Polysius
The quarry moves.
We move with it.
polysius® Crushing PlantsThe quarry moves. We move with it.
Crushing plants play a critical role in material processing, typically receiving materials from blasting operations. These materials are then transported by wheeled loaders, excavators, or heavy trucks to the plant's feed hopper.
The size of the hopper is designed to match the capacity of the loading equipment and the plant’s overall throughput. When heavy trucks are used for feeding, an access ramp is necessary, though feeding directly from an elevated mining floor tends to be more efficient. Once in the hopper, materials are conveyed continuously to the crusher through apron or chain feeders. In cases where a high proportion of fines is in the fed raw material, pre-screening systems such as wobbler / roller screens are often installed to optimize processing. The crusher itself is the heart of the plant, with common types including hammer-, roller-, and impact crushers. Depending on the crusher type, these systems can achieve impressive throughput capacities of up to 4,000 tph. Once the material is crushed, it is transferred to a discharge belt via a feed-out conveyor, which can vary in design – belt, plate, or chain – depending on the crusher and material.
Key figures bar
The right crushing concept for every quarry
With decades of experience in crushing and plant engineering, and more than 80 years in conveying and materials handling technology, we develop crushing solutions for demanding quarry and cement applications. The process philosophy stays the same; the mobility concept is adapted to the quarry.
Stationary — Maximum robustness and long-term stability for permanent quarry installations.
Semi-mobile — The robustness of a fixed installation, with the ability to relocate when quarry conditions change.
Fully mobile — A crushing system that follows the material extraction point as the face advances.
| Concept | Main advantage | Typical application |
| Stationary | Maximum stability | Long-term fixed quarry operation |
| Semi-mobile | Relocatable | Quarry with medium-term mining advance |
| Fully mobile | Maximum flexibility | Fast-moving quarry face, high-frequency relocation |
Table caption: The same process philosophy, adapted to the quarry.
Choose the mobility that matches your quarry.
Stationary
When stability matters
Ideal where
The quarry geometry is stable
Long-term production is planned from a fixed location
High-capacity continuous operation is required
Permanent infrastructure is economically justified
Typical characteristics
Heavy-duty construction
High production capacity
Long service life
Integration into permanent conveying systems
Potential advantages for noise and environmental protection through fixed plant design and enclosure concepts
Condition box, amber
The consideration that decides it. The crusher stays where it is while the quarry face moves away from it. Over the lifetime of the quarry this can increase haulage distances and truck requirements — which is exactly the cost that the other two concepts are designed to avoid.
Semi-mobile
Move the crusher — not the quarry
Semi-mobile crushing plants combine the robustness of a stationary installation with the ability to relocate the crushing station when quarry conditions change. Ideal for large open-cast mines with multiple floors, they combine excavators, trucks, crushers, and belt installations into a coordinated system. Unlike fully mobile plants, they have no traveling mechanism of their own — relocation happens over longer periods using lift transporters or crawler loaders, moving the station closer to the active mining area whenever that's economically justified, rather than letting the distance between face and crusher grow year after year.
Cost chain
Shorter haulage distance → Fewer trucks → Less fuel → Lower operating cost
Relocation: The station is moved as the quarry advances, rather than staying behind it.
Quarry geometry: Better utilisation of the quarry geometry, because the crusher position is not fixed at the start.
Consistent feed distance: Short, consistent distance between extraction equipment and the crusher — with multiple extraction machines able to feed into one crushing plant.
Heavy-duty design: Crusher and plant are built to stationary standards; relocation is not paid for with a lighter machine.
High capacity: Suitable for high-capacity applications, with long-term flexibility and homogenization of the pay mineral retained — while reducing the need for additional lifting equipment.
Fully mobile
The quarry moves. The crusher moves with it.
Fully mobile crushing is the answer when the face advances quickly and the crushing system has to follow the extraction point. We have extensive experience with fully mobile systems and have supplied them for major cement and quarry applications. The crusher processes material directly at the extraction area, loading the crushed material onto a shiftable conveyor that carries it towards the plant.
Mobile crushing plants are most effective when integrated into the open-cast mining process, with the plant following the open-cast equipment as it advances. Depending on quarry conditions, a fully mobile plant can be relocated at very high frequency – potentially every few days – keeping the crusher close to the centre of mass of the active mining area.
The crusher follows the quarry – not the other way around.
Particularly attractive for
Fast-moving quarry faces
High-frequency relocation
Short haulage distances
Large-scale quarry operations
Load-and-carry mining concepts
Applications where wheel loaders or hydraulic excavators feed the crusher directly
Uniform deposits with minimal tectonic disturbances, long working faces, and soil/rock conditions that support high, wide benches
What it changes
Significantly reduced haulage distances
Reduced truck fleet requirements - mobile crushers eliminate the need for heavy-duty trucks, cutting road construction and maintenance costs
Lower fuel consumption and lower CO₂ emissions
Lower operating costs
Improved quarry logistics
More efficient use of mining equipment
Increased overall productivity
Everything around the primary crushing process
A polysius® crushing plant can include all the equipment around primary or two stage (with roller crushers) crushing, engineered as one system rather than assembled from separate supplies.
A heavy-duty apron feeder ahead of the pre-screen and the crusher: controlled material reception, continuous feeding, high impact resistance and a controlled feed rate into the screening and crushing system.
Depending on the application, a chain scraper conveyor is installed below the feeder to handle fines and spillage — and, where suitable, to route them past the crusher.
An integrated pre-screen upstream of the primary crusher removes fines before they enter it, so the complete crushing system is optimised rather than the crusher treated in isolation.
Crushed material is discharged via a specially designed heavy-duty conveyor — large width, application-specific design, built for continuous operation under quarry conditions.
Dedusting engineered into the plant concept rather than added afterwards, alongside the enclosure options a fixed plant design allows.
Electrical and control systems, modern monitoring, plus service and spare parts support for the plant as a whole.
The discharge conveyor is engineered as an integral part of the crushing plant, not selected as a standard off-the-shelf conveyor. The same applies to everything else in the list.
The crusher is selected for the material
The plant concept is not tied to a single crusher technology. Depending on material, capacity, feed size and required product, the plant can be equipped with different polysius® crusher technologies.
Hammer crushers — For high-capacity primary crushing and demanding cement applications.
Impact crushers — For efficient single-stage crushing and optimised product quality.
Double-roll crushers often as two stage crushing solution — For medium-hard, soft and sticky materials such as limestone, marl, clay as well as recycle concrete materials.
Not the material for the crusher.
What the pre-screen adds (Screen first. Crush smarter.)
Removing fines before they enter the crusher changes what the crusher is asked to do, and everything downstream of it follows.
Reduced crusher load and wear
Reduced power consumption
Reduced clogging
Increased downstream equipment lifetime
Improved crusher availability
Higher total plant output
Maintenance and service (Safe. Accessible. Maintainable.)
Plants are designed for long-term operation in demanding environments. Depending on the project scope, the plant can be equipped with:
Heavy-duty maintenance platforms
Bridge cranes and maintenance hoists
Service access systems
Dust extraction systems
Inspection and maintenance equipment
Modern control and monitoring systems
We do not offer one standard crushing plant. We engineer the mobility concept around the quarry.
The right mobility concept can change your cost per ton
The mobility concept should be selected on total operating cost, not on the initial investment alone. A stationary solution may be the optimum choice for one quarry; a semi-mobile solution may give the best economics for another; and in a rapidly advancing quarry a fully mobile system can deliver major operational advantages.
How the face moves (Quarry)
Quarry geometry, mining advance and the relocation frequency that follows from them.
What it costs to move material (Logistics)
Haulage distance, truck fleet and fuel consumption — the numbers that change most with the crusher position.
What the plant itself costs to run (Plant)
Crusher capacity, plant utilisation, maintenance requirements, energy consumption and material flow.
These eleven parameters are what a concept study puts numbers against. Without them, the comparison between stationary, semi-mobile and fully mobile is a discussion about investment rather than about cost per ton.
From the quarry face to the cement plant
The point of combining these is not the length of the list. It is that the material flow can be optimised as a whole, instead of an individual crusher being supplied into someone elses concept.
Stationary when stability matters. Semi-mobile when flexibility matters. Fully mobile when mobility creates the economic advantage.
Tell us about your quarry
Which mobility concept is right depends on how your quarry behaves over the next twenty years, not on a preference. These details are what a concept comparison is built from. Only your contact details are required.