thyssenkrupp has, for over two hundred years, provided state-of-the-art products and services to meet the eclectic needs of mining and industry. With customers increasingly demanding optimal crushing performance from their equipment, thyssenkrupp’s Minerals Processing division, a specialist in comminution, designed, developed and manufactured the compact and robust Eccentric Roll Crusher (ERC) which is taking crushing efficiency to the next level.

The inspiration behind the creation of this ground-breaking ERC which is unique to thyssenkrupp stems from the growing need to look at an improved, faster and more cost-effective way to crush bulk materials and precious metals such as platinum, copper, kimberlite and iron ore. This got the thyssenkrupp German design team on their feet and after two years of intensive development, the completely new hard rock ERC was born. Ideally suited to process a wide selection of commodities above and below ground, this versatile machine delivers highly efficient crushing capabilities to underground mines, mobile and semi-mobile crushing plants in open-pit mining as well as mineral processing plants.

“With Minerals Processing boasting one of the largest global crushing and grinding technology portfolios which can be customised to customers’ plant process needs, we are extremely proud to now bring to the market this truly one-of-a-kind Eccentric Roll Crusher,” states Wilfred Barkhuizen, GM Minerals Processing, Energy and Power at thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions Sub-Saharan Africa. “With a distinctive design that sets it poles apart from conventional crushers, the ERC without any doubt sets the efficiency benchmark and presents the next step in the crusher revolution.”

Packed with cutting-edge features, the ERC is forged from fewer, superior-quality components which enable quicker and easier assembly and installation. Thanks to the machine’s optimal balance, loads and vibrations are limited. All these exclusive features contribute to a much simpler structure as well as an enhanced ability to process materials more efficiently.

The machine’s integrated screen further elevates efficiency as fine material does not pass through the crushing chamber but instead is discharged directly. This new approach ensures a host of benefits such as diminished power consumption, reduced risk of material compaction and machine overload as well as lessened wear on the crushing elements.

Another wear reduction feature is the smartly integrated automatic gap adjustment. The adjustable swing jaw, which forms part the crushing chamber, allows the gap to be precisely adapted to suit a specific product. The adjustment range of up to 200 mm for the largest model is more than adequate for gap adjustment to offset wear on the crushing elements. The gap adjustment also features an overload protection function in order to protect the crusher against overload damage.

Barkhuizen explains, “In the event that the acceptable load has been exceeded by non-crushable foreign bodies for example, the valve opens and the gap is enlarged, protecting the crusher against overload damage.”  This function includes a unique hydraulic cylinder that controls the load in the crushing chamber as well as the pressure.

In harsh operational environments it is crucial to safeguard the crusher’s body to prevent costly damage. Understanding this vital need, thyssenkrupp has built the ERC to be impact resistant. When large chunks of material are fed into the crushing chamber, instead of falling onto the mounted working element, the material hits the machine’s exceptionally resistant and rugged hood. Barkhuizen notes that, compared to conventional crushers, this is another key advantage presented by the ERC.

thyssenkrupp is committed to ensuring that customers receive world-class products and service excellence hence the global engineering specialist ensures that all its products undergo intensive testing. The ERC was certainly no exception and completely surpassed the designers’ efficiency expectations in over six months of rigorous testing. Tested in the crushing of andesite, a material akin to copper and iron ores with strengths of up to 200 MPa, the ERC blew operators away with its impressive delivery of almost two times the expected throughput. Going forward, thyssenkrupp will be testing a diverse range of applications in order to determine just how efficient the ERC is and how different projects can benefit from them. Thanks to a combination of innate compactness and higher crushing efficiency (with a throughput potential of up to 8,000 metric tons per hour), much lower unit costs are anticipated.

Ending on an optimistic note, Barkhuizen says that with the first ERC already in operation, thyssenkrupp is confident that customers will benefit from enhanced productivity at the lowest total cost of ownership. “As we see a growing interest in the machine locally, we are motivated to continue looking at new ways of improving our product and service portfolio to the ultimate benefit of our valued customers.”