Not much is built in New England that doesn’t first require the removal of rock. With severe rock formations commonplace, Keith Babb, president of New England Mobile Crushing Services finds a lot of use for his Ramfos hammer.

“Over the past twelve years of breaking rock in New England I have had experience with a wide variety of hammer manufacturers. We do our own repairs on our hammers and as a result we are very familiar with the inner workings of the various types of hammers. The rock that we break in the Merrimack, New Hampshire, area is extremely hard. We have to have hammers that we can rely on, that we can repair ourselves, and that are designed for extreme duty,” explained Babb.

New England Mobile Crushing Services purchased a Ramfos model TF50 12,000 lb. (5,443 kg) hammer from Equipment East and put it on its Komatsu PC400, a 45-ton (42 t) carrier.

“The Ramfos is a box hammer and the power cell is suspended,” Babb said. “What this means to me is that a lot of the energy from the operation of the hammer is absorbed by the hammer and protects the excavator from high impacts. This makes for a much more durable setup and minimizes costly repairs. The piston in the hammer has a larger diameter and a shorter shaft, which converts to a lot more energy upon impact with the rock. We’ve operated the Ramfos now for about 500 hours and so far it has been absolutely trouble free. We’ve opened the machine up and it is showing very little signs of wear and the nitrogen levels are good. Our service from Richard Zibell and Equipment East has been excellent.”

In the Beginning

Babb got his start as an entrepreneur with a company called Babb Motors, a used car and repair business he started when he was 19. In 2000, Babb purchased some very tired crushing equipment that needed a lot of work. He fixed it up and found out that he could make more money doing portable crushing work than he had ever made selling used cars.

From that point on Babb started investing in his equipment inventory.

“My original purchase for hammers was 5,000 pound NPK’s. They got the job done for me, but what I really needed was heavier hammers and in order to operate heavier hammers I needed to purchase larger excavators. Fortunately for me the manufacturers of hammers have started to make the hammers themselves lighter and able to be mounted to smaller excavators. In other words, more and more powerful hammers can be mounted to smaller excavators, allowing me to break up more rock quicker without investing in a larger machine,” he said.

Ramfos Hammers

Ramfos hammers are manufactured by the TyFos company. The name stands for “Ram” from “Rammer” for hammering, while “Fos” signifies “Force.”

There are Ramfos hammers to fit all carriers and applications and they feature reinforced hard boots, an anti-blank blow system, single high-pressure accumulator (on models TF14 and larger) and a swivel joint on the main hose.

Equipment East

As a full service dealer, Equipment East handles a complete line of heavy construction equipment and attachments. It offers a wide range of equipment such as skid steers, wheel loaders, excavators, mini-excavators, and crushing and screening plants. It also offers attachments such as quick couplers and hammers.

For more information, call 978/454-3320 or visit www.equipmenteast.com

Today's top stories

Growing Interest in Construction Careers Among Younger People Means Jobs Filled, Deadlines Met

Larry Young Paving Tackles Grade-Separated Interchange in Texas

Caltrans, Crews Working to Repair Highway Landslides

FIRSTGREEN Industries Launches ROCKEAT Electric Skid Steer Loader

'Tiltrotator Effect' Increases as Energy Consumption Goes Down

VIDEO: Birmingham, Ala., Awarded $14.5M Fed Grant to Revitalize Its 'Black Main Street'

Pettibone Celebrates 75th Anniversary of Cary-Lift

Fay Preps Way for Pittsburgh International Airport Modernization Project