Can a Screening Bucket Save You Time, Money and Material Onsite? [Gyru-Star 4-100HE with 40mm Kit]

With growing material costs and an increased focus on sustainability, building contractors across Europe have been turning to onsite screening as a way to turn their liabilities into assets.

The benefits are numerous: reduced material and waste disposal costs, lower environmental impact, fewer delays from late deliveries, and complete control of the quality of the product.

Despite this, onsite screening has long been out of reach for smaller or self-employed contractors. The costs of purchasing, running, and maintaining a screening plant can be prohibitive, and that’s without mentioning the costs associated with transportation and storage.

This was the challenge faced by John Haddock, an agricultural and building contractor in Southwest England, before he invested in a Gyru-Star 4-100HE screening bucket.

Just outside Taunton, Somerset, John Haddock has been working on the groundworks and landscaping for a luxury farmhouse development. Faced with potentially eye-watering material costs for the 5-bedroom home, 500m driveway, tennis court, and private lake, he started to look for a way to recycle rubble from the demolition of the original farm buildings.

Back in 2023, he came across Gyru-Star’s range of polyurethane star screening buckets at the Royal Cornwall Show. However, it wasn’t until the 2024 show, when he visited the MPS Southwest stand, that he made what he describes as “one of the best investments I ever made”.

Following the advice of Jason McCullough, Managing Director of MPS, John purchased the Gyru-Star 4-100HE with a 40mm fragment kit for his 8-ton Kubota excavator. The 4-rotor screening bucket is one of Gyru-Star’s bestselling models and is optimised for 7-10 ton excavators.

With an impressive 615 x 1000mm screening area and a capacity of 0.35m³, the 4-100HE allows the fast, efficient screening of any material. In this instance, the bucket was supplied with a 40mm (nominal) fragment kit. However, the 10mm, 15mm, and 20mm kits are also available.

Using a tractor-mounted crusher, John had already processed much of the rubble from the demolition. He then used the 4-100HE to remove the fines and undersized material, leaving anything over 40mm inside the bucket. This process also removes any other debris or impurities that have got mixed up in the crusher run. The final product is being used throughout the project for both construction and landscaping work.

In addition to the crusher run, John also has several large stockpiles of road planings on site, brought in from other projects. This material is being used to resurface the property’s rather long driveway. The screened road planings will be spread out and compacted, forming the new road surface. Any material over 40mm must be removed, as it is likely to loosen over time, damaging the road surface.

So far, John has been nothing but impressed with his Gyru-Star 4-100HE. While he admits he was initially hesitant to invest in the bucket, he now wishes he’d done so a year earlier. Despite the jagged edges and abrasive nature of the crusher run, the flexible poly-stars have fared extremely well, showing no significant signs of damage.

Thanks to the sealed bearings and carbon belts, there is no need for greasing either, eliminating downtime from maintenance. In the time that John has owned the bucket, he has not had to carry out any maintenance at all.

John’s bucket was also supplied with a head plate from Gyru-Star’s sister brand, Kustom Konnect. Just like the bucket, the head plate was designed and manufactured in Gloucestershire, in the UK.

So Why Use a Screening Bucket?

John’s experience with the Gyru-Star 4-100HE highlights several key benefits that make it an invaluable tool for any contractor.

Price

Probably one of the biggest advantages of a screening bucket. As the purchase cost is far lower than a tracked or static screener, screening buckets are far more attainable for smaller contractors or self-employed machine operators. While they may represent a significant investment for some, most contractors find that the bucket soon pays for itself with the money saved on materials.

Streamlined Operations

Screening buckets only require a single machine and operator, further reducing the project’s overheads. With 30 models across 6 ranges, Gyru-Star has screening buckets suitable for any 1-30 ton excavator, 1-15 ton loader, and 1-5 ton skid steer. This means that no matter what carrier you have on site, it can be used to recycle waste material into a high-quality product.

Lower Operating Costs

As they are powered from the carrier’s auxiliary circuit, the only cost to operating a screening bucket is putting fuel in the carrier. Gyru-Star screening buckets, specifically, don’t require any lubrication, as they use carbon belt drives and sealed bearings. This means maintenance costs are practically zero.

Compare that to even a small screening plant, which requires its own fuel, daily greasing, and regular servicing, and the benefits are clear.

Furthermore, transporting the screening bucket to the site is also far easier. Like any other attachment, the bucket can easily be transported on the same trailer as the carrier, with many models in the Gyru-Star range also small enough to fit in the bed of a pickup.

Screen Material Right Where It’s Needed

With a screening bucket, you can process material right where it’s needed, meaning less time is wasted moving material around the site. Additionally, screening buckets combine multiple processes into a single operation.

Ready to transform your jobsite with a fast, affordable screening solution?

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