by Nick Drew | Mon 16 Dec 2013
Excavator mounted stone washing & screening attachments
Last week I was involved in some washing of dirty 40mm stone to be re-used around a reed bed in a sewerage treatment works, using a riddling bucket fitted with a screen mesh, it just got me thinking, surely there has to be a better way?
I was operating a Cat 316E and amongst other tasks on site I was charged with washing the aforementioned stone. To be perfectly honest it’s a slow, drawn out process, as the stone is very dirty and the constant shaking and aggravating of the stone, can soon take its toll on the machines pins and bushes, it’s also pretty uncomfortable for the man in the seat with the constant jarring and jerking about.
Anyway after much pondering I got in touch with a couple of our contacts in the attachment world for their suggestions on how to make this job faster and less painful. First to come back to me was Andy Hair from Leeds based Northerntrack who suggested trying a BVR14E rotary screening bucket from Italian manufacturer Trevi Benne, explaining that he has sold these attachments to many customers who are doing exactly the same thing as I was, but with this attachment fitted, they were doing it in half the time as using an adapted riddling bucket.
In this video the machine is seen sorting dry stone, but it is also at home when used in water.
Our next contact to come back to me was Sean Heron of Cheshire based Worsley Plant, who was keen to tell us about the Dutch built Rotar range of fully enclosed washing buckets. This style of washing bucket opens up hydraulically to allow the operator to load the bucket in a conventional manner the operator then closes the bucket hydraulically to fully enclose the material within the chamber. The bucket is then lowered into water and rotated at speed to wash the stone.
Attachments are out there to make our lives a lot easier, and in the long run, make jobs faster and more profitable. Embracing the modern technology is the key.