three graded products.
“Of note is that the Jonsson range incorporates Metso crushers, a product that we are familiar with and have the expertise to service and support. With energy efficiency and sustainability in mind, dual-powered and fully electric variants are available across all models,” concludes Marais.
