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by Kelly Gates
For more than 100 years, members of the aggregate industry have been coming to Universal Engineering Corp. for state-of-the-art processing equipment.
The company got its start with a patent for the overhead eccentric jaw crusher in 1906. Early growth of the company is credited to the portability of this crusher and the expanse of the transcontinental highway system. Over the years, the manufacturer’s product line grew to include various compressive and impact type crushers, screens and feeders.
“The company has been noted for the development of new and innovative equipment with features to add productivity and longevity in extremely harsh applications,” said Gerry Mangrich, sales manager for Universal.
Another specialty of the company has been designing crushers that allowed users to effectively control the output of the crushers, a capability that is still a high priority for the company today, added Mangrich.
During the past six years — Universal became a separate entity in 2002 — the manufacturer’s design team has worked hard to introduce several new models with easily adjustable features. These include the NGS secondary impact crusher, which is available in seven model sizes, and the MaxCap primary impact crusher, with models that can produce upwards of 600, 750, 1,000 or 1,400 tons per hour.
The MaxCap line of primary impactors offers the adjust-on-the-fly feature which enables operators to adjust the output gradation with the press of a button.
Hamm, Inc., of Perry, KS, purchased a MaxCap primary and an NGS crusher in August of 2006. The company also commissioned Universal to build a dual-screening plant with Simplicity screens. All three plants were custom-designed with portable features intended to enhance their functionality within the Hamm organization.
“We have been using Universal Engineering’s equipment in our quarries for the past two years and they have worked very well for us,” said Jim Bogner, quarry consultant for Hamm. “Portability is extremely important to us and so is durability. Their equipment gave us both of these things as well as the ability to adjust the output in an instant when we need to reduce or increase production.”
Having the flexibility to alter processing machinery quickly or relocate an entire plant in a matter of minutes has made Hamm much more efficient, he added.
Along with the two crushing machines purchased by Hamm Quarries, Universal also produces a VersaCap primary impactor and an H-series primary jaw crusher, both of which incorporate a unique adjust-on-the-fly feature. The H-series is a heavy duty 32 x 64 jaw crusher outfitted with an automatic trap iron relief and automatic reset feature.
“This new model competes head on with the largest jaws available for recycle operations, and also includes the capability of being adjusted on the fly in a very practical manner,” said Mangrich.
Other equipment being produced by the company includes a tractor chain apron feeder and wobbler feeder. With its ever-expanding array of products, Universal is positioned for a future filled with new and innovative equipment to help customers like Hamm Quarries increase efficiencies throughout their system one processing unit at a time.
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