Little Paxton Quarry – Scene of a Quiet Revolution

Situated in the UK in the beautiful Cambridgeshire countryside lies a 127 hectare (1.27 km2) biological site of Special Scientific Interest and a hugely popular local nature reserve. These flooded former gravel pits are of national importance for wintering wildfowl including large numbers of herons, coots and moorhens. Amazingly, immediately adjacent is a flourishing sand and gravel quarry owned by Aggregate Industries. The fact that such harmony between heavy industry and nature is possible is an achievement in itself but what makes this whole situation even more remarkable is that the quarry is the scene of a quiet revolution of its own.

the quarry replaced the low-grade imported belt supplied by a previous contractor with 1.8 km of 650mm wide single-ply Dunlop X3 belting. The change to Ultra X impressed everyone so much that Aggregate Industries on-site management decided to change the other field conveyors over to Ultra X. At the same time, they are also replacing their own plant conveyors with Dunlop Ultra X3. So far, three have already been changed.

The many benefits, as testified by the quarry team, include much greater reliability and strength of the splice joints. With the previous 500/4 multi-ply belts, the splice joints would usually last a maximum of 3 to 4 months being having to be re-made. By comparison, the finger splice joints made when the first Ultra X3 belt was installed more than 18 months previously have never required attention of any kind. Engineers also found that belt tracking was much easier and more responsive. The Ultra X belts are able to pull greater loads with only a single rather than double drive drum, without slipping, even in wet, cold conditions. As a result, the hourly output, which was previously circa 170 tons, normally less in the winter, has increased to over 200 tons per hour all year round. The site is now delivering over 50% more than the contracted volume.