The sun shone brightly across Derbyshire for all three days of Hillhead 2026. Over 620 exhibitors showcased their mining, quarrying, recycling and construction innovations alongside live working demonstrations and talks.
Marking its 150th anniversary, Astec Industries dominated Hillhead’s ‘Crusher Alley’, featuring eight new products and a series of technological innovations.
Astec’s rich history
Astec’s engineering history began in 1876, with its American legacy brand Telsmith, a prominent crushing and screening equipment manufacturer. Since then, Astec has continued innovating heavy equipment, infrastructure and materials solutions for many industries, including mining and quarrying.
Sitting in the shade cast by Astec’s newly launched modular washing solution Eco-Scrub, International Mining Engineer spoke with Andy Jackson, Astec’s product manager of mobile plants and materials solutions.
“Northern Ireland is essentially the birthplace of mobile crushing and screening, so there’s a lot of industry knowledge there,” says Jackson. “About five years ago, we created a plan to develop a new line of mobile crushing and screening plants manufactured in Northern Ireland as opposed to North America.” This plan followed Astec’s purchase of Irish materials handling company Telestack about 12 years ago.
Astec’s newly launched mobile crushing and screening products could be found across the company’s two Hillhead stands, as well as at Crusher Alley’s Rock Processing Demo Area. Here, the company executed the European launch of its Frontier tracked mobile crushing and screening range, designed for high performance production in hard rock environments.
“They’ve been really well received,” says Jackson. “We have been taking a lot of components from our legacy products. We were very good at individual components but now we’re focusing on how we can package each of our proven components into something that’s easier for our customers to purchase.”
A series of launches at Hillhead
In Hillhead’s Demo Area, Astec’s Frontier JA45 Mobile Jaw Crusher worked alongside the Frontier SDF16 Mobile Scalping Screen to showcase high-capacity screening and efficient primary crushing for demanding material processing applications.
Flexibility is the key feature of the SDF16 Mobile Scalping Screen. Its two decks and multiple conveyors deliver consistent throughput across demanding applications. Configurable operations and media choices enable the screen to adapt to specific mining and quarrying operations. These features help to separate large, raw materials from smaller debris before further processing.
Meanwhile, the JA45 Mobile Jaw Crusher offers high-capacity production of up to 336mtph, featuring a 205kW power unit output for optimal performance. Its Telsmith 2238 crushing chamber enables the flexibility of either a hydraulic or mechanical toggle to suit a variety of applications.
In addition to its Frontier range, Astec introduced its blinding minimisation technologies to European markets. The company showcased Vari-Frequency technology on its Pioneer 6203LPV horizontal screen to demonstrate how it minimises blinding and maximises output.
Likewise, Astec’s Multi-Frequency Screen, which is available on tracks, wheels or static, significantly reduces blinding, even with sticky materials. “Our customers are not having to stop and change mesh or clean mesh,” says Jackson. “The screen has a live bottom deck that excites the screen media more than just the eccentric drive in the middle of the screen.” As the screen box moves in its primary oval stroke, these tensioned cables generate secondary, rapid reverberating g-force spikes across the screen media. This helps to prevent downtime and its related costs.
Looking forward
The modular nature of these products is a cornerstone of Astec’s approach to innovation. Astec’s modular jaws, screen plants, impact plants and cone plants enable easier transport to different sites.
“I think the modular aspect gives customers a lot of flexibility. A little bit of custom work is right up our alley,” says Jackson.
In addition to a more modular approach, Astec is putting energy efficiency on its roadmap. The company’s jaw crushers and cone crushers are already some of the most productive in the world and it plans to expand on this strength.
“It will come further down the line in our mobile crushing and screening portfolio, but we definitely have those development plans in motion,” says Jackson. “When you look at the cost of fuel these days, it’s driving everybody to come up with ways to produce a more efficient product.”
In line with these energy goals is the intended expansion of Astec’s washing portfolio, which has already become the company’s second most focused area behind mobile crushing and screening. “There’s a lot of opportunity when it comes to saving water and natural organic materials in general,” says Jackson. “We will continue to expand our washing portfolio.”
A hotbed of innovation
Hillhead 2026 was teeming with innovation and connection. As Astec continues its expansion into Europe, some of its best kept secrets are coming to light, and Crusher Alley was a fitting place to display them. With so many future plans and launches under its belt, the mining industry will just have to wait and see what Astec has in store for Hillhead 2028.
For more information visit: www.astecindustries.com
