Torgerson Impact Crusher

[John C.]

I'm a little out of my experience level here so thought I would ask around.

I'm looking at an impact crusher that I believe is a Torgerson AX Impact crusher. My client is looking for any operation and maintenance manuals plus anything having to do with a parts breakdown on the machine. I remember a Lee Torgerson here in the Seattle area years ago but haven't been able to run down any information on him or his company. I have included a couple of photos of the machine. Any help of info would be appreciated.

 

[funwithfuel]

I found an article citing a lawsuit from an employee against Lee Torgerson evidently he was just a reseller and not an actual manufacturer I did some digging and I cannot find any distributors I realize I'm coming to the party quite late I don't know if your client is still interested in that piece of equipment

 

[funwithfuel]

https://law.justia.com/cases/washington/supreme-court/1980/46533-1.html
This is the article I found maybe you'll be able to glean a lead from its text

 

[John C.]

Thanks for your time in looking this up and providing the link to the court case. I found it very interesting.

We found some information on the unit. I hooked up the hydraulic system in order to open the crusher and found an ESCO part number on one of the breaker bars. The owner of the machine followed that lead and found the part fits a BXX Torgerson impact crusher. Apparently Lee Torgerson did design, build and sell impact crushers. There were a few models apparently following the XX designation, AXX, BXX, CXX and so on. We are thinking this only refers to size. The rotor impact bars are still readily available from Spokane Industries. The rights to the design of these units is American Pulverizer out of St. Louis. I called them and was told that Mr. Torgerson gave their owner the drawings and patents if they ever wanted to do anything with the line. They were no help at all on providing any information on the unit.

The rotor turns freely and has two brand new bars installed and two used ones. The owner had a feeder installed and I am hooking up the hydraulic drive motor to the machine hydraulics later today. I'll get some photos hopefully today. An electric motor runs the crusher rotor and the owner doesn't have enough power for it yet. The out feed belts and hydraulics are all electric drive.

Thanks again for the lead. I appreciate your time!

 

[funwithfuel]

Never been a big fan of the four bar rotor always preferred the tri-bar my thought is if you're allowing the material to get that close to the rotor on the two lobes that are worn down you're eating into the rotor face which is going to result in you having to do more hardfacing later on whereas if you always flip your bars on a tri bar all three evenly and you don't let it eat into the rotor you'll have a longer life but that's just my two cents in personal opinion

 

[funwithfuel]

Oh and one last thing before I forget please have your electrician drive a ground rod dedicated for that machine and grounded properly so many guys think that they can just follow the ground back to the source or to the pole or Tower that takes too long people can get fried in that short amount of time

 

[John C.]

Thanks for note on the ground rod. I'll prod the owner to make sure that is done.

 

[Theweldor]

I have not been around any impact crushers but a couple of times. I have never seen a 3 bar only seen the 4 bar. I was always told to run 2 new bars and fill the other 2 with blanks. Not sure why but that is how they always showed up so kept them that way. I should also say that these were rented machines for a specific job.

 

[funwithfuel]

The thought is 2up 2 down . Balanced rotor. 1 bar grabs material and flings it at aprons 2nd throws a little 3rd grabs and flings and 4th just grabs a little. My problem is they are all immersed in the same feed material coming off the bed. The rotor is still spinning whether there's a bar there or not.
Rotor speed is another critical factor. You gotta look at the apron. See where the material is being thrown. Also look at rotor face. If material is polishing rotor, it's too slow. Bar should show impact not rotor. Sometimes pulleys can be reduced or enlarged to change rotor speed. Since its electric. Motor speed will be consistent.
Looking forward to seeing inside the crusher chamber

 

[Theweldor]

Good thoughts there Funwithfuel

 

[John C.]

Got the feeder hydraulic circuit up and running this afternoon. Opened the monster up and got some photos of the inside.

 

[John C.]

Here are the rest of the photos.

 

[funwithfuel]

That's a big critter. You've really got quite a bit of work ahead of you . First off by appearance , it looks as if the rotor was running backwards for a time. The hardfacing on the rotor is usually turning towards the aprons. That way the pockets grab and accumulate material for more rock on rock vs iron on rock. So it would be natural that your blowbars would have a rounded edge toward the hardfaced rotor. But yours appears to have a sharp edge towards the hardfacing.
The apron wear plates look concave. Are they cast or can you build them up with hardfacing? Normally I would suggest to overhaul with all new wear plates and bars so you're starting with a fresh slate. But I don't know what parts availability is. Like you said Esco bars, you got a fighting chance there. Side liners and apron tips may not be so accessible.
Anyway changing rotor direction ain't squat but flipping 2 legs . Yer sparky can handle that in 5 minutes. What's your feed bed and Grizzlies look like? Can't really tell by pics, is she straight up gravity and slope feed or are all those round things some kind of isolators to allow for vibrating feed? I see the shadows of the Grizzlies ,does the under crusher belt start all the way back there so that fines are carried through, or do they get carried off by the cross conveyor out the side? Is there any backflow protection at the inlet to the crusher chamber? That way crushed material can't jump out. I ask cuz I've seen that stuff launch like a rocket. And that was relatively soft midwest limestone.

 

[funwithfuel]

Will this be breaking virgin rock, or recycled FRAP? What kinda rock ? Slate, granite, limestone? Higher silica content usually means higher compressive strength. More energy to break or fracture. All the more reason to tune up your welder. Need a mag on your feed end , protect the rotor, bars and aprons from bits , teeth, manhole covers and sewer grates. No HSI wants non crushable iron running through it.

 

[John C.]

Wow! That's more information than i've found in three weeks of looking. Basically my role was to get the hydraulic side of this thing working which we finished today.

The feeder is a reciprocating floor unit that will drop material directly into the chute on the impactor. There are some grizzly bars at the end of the feeder that should drop the fines onto the cross belt. The feeder is painted gray and from what I see there was a scalping screen on there before this gentleman got it so the fines would drop on the belt and go out the back. The impact plates hanging down appear to be cast so I don't know if they can be hard faced or not. I believe they should show a zig zag pattern all the way across so the front one is pretty worn. I can't tell you much about the bars and direction but to me it would make sense the thing would only really work in one direction.

The owner is talking about recycling concrete and he has a small mobile jaw crusher he works at times now. He has an excavator with a muncher that he pre-processes with to get as much of the rebar out before dropping the chunks in. He has some ad material showing this thing can handle tramp steel but I told him rebar is not a good thing to go through this at all. This place is a sand stone quarry and the history here is incredible. I have worked with this type of sand stone before and I know it isn't something that works very well with crushers. I think busting concrete and river rock is what he intends to go through it. I love your comment on the back flow protection. I didn't think about it and I'll mention it to the owner.

Thanks!

 

[dhueg0468]

I have what looks to be the same crusher. Did you ever find a place to buy new blow bars & a stripping bar? Mine were pretty worn out when I bought it...