Celtic Crushing & Screening Continues Allegiance to Blue Machinery

• 
• 12th July 2007
• Quarrying
 

Since Celtic Crushing & Screening Limited was founded by Jonathan Lewis & Elwyn Jones in 2003, the company has seen a rational yet impressive growth in both its loyal customer base and the modern fleet of operated screening and crushing plants for its contract services. From three machines at the start, Celtic now has a fleet of 27 crushers, screeners and stockpiling conveyors - predominantly Terex Pegson and Powerscreen which have all been sourced from Blue Machinery Southern who have provided the equipment and, through sister company Spares UK, after sales product support with spares and service. From the early days providing contract crushing and screening in the region around Celtic's south Wales home base near Aberdare, the company is now one of the largest of its type in the UK, serving a wide range of blue chip nationals and independent quarrying and recycling organisations throughout Wales and south west England.

Jonathan Lewis brought many years' experience working in quarries into the equation when he decided to start his company. "I realised that there was a real need in the area for a professional and reliable crushing and screening contract service, supplying the best possible equipment with highly trained, experienced and qualified operatives. All our operating personnel are CPCS and EPIC certificated, carry Quarry Safety "passports" and are trained in Health & Safety and Dust & Noise awareness. Celtic Crushing and Screening has also been awarded the ISO 9001 certificate for high standards of quality management.  Through persistence, hard work, listening to our customers and providing a professional and reliable service," Jonathan continues, "we soon found that word-of-mouth recommendations and plenty of repeat business made our customer base grow and they know that they can rely on us to deliver the productivity levels they demand and expect".

Apart from the planned long-term contracts that are the bread-and-butter of a business like Celtic, they are also able to fulfil short notice contracts with equal reliability, which has built them an enviable reputation for keeping quarries working when in-situ machinery has let quarry operators down.  Additionally, Celtic has a team of trained and experienced service engineers which looks after the kit both at the company's headquarters and on site, providing a quality preventive maintenance service to keep the modern fleet running smoothly and, in the unlikely event of a breakdown, responding quickly to effect repairs and get things moving again. "We always source genuine spare parts for our kit." says Jonathan, "We've tried "look-alike parts" and found that they're more trouble than they are worth and it pays us hand-over-fist to use OEM spares. They fit properly and are designed for the job and, with fast turn-round backup like we get from Spares UK, we know that most of the items we need on a regular basis are usually off-the-shelf and we can often get the part delivered the day we order it!".

Celtic Crushing and Screening has an almost perfect product mix in its hire fleet for virtually any crushing and screening contract - for quarried stone or recycled aggregates, sand and gravel, coal and slag, glass, bricks and concrete. The company has considerable expertise in pits and quarries or on recycling and waste management applications and is capable of handling projects from 5,000 to 500,000 tonnes with cost-effective efficiency. Currently, the Celtic fleet comprises cone, jaw and impact crushers and a range of screening plants from the small end Powertracks right up to 500 tonnes per hour triple-deck and five-way splitting Chieftain models.

The latest addition to the Celtic fleet is a new generation Terex Pegson XR400 mobile crushing plant which was recently delivered by distributor Blue Machinery Southern. This powerful machine has a highly aggressive crushing action and the high-swing jaw facilitates easy material entry into the crushing chamber. The XR400 features hydraulic release, which has been specifically designed to alleviate problems associated with crusher overload which can be encountered when tramp metal enters the crushing process. The crusher will self-protect and open in the event of an overload being encountered - particularly prevalent in the recycling of construction and demolition waste. The hydraulic release feature is fully adjustable, quick and easy to reset and makes blockage clearance a simple process. This saves time and money by allowing the crusher to continue processing with minimal disruption to the task while, at the same time, protecting the jaw mechanism from potential damage. It is, perhaps, typical of Celtic Crushing and Screening to opt for a versatile plant such as the XR400, as they are able to utilise it on both natural stone and recycling applications with this dual-purpose capability.

One of the first jobs where Celtic used their new XR400 was for a rolling contract for crushing and screening face blasted material to produce a -30mm fill material with the 150mm-30mm being further processed for asphalt and concrete. The customer had decided that their 40 years old primary crusher was overdue for retirement and brought in Celtic Crushing and Screening to take on the task. Paired with a Powerscreen Warrior 1800 (see picture), the machines with their operators are hard at work and more than meeting the customer's expectations.

Why Powerscreen and Terex Pegson products? Jonathan Lewis has a ready answer. "They are British built and their pedigree is impeccable. Additionally, we've built up an excellent working relationship with Blue Machinery and Spares UK who are a one-stop-shop for both product lines. This makes life very easy for us as we work well together, the plants have a superb build quality and, perhaps most of all, they are reliable, powerful and more than capable of contributing to our hard-won reputation for service and productivity".

In conclusion, Jonathan Lewis sums it up succinctly. "When you build up a crushing and screening contract hire business like ours, you have to be able to offer the best equipment, top operatives to work the plants and, above all, delete the word "downtime" from the vocabulary. We took an early decision to build a fleet with what we considered to be the best machinery available on the market. We looked for proven equipment backed by first-class after sales product support. Through Blue Machinery for Powerscreen and Pegson products and Spares UK for parts, we are confident that we have the right formula for continued expansion and, where the customer is king, very satisfied clients throughout our whole area of operations"

Further information:
Karen Wilde, Blue Machinery Plc.
Tel: 0845 230 4460. Fax: 0845 658 2314
e-mail: karen.wilde@bluemachinerycentral.com

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