Skene chooses Atlas Copco for life!

Among the tools purchased by the Skene Group, one of the UK’s largest providers of quarrying and demolition services, are BP 2900 bulk pulverisers, CC 3300 combi-cutters and HB 3000 hydraulic breakers.

The new plant incorporating the Atlas Copco tools forms part of the large fleet maintained by the Skene Group to ensure that it can always respond rapidly and effectively to its customers’ requirements. Since the fleet is central to the Skene Group’s operations, the company is always looking for ways to enhance performance and reliability, while minimising operating costs.

“As part of our on-going efforts to optimise the performance of our fleet, we decided to look at using hydraulic tools to complement the mechanical tools we have always used in the past,” explained Skene Group Joint Managing Director, Darren Forrester, “and, because Atlas Copco has such a strong reputation for the performance and quality of its products and the support it provides, it was the logical choice of supplier.”

With the new tools now in service, the Skene Group is finding that they are delivering all of the anticipated benefits. In particular, their productivity is higher than their mechanical equivalents. The productivity gains depend on the application, but are typically at least 20%. Their higher efficiency also means that the hydraulic tools help to reduce running costs, because the plant incorporating them consumes less diesel fuel for a given amount of work.

In addition, because the stresses in hydraulic tools are lower than those in mechanical tools, maintenance requirements are reduced, the tools have longer working lives, and they have an enhanced residual value when they are finally taken out of service with the Skene Group fleet.

“After a few teething problems, which are almost inevitable with this type of project and which were quickly and efficiently addressed by Atlas Copco, the new tools are now doing a great job for us,” said Darren Forrester.

“In fact, not only are they saving us money and helping us to enhance the service we provide to our customers, they are also opening up new market sectors to us, simply because of the productivity gains they deliver. We’re very happy both with the tools themselves and with the support provided by Atlas Copco.”

The Skene Group purchased the equipment from Atlas Copco’s distributor, Rockbreakers UK Ltd based in Stirling, Scotland. “We are currently trying to promote the silent demolition tools. With Skene Group impressed with the product and service that Rockbreakers UK provide, we look forward to promoting the Atlas Copco product to more of the demolition industry.” says Jason Easton, Managing Director of Rockbreakers UK Ltd.

Key features of the BP 2900 bulk pulverisers purchased by the Skene Group include wide jaws to maximise productivity, easy-to-replace wear parts such as blades, teeth and tooth plates to increase uptime and reduce running costs, and a hydraulic rotation unit that allows unlimited rotation to ensure fast, targeted positioning.

The CC 3300 combi-cutters incorporate two powerful hydraulic cylinders to minimise cycle time and feature a modular design that allows each unit to be equipped with jaws selected to meet the exact requirements of the application. The combi-cutter can come equipped with universal, shear and with this particular model, pulveriser jaws which are quick and easy to change on site.

The Atlas Copco HB heavy-duty hydraulic breakers have been designed to offer optimised energy conversion and smooth running, and to deliver constant impact energy irrespective of oil flow rate.

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