Tis the season to be crushing

December 21, 2019

Great Yarmouth based Clems Skip Hire, part of East Coast Waste Ltd, have purchased a Terex Finlay based crushing and screening solution that sees them extend their crushing and screening season from 8 to 12 months following advice from the experts at Molson Finlay.

Hidden away at the back of the Harfreys Industrial Estate with the tranquil backdrop of the River Yate, Clems Skip Hire are busy crushing all year round thanks to a solution provided by the crushing and screening experts at Molson Finlay. The combination of a Terex Finlay 595 heavy duty grid alongside a J-1160 jaw crusher offers this forward-thinking waste management provider a versatile and effective fleet that can cope with the most demanding conditions for processing recycled aggregates.

From humble beginnings when the company was founded in 1979 by Managing Director Paul Clements, with one man, a truck and 10 skips – East Coast Waste currently stands as one of the leading waste management suppliers to both commercial and domestic customers across the East Anglia region. Now boasting two locations; Harfreys Industrial Estate as a recycled aggregate hub and Eurocentre running the dust cart and skip waste facility. Currently running in excess of 20 pieces of heavy machinery to sort, move and proves the waste and aggregates, alongside 24 waggons and employing 46 members of staff, they really have come on a long way since the days of Paul’s truck circling the region.

One of the reasons why many in the area hold East Coast Waste and Clems in such high regards is the fact the business holds family values at their core, with founder Paul still playing an active role in the business today, with another two generations of the family also playing vital roles in the business. Paul’s son Paul Clements (AKA Biffo) is a vital part of the company as it stands today from his position of Director, as well as his son who also works for the firm driving one of their wagons.

The winter woes

As all skip and waste companies who are producing recycled aggregates know, it is an easy win to turn such a heavy element of your waste flow into a resalable product. However, things get difficult when the great British weather kicks in. With persistent rainfall resulting in wet and heavy material that becomes too difficult to process. For many companies this can result in them being unable to process material effectively for as much as 4 months a year. It was this problem that lead Biffo to investigate what solutions were on the market.

Molson Finlay Sales manager, Brian Bell said; “I have dealt with Biffo and his father Paul numerous times over the years, so when he came to me and explained how he wanted to extend the time they could produce recycled aggregates for in order to make their business more profitable during the winter months. We investigated many options, but we agreed this combination offered the best solution for them.

“Many skip hire companies end up stockpiling material through the winter period as the material becomes too difficult to process. With the material becoming wet and sticky, production rates are reduced – a problem I believe we have found a solution for. By pre-screening a percentage of the feedstock using the highly aggressive Terex Finlay 595 heavy duty grid, we are able to remove any material -40mm from the feedstock, leaving a clean oversize to be processed by the J-1160 jaw crusher”.

Biffo remarked: “The Terex Finlay jaw has a great pre-screener built into the hopper, but as on all our previous jaw crushers from other manufacturers, we sometimes find that wet material has stuck to the grizzly. This limits its performance when it becomes partially blocked. By reducing the amount of fine material that we put through our jaw crusher, we are already seeing an improvement in the production throughput of the machine, as well as in increase in the life of the jaw wear parts (jaw liners, cheek plates, etc.).

“The wet and heavy material passed through the 595 screener also gives us an opportunity to clean the oversize material before it is loaded into the jaw crusher. By having a cleaner material, our operators are able to identify material with large sections of re-bar and other material that we want to remove prior to going into the J-1160”.

There when we need them

When considering which brand of equipment to purchase, there are many different factors to consider: Is it the right machine for us? How much will it process? How much will it cost to run? Will the dealer be able to support me when I need them? All of these questions went through the minds of Biffo, Paul and the rest of the team at Clems Skip Hire before completing these recent acquisitions.

Biffo explained: “Brian was excellent at talking us through the Terex Finlay products on offer and how they could work together to give us the right answer for our business. We also had a lot of confidence in the after sales support from Molson following feedback from some of their other customers that we know and the fact that their Cambridge depot is not far away from us. This mean that if we ever need a part to get us back up and running again or if the problem is more serious, an engineer to come and investigate, we can rely on Molson to get us up and running again”.

Molson Finlay are the distributors for Terex Finlay crushers, screeners and conveyors throughout England and Wales, with fellow member of the Molson Group – Finlay Scotland providing coverage throughout Scotland. With 13 depots throughout the UK and over 80 field service engineers on the road, Molson have the strength in depth to deliver on their after sales promises.