ADAMS CONTRACTING Answers State-Wide Dilemma for Virginia
With 10 processing centers around the state, Virginia-based Adams Contracting needed portability. Richard Zerkel, Adams Contracting vice president for equipment and maintenance, admits his crusher wasn't keeping pace with the company's asphalt plants to supply the RAP needed to fulfill major contracts. It wasn't mobile enough, and it wasn't fast enough.

Zerkel's crews were using a small hammermill-type crusher that was producing about 70 TPH. They were working from dawn to dusk to meet the need for recycled asphalt. And Zerkel says they had to keep a dedicated truck-crane system with the hammermill. In the event of a move, workers would have to use the system to remove some of the crusher's components.

Purchasing and operating 10 of the hammermills would just be too costly; Zerkel and Adams needed an alternative. They chose the Eagle Crusher UltraMax® 1000-15.

“On the Eagle system, everything is self-contained,” Zerkel says. “We got the hydraulic setup. Once we move into a site, we can probably be crushing in three hours or something like that.

“It used to take us three-fourths of a day to tear down the old machine. You had to disassemble the crusher from the legs. There were additional loads to move. It took us another three-fourths of a day to set it up.''

The Power of Portability
Portability is essential to the Adams operation, and the Eagle Crusher UltraMax 1000-15 is fitted with a gasoline-powered, hydraulic lift/leveling system for quick tear-down and set-up.

“We can't just stay in one place and move in and do 20,000–30,000 tons,” Zerkel says. “If we do that, somebody else will run out, so we have to physically move the machine from location to location.''

And production by the Eagle Crusher UltraMax 1000-15, which utilizes a massive 3-bar sculptured, solid-steel rotor, has pleased Zerkel.

“This Eagle machine has met our needs in two ways,” Zerkel says. “It has increased our production to where our crew is not dedicated to crushing RAP 5–6 days a week, 40 weeks out of a year.

“Eagle guaranteed the plant would do 125 TPH and the UltraMax 1000-150 has exceeded it,” Zerkel emphasizes. “I think we have run it up around 200 TPH. Even a little better than that, even bring it down to 3/4" minus.”

Adams uses the precisely sized RAP to produce high-grade asphalt for major commercial and governmental paving projects.

The portable Eagle UltraMax 1000-15 has a height of 13'6" and a weight of 103,000 lbs. It is powered by a 272 HP diesel engine and a 100 kW generator.

Zerkel gets it all with the Eagle UltraMax 1000-15. The crusher's blow bar design reduces wear, provides high reduction ratios (40:1), and allows production of a third product in open circuit.

“If somebody was to call me and they were close enough, I'd tell them to come and see the capabilities of it,” Zerkel says. “I know all contractors are different, everybody does things different. . .but as far as I'm concerned, for Adams Construction Company, it's the ideal machine.”