BHS crushing technology for Algeria's growing building materials market

Constantine in Algeria is also known as the “City of Bridges” and it’s easy to see why: Numerous picturesque bridges lead to the medieval old town over summits, valleys and ravines. Nestled between limestone hills, the city is a center of the cement, light and heavy metal and food industries. About 18 miles from the center, Batinol Construction s.a.r.l. operates a quarry to mine limestone for various infrastructure projects across Algeria. The company's product portfolio includes sand, cement, and precast concrete for the growing Algerian construction industry. To meet the strong demand for building materials, Batinol needed high-performance crushing technology to produce large quantities of high-quality sand with a particle size of 0 to 3 mm in a short time. Since a high proportion of very fine material could affect the overall quality of the sand, the company had to keep the proportion of very fine material (< 63 µm) to a minimum.

Excellent crushing results of limestone with the RSMX

The company found what it was looking for in the rotor centrifugal crusher of type RSMX 1222 from BHS-Sonthofen. Alexandre Bernabé, Sales Manager for the French market at BHS, explains: “The soft limestone found in this area is an excellent raw material for cement and concrete applications used in infrastructure projects. However, for optimal performance in concrete production at Batinol, the sand had to be of a defined grain size of 0 to 3 millimeters. The BHS crusher RSMX 1222 with its vertical shaft allows to flexibly adapt the machine to the material at hand, ensuring the desired grain size and maximum throughput.”

What distinguishes the rotor centrifugal crusher from BHS-Sonthofen is the easy yet precise adjustment of the crushing parameters and its strong crushing performance. “With rotor speeds ranging between 52 and 70 meters per second, fine sands can be easily produced – the higher the speed, the finer the end product,” Alexandre Bernabé points out.

Through the RSMX’s large opening on the cover of the machine, the raw material with a diameter of up to 25 mm is fed into the center of the rotor centrifugal crusher and picked up by the twin-chamber rotor. This globally proven technology ensures clog-free operation and high throughput rates. Subsequently, the feed material is strongly accelerated outward, resulting in a strong impact on the anvil ring. The result are cubically shaped grains of 0 to 3 mm – and a share of very fine grain (< 63 µm) of 10 to 12 percent maximum. “This way, the RSMX from BHS-Sonthofen helped us to meet our crushing challenge to the fullest,” Bennacer Azzedine, Quarry manager at Batinol, states.

High performance builds a good reputation

Thanks to the adaptable parameters of the rotor centrifugal crusher, no prior material testing was necessary. Hocine Mansouri, BHS-Sonthofen sales representative in Algeria, supervised the smooth implementation on site, which was completed in January 2022. “Ever since, production has been running without a hitch,” he shares, “Batinol is very happy with the results, and we are pleased to have been able to help them achieve their targets in the finer processing of limestone.”

And this is just the latest in a series of new opportunities for the Rotor centrifugal crusher of type RSMX, thanks to good word of mouth in the industry. “In the last ten years, we have supplied eight crushers to building materials companies in the area,” says Alexandre Bernabé. “We are happy that our technology is helping to keep Algeria's strong economic engine running.”