Metso Insights Blog Aggregates blog 30 years of HP performance: Redefining cone crushing
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May 22, 2019

30 years of HP performance: Redefining cone crushing

Communications team
Communications team
Metso has introduced a number of landmark innovations that have gone to shape the evolution of modern minerals processing. One of these is undisputedly the Nordberg® HP cone crusher range, which celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2019. We talked to two of the specialists behind the HP, Mark Kennedy and Michel Rude, to find out how it became an industry standard in cone crusher performance.
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Q1. What sparked the development of the HP cone?

MK: The origin of the HP series cone crusher can be tracked backed to Milwaukee, USA in the early to mid-1980s. Nordberg USA, a Metso predecessor, wanted to gain a better understanding of their customers’ priorities in the crushing process. Research showed that mineral processing was highly influenced by capitalizing on machine parameters such as head throw, head angle, crusher setting and head gyrations per minute. The technological breakthroughs re-defined crushing performance and provided the basis for the newly designed cone crusher introduced in 1989: the Nordberg® High-Performance cone crusher series, today simply known as the HP.

Q2. What made HP the new norm in performance?

MK: The HP became an industry standard as a highly portable crusher for aggregates applications and smaller mining applications. HP is capable of increasing plant production while fitting into the existing crusher foundations. For example, an HP400 cone crusher with a power rating of 400 horse power fits the foundation designed for a 4-1/4 foot Symons cone but with the capacity of a 5-1/2 model.

Q3. What was the key benefit to the customer?

MR: The revolutionary advantage of the Nordberg HP Series was that whilst keeping a similar setting, the customer was able to achieve a yield superior to the existing Symons cone, the reference at the time. The aggregate market was evolving quickly in the 1990s, demanding tighter quality standards for aggregate production. HP proved to be ahead of the game in creating new standards for shape and end-product quality.

Q4. Can you share some light on the first HP installations?

MK: The first HP Series cone built was the HP300. This crusher was installed as a prototype crusher at a customer quarry in Georgia, USA. It was delivered in July of 1989 and used as a secondary crusher.  Since then, I have commissioned countless HP Series cone crushers. It never gets old when we start up a new crusher and see the look on the customers face as they realize the performance of the HP, both in tons per hour and product shape.

Q5. What was the next step in the evolution of the HP?

MR: The HP design and manufacturing soon expanded to Metso’s production facility and engineering office in Mâcon, France. In 1995, the first HP100 model, smaller yet strong in performance, was launched on the market. Today, HP design is still located in Mâcon, while manufacturing takes place in Metso competence centers around the world, in Brazil, China, India and France. Versatility is the key with these crushers providing a wide range of fixed and mobile applications. The Lokotrack® LT200HP™ and Lokotrack LT200HPS mobile cone crushing plants are popular machines today for their compact size and proven efficiency.

MK: The next generation of HP Series cone crushers, the HPX were introduced in 2004. Building on the high-performance features of the original HP Series but with enhancements such as a head brake, an improved tramp release cylinder and accumulator design, all designed to respond to customers’ continuously evolving needs.

HP300, HP100 and HP4

Q6. How has HP been able to maintain its position all these years?

MR: It is vital to be ahead of the competition by bringing forward technologies making our customers’ operations more successful. That’s what we are doing with the HP Series and its evolutions, and that’s probably why HP has become the best-known and most copied cone crusher in the world. Very few crushers in the market can out-perform an HP Series cone crusher of the same size.

MK: I’ve had the privilege of working over 30 years in Metso with absolutely brilliant design engineers. These amazing men and women never cease to amaze me. So, regardless of the direction they will take with the HP in the future, I do know one thing for sure and that is that only the sky is the limit.

Paving the way for further crushing

Experience from HP development and thousands of customer applications around the world have played an integral part in Metso innovations, including the MX Multi-Action range. To date, HP maintains its position as the market leader in cone crushers as a crusher that simply delivers. Similarly, to its Symons® and Omnicone® predecessors, this crusher has a proven track record in the aggregate and mining industries. Simply put, the HP Series cone crushers continue to fast track the industry standard with new technology and features, proven performance and reliable output. Thirty years young and still going strong.

About the experts:
Mark Kennedy, Senior Technical Training Instructor for Aggregates business area at Metso USA, has been working with HPs right from the very beginning. 
Michel Rude, Product specialist for HP and GP crushers and the head designer of HP100 and HP4, has been working with Nordberg cone crushers for over 36 years.

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