Mace Industries - SupaScreen

Mace Industries, manufacturers of the Bumpa, Shifta and Hoddi, has added another machine to their range in the form of the SupaScreen. This is a very portable and compact machine which can be used to sift dug material and over site vegetable top, so it can be recycled as top soil.

As a way of cutting down on landfill, reducing the number of vehicle movements and generally reducing the environmental impact of building this fits in nicely with the government’s declared aim to require builders to process more material on site. It will also save a small fortune on jobs ranging from landscaping works to extension and new build.

The SupaScreen can be used with wheel barrows and hand loaded or with a mini digger and Mace Shifta conveyors. There are 110 sockets built in to allow the screen and shifta to be run from one supply

A key feature is the portability. Inventor Tony Mace demonstrated just how easily the motor can be swung in under the body of the machine to enable it to go through a 750mm wide opening. It is available with a choice of quick change screens of 12, 25 and 50mm.

On our test site there had been very heavy rain on the previous day and the dug material was saturated. If possible it helps to cover the material with a tarpaulin if it rains, but uncover it to allow it to dry. We started with a 12mm screen and though this produced a fine pile of top soil it did eventually start to clog with the wet material. We decided to try a larger screen which gave Tony and his son Luke a chance to show us how the screens can be changed over.

The general principle of the machine is simply a cam moving a steel mesh over a hopper. By tilting the bed backwards the larger material is moved gradually to the back of the bed and into a wheel barrow or another Shifta.

Many builders will look upon this as a hire item and Mace Industries can point them towards stockists but since it launch at last year’s Interbuild, the company has taken orders from a number of smaller builders and landscapers who have been looking for a reasonably priced portable screen for some time. Up until now most screens have been vehicle mounted or at any rate too large for smaller sites. Once again it seems that Mace Industries has managed to come up with an innovative product that drops nicely into a gap in the market.

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