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Several years ago, Pennsylvania Crusher added a new model, the Mountaineer^® Sizer, which has enjoyed a surprisingly rapid rate of adoption as a replacement for older crusher designs and as new crushing systems are installed – especially in the coal business where increased demand has occurred. This is not your typical scenario in capital equipment purchases, where industrial end users tend to approach change slowly. Existing equipment, however old, is normally expected to reach the very end of its useful service life before replacement is considered. Also, few industry users really care to be the very first to install a new piece of machinery that can range in cost from $175,000 up to $650,000, depending on the variables.

The newer Sizer designs differ substantially from more familiar size reduction machinery, such as roll crushers, that were traditionally used at some installations. Like crushers, sizers still reduce by mechanical forces but rely predominately on shear force as opposed to impact and compression forces. The Mountaineer uses tooth shapes that are nothing new, but the sizer design concept involves two revolving rolls bearing rows of teeth that rotate inward or outward at slow rotational speeds to reduce the material, which is a fairly new development.

Changing to a sizer means you spend less total money for the machine and the structure required to support that machine. Sizers are very compact and considerably less expensive to install than other crushers, which are typically much taller and bulkier. With these advantages, the Mountaineer Sizer is proving to be very desirable -- and saleable. A number of coal mines in the U.S. have already installed our sizer, as did a coal mine in Indonesia, just last year. 

And now, in a rapid succession of firsts, the Mountaineer Sizer has had:

• The first sale in the U.S. to a non-coal application, purchased by National Gypsum in Garden City, Georgia, where the sizer will crush--what else--gypsum
• The first sale in Russia, to a coal preparation plant
• The first sale in China, also to a coal preparation plant

Of course, every machine installed tends to increase the chances of more machines going into that industry or region. Plant managers know each other, people change jobs but stay within the industry, and everyone likes to keep up on news about equipment in other plants.  This informal grapevine is where users learn how well a machine’s working (or not working). Judging from industry acceptance so far, on several continents, it appears that the Mountaineer Sizer will have a long and productive career at Pennsylvania Crusher.

For more information on the Mountaineer Sizer, contact Scott Eck at seck@penncrusher.com, or visit www.penncrusher.com.

Scott Eck
Product Manager for Mountaineer® Sizers
Pennsylvania Crusher

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