BHS test center: Successful testing of building materials

Building materials are created in elaborate processes involving the crushing and mixing of different materials. Crushing heterogeneous materials produces components such as crushed stone, high-grade chippings, and crushed sand, which, when mixed, form a homogeneous base for durable constructions. But what mixing and crushing technologies have proven to be most effective? How do they affect different materials? And what can building materials manufacturers expect from the solutions?

At its own test center in Sonthofen, BHS answers these and other questions. After all, the company has developed effective technologies that set standards throughout the industry. In a space of around 1,800 square meters, these solutions can be put through their paces – or in this case, through stone and gravel. The tests are carried out with the customer's individual material.

Customized tests in Sonthofen

Which solution meets the respective requirements becomes clear during tests that BHS-Sonthofen is able to carry out thanks to its test center. The scale ranges from smaller test series with 5 tons to large tests with several truck loads. What's special about the test center: Here, both the impact crushing of different materials and the integration of several individual processes into a holistic system can be tested.

In the summer of 2022, several successful tests gave an idea of what this looks like in action. When a customer requested solutions from BHS-Sonthofen for crushing basalt, he didn't have to wait long: The experts at the BHS test center fed the solid volcanic rock through a rotor centrifugal crusher of type RSMX 1222. This crusher is suitable for all types of minerals, including highly abrasive as well as very hard feed materials. With strong results: Based on the coarse raw material, the RSMX was able to achieve high sand yields and the desired fine-grained cubicity at low dust development.

Successful crushing and separation                                                                                        

But that is far from all: even materials that have already been processed can be separated using crushing technology from BHS-Sonthofen. As was evident when another customer likewise turned to the test center in the summer of 2022 for selective processing of asphalt granules. This proved to be a challenging project: BHS set out to evaluate the functionality of its RSMX's ring armor and sand bed on different asphalt fractions. Samples included different types of multi–layer milled asphalt with bitumen bonds. The rotor centrifugal crusher needed to separate these from the aggregate without further crushing the rock. The liberation was successful. High-quality fresh asphalt can now be produced from the purified high-grade aggregates and the resulting sand-bitumen fraction.