Designed and manufactured in South Africa by Pilot Crushtec, the TwisterTrac VS350E vertical shaft impactor (VSI) has over the years gained popularity in Australia. Key to its success is the ability to meet the high throughput and high-spec aggregates requirements of this market, confirms Justin Guilfoyle, Queensland (QLD) Regional Sales Manager at Finlay Australia, the Pilot Crushtec dealer in Australia.

Since 2004, Finlay Australia has been supplying and supporting the Pilot range of VSIs in the Australian market with great success. Jorge Abelho, Director Technical Support at Pilot Crushtec, says Australia has accounted for over 75 units since the first machine – the first generation TwisterTrac AC210 – was delivered in the market in 2005.

Of the total population deployed in Australia, the state of Queensland has accounted for about 45 units, making it the biggest TwisterTrac market in Australia, says Guilfoyle.

Building on the firm foundations of the predecessor models – initially the TwisterTrac AC210 and more recently the hydraulically driven TwisterTrac VS350 – the larger diesel electric TwisterTrac VS350E is gaining traction in the Australian market, with some four units sold in Queensland alone to date.

Why TwisterTrac VS350E? “Australia has high engineered specifications for road base and concrete aggregates,” explains Guilfoyle. “While each state is slightly different in their gradation curve, there is generally a high requirement for 0.075 and 0.0425 micron, which is roughly 8 to 15%. In addition, there is a stringent shape obligation. These specs are for both State and Federal projects where a tight envelope has to be met.”

With cone crushers, quarries cannot produce the stipulated 0.075 and 0.0425-micron sizes and therefore have two choices – either to use a VSI or to purchase manufactured sand from other sources and blend it with their road base. This, he says, is a costly exercise, which makes it cost-effective to run a VSI.

The crushing concept of the TwisterTrac VS350E, which uses rock-on-rock crushing principles, makes it the perfect choice for producing the required cubical material. Quality road and concrete aggregates require that the broken particles are cubiform, not flaky.

“The TwisterTrac VS350E assists in bringing up the bottom end of the material to meet these specifications, while shaping the rock. In concrete aggregates, there is a large call for shaped aggregate product, and this is an application where the machine has thrived. In addition, the TwisterTrac VS350E produces a high-quality manufactured sand, which is highly sought after in Australia,” says Guilfoyle.

The TwisterTrac VS350E, adds Guilfoyle, is also one of the few  mobile VSI on the market that can use anvils. One of Finlay Australia’s clients, FSCS, has been very successful in a limestone application, crushing down to a minus 1 mm by using anvils in the feed material. In a low abrasion application such as limestone, using anvils instead of the rock box results in a high reduction – this, in fact, was key to FSCS’s decision to opt for the TwisterTrac VS350E.

Apart from product quality, the machine scores with its high production capacity, a major necessity in the Australian market. Aggregates producers in Australia generally run high production crushing and screening trains to meet high demand for their products. With a rated capacity of 300 tph, which can go up to 350 tph when using a cascade bypass system, the TwisterTrac VS350E is the largest mobile VSI on the Australian market.

From the onset, says Abelho, the design of the machine was influenced by the high production requirements for Australian customers. “One of the biggest upgrades on the TwisterTrac VS350E compared with the previous TwisterTrac VS350 model, was the increased tonnage to meet Australian market requirements,” says Abelho.  

Being a diesel electric machine, the TwisterTrac VS350E provides increased operational efficiency, while reducing carbon emissions. “Due to industry demand and changing requirements, we phased out the hydraulically driven TwisterTrac VS350 for the VS350E diesel electric version,” explains Abelho. “Given that a VSI by its nature is a power-hungry crusher, migrating to the diesel electric version was a necessary exercise. In fact, we have seen up to 20% fuel savings on the TwisterTrac VS350E compared with the VS350.”

The TwisterTrac VS350E is  an electric drive machine which allows for far higher power utilisation than any other unit on the market. Powered by a Volvo TAD1651GE, 16 litre engine delivering in excess of 400 kW of power, the machine has the biggest engine and generator compared with similar products on the market, which is the reason it can produce more tonnages.

The increased production capacity, coupled with increased efficiency, translates into significant cost benefits for customers. “One of the reasons we are successful with the TwisterTrac VS350E is because the machine is 20% more efficient, yet it achieves 15 to 20% more throughput compared with the hydraulic version,” says Guilfoyle.

Every good product is only as good as its support. The TwisterTrac VS350E benefits from Finlay Australia’s proven service and support across all states in Australia. The company has just been recognised as Terex’s largest dealer in the world across all the Terex materials processing ranges, which is testimony to its aftermarket support capabilities.