Rubble Recycling

Concrete crushing

Introduction

Concrete is an immensely popular construction material for two very good reasons; in can be both strong in terms of load bearing capabilities and also durable in terms of age and weather resistance. On load bearing sections, reinforcing material - often steel bars or wires - further enhance the material's properties.

The inherent strength of concrete is great for the builder, but from a demolition and recycling perspective it can make life difficult. Choosing the right tools and equipment to demolish, reduce and recycle concrete buildings and sections is crucial to fast efficient work.

On site concrete crushing can provide construction sites with much if not all of the required aggregate for the construction phase of the project, saving time, and money.

The good news is that there's a whole host of equipment avaialbe to help you break, cut, crush and grade concrete and other rubble, on site.

 

The right tools for crushing

Equipment

You don't need to spend the earth on recycling equipment, but you need to bear in mind that crushing concrete and rubble is a very tough task, so as a rule, it's best talk to manufacturers with a proven track record in this area.

The ultimate concrete crushing kit-list would run something like this:

Excavator mounted Hydraulic Breaker/Hammer; to break concrete hardstanding and slabs and to reduce very large single pieces of concrete. This is a fast, efficient primary demolition phase tool.

Excavator mounted Hydraulic Jaw Crusher Attachment; to lever-up and crush concrete hardstanding and slabs and to reduce very large single pieces, crushing the concrete and cutting reinforcing. The attachment's jaws can also help to demolish and lift and shift larger pieces of rubble. This tool can be used on initial phase demoliton and on secondary processing to reduce material to a size suitable for processing into re-useable aggregate in a crushing plant.

Tracked mobile crusher; to reduce the concrete, crushing it into a re-useable aggregate. Tracked concrete crushing can be done on almost any size of site and there are now machines from as small as 0.9 tonnes, right up to 100 tonne monsters to suit any output requirement. This final phase processing machine is essential for the re-use of concrete.

Excavator mounted Riddle or Screen Bucket; to ensure fast conrete crushing, without jams or blockages, it is advisable to remove as much dirt and fines as possible before loading the material into the crusher. This is an ideal task for a riddle or screen bucket (sometimes known as shaker buckets). Once material is crushed these buckets can also be used for post-processing of crushed concrete.

All of the above equipment is available in sizes to suit almost any site, from small domestic renovation and improvement jobs, right up to full-scale demoltion, recycling and processing applications.

The benefits of crushing your waste concrete

• Crushing waste concrete saves money
• Easier to transport when crushed
• Crushed concrete can be recycled