Manufactured Sand Technology

What is Manufactured Sand?

Manufactured sand (M-Sand) is artificial sand produced from crushing hard stones into small sand sized angular shaped particles, washed and finely graded to be used as construction aggregate. It is a superior alternative to River Sand for construction purpose.

Why Manufactured Sand?

Sand is world’s second most consumed natural resource after water. Rapid urbanization and global population growth have created unbound demand for this limited natural resource.

With urbanization as key driving factor, construction industry has expanded considerably over the last few decades leading to overuse of river sand for construction purposes. This increasing discrepancy between the need for aggregates in the society and scarcity of natural sand due to exhaustion of resources and environmental considerations, has urged concrete manufacturers to look for a suitable and sustainable alternative fine aggregate. The economical and ecological alternative is Manufactured sand.

Manufactured Sand vs River Sand

Superior Strength: M-Sand has higher compressive and flexural strength. Due to weathering natural sand particles are rounded, whereas M Sand particles are angular and have a rougher surface texture, allowing better bonding with the mortar in concrete, thereby providing improved strength properties.

Better Workability: M-Sand is graded with precision and consistency thus it has higher Fineness Modulus compared to natural sand and crusher dust. This gives good workability for concrete and masonry.

Lesser Cement Consumption: M-Sand is free of impurities such as clay, dust and silt and has denser particle packing than natural sand particles thereby reducing the voids in aggregate and hence saves cement requirement in concrete production.

Vastu Friendly: As per Vastu Shastra the construction material should be free from human or animal remains. River sand contains bones of human beings and animals which cannot be easily segregated hence M sand is the solution for better well-being.

Readily Available: M-Sand can be produced near to the construction sites, thus bringing down the transportation costs and consistent supply for demanded quantity can be assured.

Eco-friendly: The mining of river sand has led to many environmental disasters like erosion of riverbed and banks and is damaging to the natural eco-system. Manufactured Sand is an eco-friendly and sustainable resource for construction purpose.

Manufactured Sand Production Technology

CFlo's Solution for Manufactured Sand

Our manufactured sand washing systems efficiently deal with a number of issues for our customers including:

  • Efficient removal of the minus 63 micron / 200 mesh material – typically 15%-20% of the feed.
  • Crusher dust is typically very lean in the 63 micron to 600 micron / 200 mesh to 30 mesh range so it is essential that none of this material is lost during processing.
  • Where there is clay present in the crusher dust we have a number of attrition options available to allow for effective removal of this clay from your final washed sand product.

Due to the level of variation in crusher dust from one situation to another each plant is custom built to deal with the specifics of your material and your desired final product specifications. This involves extensive material analysis in the first instance to determine the volume of commercially viable product that can be recovered from your crusher dust.

Then we set about the design and delivery of a crusher dust washing plant which will maximise production of manufactured sand and minimise waste from your rock crushing operations.

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