Two Colorado aggregate producers upgraded their plants with KPI-JCI portable equipment. One of those is Rocky Mountain Materials, which is headquartered in Colorado Springs and operates five gravel operations, two hot-mix asphalt plants and two concrete plants on the front range of the Rockies. In 2006, the company bought KPI-JCI's Kodiak K300 cone crusher and a 7- × 20-foot Combo screen. This equipment is used in the quarry that feeds material to the asphalt plant.

The Combo is a triple-deck screen that has an inclined section. Tom Smith, who is director of quarry operations for Rocky Mountain, says the inclined section at the head of the screen allows the material to get stratified across the deck and down to the third screen quicker. He says material is getting down to the third deck within the first two feet of the screen.

In 2004, Rocky Mountain installed an 8- × 20-foot Combo screen and a Kodiak K400 at its quarry that produces material for the concrete plants. The K300 is producing about 450 tons per hour, while the K400 produces nearly 700 tons per hour.

Farther north, in Fraser, Colo., Morrow and Sons also added new crushing and screening equipment. Morrow operates a sand and gravel quarry on 135 acres about 35 miles northwest of Denver. The company has mined only about 20 acres so far and has gone down 20 of the 80 feet it plans to mine. Most of what Morrow produces is sand and river rock, which can be as large as 20 inches.

Morrow recently bought a KPI-JCI Kodiak K300 cone crusher, a KPI-JCI SM 2148 portable jaw crusher, and a KPI-JCI 7- × 20-foot horizontal triple-deck screen. Feed material coming into the plant is about 6 inches and is reduced to 1½ inch material. The plant has three stacking conveyors under the screen-discharge chutes to eliminate the need to remove screen overs.

Morrow's washing facility consists of a KPI-JCI 7- × 20-foot horizontal screen over a single 44-inch sand screw. The company is putting about 300 tons per hour into the wash plant. That breaks down to roughly 150 tons per hour of ¾-inch washed rock and 150 tons per hour of sand. Cary Morrow, vice president, says the material starts out pretty clean, which is why he needs only a single sand screw.