Selection guide
Screens and feeders
Vibrating screen: the workhorse. Circular motion for general grading, linear motion for dewatering and fine screening. Deck count is set by how many products you sell, not by the tonnage.
Drum screen: high-capacity scalping of sticky or wet feed where a vibrating deck would blind. Lower efficiency, far more forgiving.
High-frequency screen: fine classification and tailings recovery below 1 mm, where conventional screens stop working.
Feeders: a crusher is only as good as its feed. An uncontrolled feed — surges from a tipping truck, or a chute delivering to one side of the chamber — causes uneven liner wear and eventually a cracked frame. Budget for a vibrating feeder with a variable-speed drive, and put a scalping grizzly ahead of the crusher so material that is already small enough does not occupy chamber volume.
Sand making and washing
Manufactured sand is judged on three things: grading, cubicity and the absence of clay. Getting all three right is a system problem, not a single machine.
Sand maker: vertical shaft impact crusher, rock-on-rock or rock-on-anvil. Rock-on-rock gives better cubicity and less wear cost; rock-on-anvil gives a higher fines ratio where the specification wants it.
Sand washer: wheel or spiral type for removing clay and silt. Wheel washers lose less fine sand; spiral washers handle dirtier feed.
Fine sand recovery: the unit that pays for itself. A conventional washer sends 5–20% of the finished sand out with the waste water. A recovery unit captures it, and on a 100 t/h plant that is several thousand tonnes a year of product you are currently giving away.