Like crushing in a closet
Planning, teamwork and thinking outside the box are all likely to be part of a typical day at CalCrush. It’s the company formula Charlie Evans and his staff use to resolve the latest challenges customers bring to their rock crushing business, which operates in eastern California and northern Nevada.
One of the niche services CalCrush has refined since the company was organized 14 years ago is the ability to work in a tight space. Evans’ experience in the crushing industry taught him that most customers begin a project with what seems to be plenty of room. But once everything is in place, space can quickly be consumed.
“We’re often recycling asphalt and it’s common for those recycling yards to be overfull,” Evans says. “The construction company hauling material in has enough to deal with, so they leave it to us to determine what needs to be done to set up our plant on the site.”
Because every project’s requirements and circumstances are somewhat unique, Evans and his staff often find themselves rethinking equipment configurations to fit specific needs. For the most part, they’re rarely required to complete any significant equipment modification.
“All our crushing equipment is standard design,” Evans says. “We use KPI-JCI track-mounted jaw crushers, cones, impactors and KPI-JCI track-mounted screens. Our haul fleet consists of Kenworth heavy haulers. With our track-mounted plants, we’ve developed a basic configuration that allows us to set up our crushing operation on a postage stamp.”
CalCrush also maintains an arsenal of crushers, screens, excavators, breakers, front loaders, dozers, power plants, fuel, mechanics and field support staff, as well as a team of environmental health and safety experts.
On the job
The company recently used its track-mounted plant to crush recycled concrete along the side of Interstate 5 in Stockton, Calif., with freeway traffic racing past just feet away. Material was windrowed rather than stockpiled, and the crusher traveled along the windrowed pile. In addition, one CalCrush plant is operating on top of a rock pile at a granite quarry. Crushed materials are hauled down from the stockpile.
If equipment is modified in a crushing scenario, changes could be as simple as making some cuts and welds. Occasionally changes require innovation such as the marriage of a crushing plant with a rock screen.
“Our plant could be making asphalt aggregates today and recycled aggregates tomorrow,” Evans says. “That kind of diversity requires ingenuity, as well as effective communication with our customers and our employees.”
Before beginning a new project, Evans often works closely with customer representatives and his staff to identify the best possible crushing plan for the job.
“Traffic progressions are often challenging,” Evans says. “On most sites, there’s ongoing truck traffic related to the customer’s business in addition to our haul activity. When we’re organizing our plan, we make allowances for that as well as any activity related to trucks and dust control. In some places, the public is on the site to purchase products.
“Managing all those different activities in a safe manner can take plenty of forethought.”
The most challenging crushing project Evans has taken on involved a customer who wanted to turn a “huge” stockpile of 3/8-in. rock into sand with a very small budget.
“It took us about three months to come up with a plan to develop a crushing configuration that allowed the customer to stay within their budget,” Evans says. “We mixed and matched cone crushers and screen sizes to make it all work. We now have a plant dedicated to a similar process to produce sand.”
CalCrush’s small plants produce about 150 tph, Evans says. The company’s largest plants generate 800 tph.
“Our sweet spot is between 250 and 350 tph,” he says.
Maintaining its own fleet of trucks enables CalCrush to respond to emergency requests when a customer experiences a catastrophic equipment failure.
“Because we don’t have to wait for third-party trucks, we can quickly free up a plant and move it in if that’s what a customer needs,” Evans says.
Experience is everything
Over the years, Evans has gained valuable experience that comes into play each time he encounters new crushing circumstances.
“There’s no manual that tells you how to resolve these unique crushing issues,” Evans says. “We rely on experience as well as things we learn from other companies along the way.”
Perseverance has helped CalCrush work through its most challenging crushing projects.
“We weren’t in business too many years when we took on a job making asphalt aggregate for a Texas asphalt company,” Evans says. “The rock there was extremely abrasive. Our crew was working in a remote area with some unusual weather conditions. It wasn’t at all unusual on that job to have extremely hot and dry conditions one day and three inches of rain the next.”
Because of the remote location of the crushing site, equipment service was a nightmare and living conditions were equally challenging.
“We dealt with every kind of work issue you might expect in a remote situation,” Evans says. “But we pushed through it all. We just couldn’t give up. Even with 25 years of experience in this industry, we find that we don’t always get it all right the first time, but we persevere. Our customers count on us to get the job done and we have to get it done.”
Company history
Now specializing in mobile rock crushing and recycling, Evans started developing the company 14 years ago.
“My father, Bob, owned a demolition company,” Evans says. “He also owned a golf course and a construction company that included a rock crusher. It was very maintenance intensive and the only thing he used it for was to crush his own waste products from demolition and construction projects.”
When his father retired, Evans needed to organize the own business. He knew some things about crushing, which led to the development of CalCrush.
“We started out with a pretty steep learning curve,” Evans says. “The way technology keeps changing and concrete and asphalt mix designs evolve, we’re always learning something new. That’s one of the aspects of the work that I love. We travel the world to find out which companies are doing something better than we are and to find the latest gismo that helps do a better job for customers.
“We’re always thinking about how we can take our work to the next level,” he continues. “That way our business will always be on top of rock crushing trends. That’s worked very well for us so far and it’s the philosophy we’ll use to move forward.”
Equipment advances over the last 14 years certainly give CalCrush an advantage in the field today, according to Evans.
“We started with rubber tire crushers in 2000,” Charlie says. “By 2002 we had our first track-mounted crusher. The tracks give us huge flexibility.”
Track-mounted crushers require less maintenance and reduced setup and teardown time, he adds.
“It’s almost like running a big video game when you’re operating these crushers,” Evans says. “Today’s portable equipment is especially important to us so we can mix and match equipment to help us meet customer needs.”
Loretta Sorensen is a freelance writer in Yankton, S.D. She produces material on a variety of topics, serves as a ghostwriter, and has authored her own books.