New crushing and screening plant for Glendinning

£8.5 million investment safeguards future for South West region’s largest family quarry business

GLENDINNING have commissioned a new crushing and screening house and bin storage system that will handle around 500 tonnes/h of limestone direct from the quarry face at their Linhay Hill Quarry, near Ashburton, in Devon.

The £8.5 million facility, which includes a £3.5 million asphalt plant completed in 2010, more than doubles the capacity of stone throughput at the site and opens up valuable limestone reserves located beneath the 30-year-old redundant processing plant structure, thereby securing the long-term future of the 53-year-old business.

Describing the commissioning as a very significant moment in the history of the business, Glendinning’s managing director, Barry Wilson, said: ‘We are able to increase productivity up to a maximum of 600 tonnes/h from the previous 250 tonnes/h going through the old installation.

‘We are also able to combine crushing, screening and storage for different grades of materials in one facility, which has a bespoke design interlinking all conveyors, walkways and lorry loading.’

Designed by Newton Abbot-based materials-handling equipment manufacturers Centristic Ltd and constructed using more than 1,000 tonnes of locally fabricated and galvanized steel, the bespoke plant has a live storage capacity of 750 tonnes, 18 belt conveyors and more than 1.2km of walkways for maintenance access.

The new plant also incorporates state-of-the-art control technology; dust encapsulation; sophisticated health, safety and environmental systems; and consumes significantly less energy per tonne produced.