WHAT IS A SOIL SCREENER?

A screener is a machine used to separate materials by size, ensuring that each type of material is appropriately sorted for its intended use. Screeners are essential in industries like construction, recycling, and landscaping, where precise material separation enhances efficiency and product quality. Our screeners at Mayo Stone Supplies Ltd play a vital role in the production of our products such as BS3882 topsoil and recycled mot type 1.

How does a screener work?

Screeners function similarly to a large sieve. Material is loaded onto a vibrating mesh or screen, which allows smaller particles to fall through while larger ones remain on top. This process can involve multiple screens stacked in tiers, each with different mesh sizes, to sort materials into various grades such as 10mm pipe bedding. 

For example, in a two-deck screener, material passes through the top screen, separating larger pieces, and then through a finer mesh below, isolating smaller particles. This stratification ensures efficient separation, crucial for producing materials like gravel, sand, or topsoil products.

The number of screens used is linked to the number of material grades output from a scalping screen. For example, if you want to turn a pile of mixed soil into 3 different sizes, you would pass the soil through two screens.

These screens come in a range of different sizes and can be hot-swapped out of a machine. Changing screen size will change the size of materials that are being fed out of the screener conveyor belt. When the aim is a high volume of fine material, the size of the bottom screen will be the limiting factor. A lot of screening machines will use a tapered design, where the decks get smaller towards the bottom. This restricts the flow of fine material at the bottom of the machine and can cause a bottleneck.

A screen with flat sides, will provide a larger bottom deck than a tapered machine. Meaning it can process material much quicker and more efficiently than a machine with a similar footprint.

Screeners may also use water as part of the sorting process, but this can come with some challenges. For example, protecting the machine from water damage or safe extraction and post-processing of water used during screening.

By building up a material bed on a screen deck, the material will stratify when the motion of the screen reduces the internal friction in the material. This means that the finer particles can pass between the larger ones, giving a sharp separation.

What is a scalping screener?

A scalper or scalping screener is a machine used to separate mixed materials into different grades. These machines are at the core of most construction and quarrying operations and are one of the most used pieces of equipment onsite. They work after a crusher an excavator, which feeds material into the screener for sorting.

The purpose of a scalping screen is to preprocess material for different applications. For example, gravel that will be used in landscaping might require stones that are no bigger than 2 inches and no smaller than 0.5 inches. A scalping screen could be used to remove any material that is coarser or finer than these sizes such as our back fill sand.

There are a huge variety of materials that can be screened, but to give you an idea of the types of materials, here are a few of the more common ones:

• Crushed rock
• Concrete
• Soil & topsoil
• Compost
• Zircon sands
• Wood pellets
• Silicon
• Metals and metal slags
• Sand
• Construction rubble
• Pipe Bedding
• Drainage Gravel

The type and condition of the material can also affect the performance of a screening machine. For example, if a material is wet, it can sometimes bind and clog a machine. Or if a material contains a large amount of fines, it may take longer to process with some machines.

Benefits of screening

Aside from the obvious benefit of having a more consistent end product size, screening can offer other benefits, such as;

• Efficiency: On-site screening reduces the need for transporting materials, saving time and money.
• Versatility: Screeners can process various materials, adapting to different project requirements.
• Profitability: By producing sorted materials ready for sale or use, screeners can open new revenue streams.
• Environmental Impact: Recycling materials minimizes waste and supports sustainable practices reducing the amount of waste sent to land fill and producing quality sustainable products for the construction industry helping us achieve a circular economy.

Our wide range of sustainable aggregates and soil products are available with delivery across Manchester. For more info call our team today on 0161 707 7773 or email info@mayostone.co.uk