Powerscreen will continue to invest in our products so that our customers have access to the very best technology, says Rajen Khoda, Director of Sales, South Asia and the Middle East, Powerscreen, in an exclusive interview with Equipment India. Excerpts from the interview.

What is the total investment made by Powerscreen, for capacity addition or a new manufacturing facility?
Terex opened a 45-acre site manufacturing campus in Hosur, in 2009. This purpose-built facility commenced operations with the manufacture of Powerscreen? crushing and screening equipment. The facility currently employs approximately 70 people. The operation consists of manufacturing, design, customer support, finance, purchasing, IT, and quality functions. We are committed to supporting the continuing development of the Indian market through our local manufacturing facility in Hosur.

In 2010 and 2011, Powerscreen has witnessed such strong growth in India for a number of models that it was necessary to continue to import machines from Ireland to supplement the production of the Hosur facility. The most popular models in 2010 were the Powerscreen? X400S, Powerscreen? 1000 Maxtrak, Powerscreen? Metrotrak, Powerscreen? 1000SR and the Powerscreen? Chieftain 1400 and Powerscreen? H6203.

The full spectrum of Chieftain screening products and the jaw and cone crushers are also manufactured in Hosur.

What is the impact of the new emission norms on Powerscreen?
Powerscreen machines for the Indian market are fitted with Tier-3 engines which meet present emission requirements for India.

How do you view the increasing cost for input materials?
A natural part of our Terex Business System (TBS) is continuous improvement. As a result, we are always looking for ways to reduce our costs so we can maintain our competitiveness in the marketplace. As our capabilities in India are maturing, we are actively pursuing localisation of major components to help offset increases in other input costs.

What are the new products launched during 2010 - 2011 and their unique features?
Powerscreen is committed to continuous product development and innovation. We intend to maintain our technology and design leadership in the construction, quarrying and recycling industries, ensuring we meet customer demand for products that are easy to set up, operate and service. Powerscreen will continue to invest in our products so that our customers have access to the very best technology.

The new range of Powerscreen? impactors including the XH250, XH320, XH320SR, XH500, XH500SR were released in early 2010. Emphasis is placed upon designing machines that give the greatest level of fuel efficiency while at the same time providing the greatest level of output.

Tell us about the initiatives taken to widen the sales and service network, and training for operators.
In 2001, Powerscreen appointed Voltas as its first distributor in India. Voltas sold the first track plant in September 2001 and since then, Voltas has helped Powerscreen gain the largest market share of tracked crushing and screening equipment in India. As the market continued to develop, it became evident that Powerscreen would need to recruit additional distributors. In 2009, Alpha Technical Services and Vijay Traders were added. In 2011, the distribution network has been further fortified with the signing of two additional distributors, Progressive and Lathangi, extending Powerscreen's reach in India.

At Powerscreen, we fully train the service engineers of all our dealers, on a regular basis. When a new machine is sold to a customer, the local dealer will train the customer's operators to ensure the machine is utilised to its full potential, whilst adhering to all the relevant health and safety regulations. As our market share continues to grow, and we gain new customers, more and more operators will become familiar with our equipment. We design the products to be simple and straightforward to use. There is no doubt that a trained operator will get the best result. We have in place an extensive training programme for all of our technicians at the Hosur plant.

How do you look at the business opportunities from Excon?
Powerscreen is looking forward to exhibiting at Excon 2011 in collaboration with Powerscreen's Indian distributors: Alpha Technical Services; Vijay Traders; Voltas, Lathangi and Progressive Motors. We expect another busy and successful Excon, and also hope to have the opportunities to discuss the many ways that our equipment can help customers to enhance the productivity and profitability of their businesses. A number of new products and product improvements are planned for 2012, and we will bring you information on these, in early 2012.

Powerscreen? Metrotrak

The Metrotrak is a compact, high- performance tracked mobile jaw crushing plant featuring the M series single toggle jaw crusher. With an aggressive crushing action and a high output even at tight settings, the Metrotrak is ideally suited for small to medium- sized operators in the mining, quarrying and recycling industries. The Metrotrak has an output of up to 175 tph and features a vibrating grizzly feeder that has a heavy-duty mechanical vibrating unit with twin cast eccentric shafts. Finger bars and underscreen allow grizzly fines to be directed on to the main product or optional side conveyor by fitting a blanking mat or wire meshes with a choice of apertures. Variable speed control allows smooth and continuous materials feed. The integral product conveyor is 800 mm wide and the discharge height is 2.9 m. The heavy-duty crawler track undercarriage, fully skirted conveyor and remote control ensure that the plant can be set up very quickly and easily moved on site. Dust suppression sprays are fitted as standard and among the optional extras available are the side/dirt conveyor; radio remote control; and magnetic overband separator.

Powerscreen? 1000SR

The 1000SR mobile plant combines the high performance of the popular tracked 1000 Maxtrak with a double deck sizing screen and a re-circulating system, all on one single tracked chassis. This enables customers to take advantage of the site-proven benefits of the Automax? cone crusher incorporated into a closed circuit screening plant, thereby eliminating the need for separate screening. This versatile, mobile plant is ideally suited for secondary and tertiary applications in quarrying, where high quality, low flake, single size aggregate and sub-base materials are required.

The 1000SR accepts an all-in clean feed and produces high throughput, excellent reduction and product shape, whilst allowing operators to re-circulate oversize from the screen, or to stockpile it. In addition, the plant is also able to produce two further screened product sizes when the optional additional stockpiling conveyor is included, while other benefits include quick set-up time and excellent product shape characteristics.

Powerscreen? Chieftain 1400

The Powerscreen? Chieftain 1400 is a compact, high production screen, which, over the years, has established itself as the most popular Powerscreen unit. Easy to move, it is capable of an output of 400 tonnes per hour depending on mesh size and application. Its features include a proven four bearing system, hydraulic folding conveyors, radio controlled tipping grid, integrated high capacity variable speed belt feeder, hydraulic screen angle adjustment, fully adjustable mains conveyor for feeding the screen box, and engine protection shutdown system.

Access to the screen box for servicing and mesh changes is easy due to the hydraulic screen tensioning and full wrap around screen walkway and access ladder. The screen box can also be accessed from below by dropping the fines conveyor. It also boasts a range of optional features designed to make it versatile enough to deal with a variety of applications from sand and wood processing to recycling.