Nordkalk enhances operator safety and comfort – reducing noise and vibration with Metso Truck Body

Located on the island of Gotland, off the east coast of Sweden, is one of Scandinavia’s largest limestone quarries. British-owned Nordkalk, whose history dates back more than a century, has been operating there since the 1980s. The company is one of Northern Europe’s leading producers of limestone-based products and is known for its focus on sustainable production and solutions. As a supplier to several industrial sectors, including the mining and steel industries, Nordkalk plays a crucial role in providing sustainable quality limestone products.

Looking out over the dust-stained quarry, you soon notice the bright yellow trucks driving back and forth, loaded with large boulders. One of them, a Komatsu HD 605, in operation since 2022, is equipped with the lightweight, rubber lined haul-truck body from Metso.

Benefits

• Better work environment
• Improved sustainability
• Longer wear life
• Less material waste
• Customized solution

It is not the first rubber-lined truck body that Nordkalk has used, but it is the first time they have purchased a complete solution, a customized lightweight truck body and rubber lining, in a single unit.

“Nordkalk has used Metso’s solutions for many years and was looking for a truckbed with good sound absorption. They wanted to improve the work environment for the truck operators, as well as the environment for the animals and people who live and move around the quarry,” says Lucas Berghult, Key Account Manager at the distributor Söderberg & Haak.

In the following dialogue it became clear that there was another important aspect. Previously, Nordkalk had faced problems with the lining in the OEM body coming loose, which meant that the truck had to be taken out of service for repairs. There were instances where entire modules came loose and fell into the crusher along with the load, leading to serious consequences and costly production stoppages.

Holistic perspective and careful analysis

After a careful mapping and analysis, where Metso’s experts identified Nordkalk’s needs and goals, several proposals were presented with different lining solutions and price ranges.

“Depending on which variables we take into account and what the customer’s priorities are, our engineers can tailor the optimal solution with great precision,” explains Henrik Persson, Product Manager, Lining for Metso Truck Body.

Patented solution

Nordkalk needed a flexible solution. Quarrying takes place in several different places on the site and different types of material are loaded. Sometimes the truck is loaded by a wheel loader and sometimes by an excavator, depending on where in the quarry they are working at the time. Metso’s solution is a specially designed customized lightweight body made of high-strength steel, lined with a patented high-performance lightweight rubber lining that can handle the many different ways the rock is loaded.

Bolted rubber elements require no welding

The truck body was manufactured in Finland, where the sound and vibration-absorbing rubber lining was also installed. To ensure absolute optimization, the rubber lining is always manufactured in tailor-made modules, so that each section can be adapted based on its location in the bed, the degree of wear it will be exposed to and the type of material to be loaded. When manufacturing the rubber modules, pre-welded bolts are cast in, which are then used to mount the lining in the bed. This eliminates the need for welding and makes installation easier, faster, and safer. In addition, the need to burn off old lining and perform heavy welding work when installing replacement lining is eliminated, thanks to the patented Metso truck lining modules that are attached with simple bolt welding.

Powerful noise reduction

So how successful were the efforts to reduce noise in the cab and improve the operator’s work environment? The answer is clear and comes with no hesitation.

“There is a big difference. The noise from loading, especially the first load when the bed is empty, and unloading is significantly less with this truck, compared to other steel beds,” states Lisa Tomtlund, the operator of the Komatsu equipped with the Metso Truck Body. She has worked at Nordkalk for many years and enjoys her job and the peace and quiet in the cab.

“I can sit here, listen to the radio and enjoy the beautiful nature outside,” Tomtlund adds, while looking out over the open and barren landscape surrounding the quarry.

“The Metso rubber lining reduces noise when the blocks of stone are loaded. The lining also lasts surprisingly long,” confirms Joel Pettersson, Nordkalk’s Health and Security Manager on Gotland. Nordkalk had initially planned to put the rubber lining in an OEM body but changed their mind after seeing the metrics presented by Metso.

“Metso’s truck body was so much lighter that we decided to buy the entire solution, with both body and rubber lining,” Pettersson says. “And looking at it now, you can hardly believe it has been in operation for more than two and a half years,” he continues.

Improved wear life

The 100-millimeter-thick rubber lining in the truck body that Metso designed for Nordkalk has an estimated lifetime of around 15,000 hours. That means five years, under current conditions. In addition, the modular system means that, if necessary, the individual modules can be quickly and easily replaced without having to discard the entire lining. This saves time, money and materials, which in turn makes the entire process more sustainable. And sustainability is important to Nordkalk in their pursuit of energy and material efficiency.

Thanks to Metso’s innovative lightweight truck body with long-lasting rubber lining, Nordkalk has not only succeeded in reducing noise and vibration, but also strengthened its position as a leading player in sustainable production. By investing in solutions that improve the working environment for employees, Nordkalk demonstrates their strong commitment to both safety and the environment. The collaboration with Metso is a clear example of how technological advances can combine efficiency and sustainability, and it lays the foundation for future successes and innovations in the industry.