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A crushing and screening plant breaks blasted rock in two, three or four stages and sorts it on vibrating screens between them, so that one blasted boulder ends up as 40 mm, 20 mm and 10 mm aggregate, chips and crushed sand. A jaw crusher makes the first break, a cone crusher the second, a VSI crusher shapes the stone and makes sand, and the screens send every size to its own stockpile and anything still too big back for another pass.
India has about 16,931 stone crushing units according to the Central Pollution Control Board’s 2023 guidelines, running at anything from 0.1 to 1,400 tonnes an hour. Most of them follow the same basic flow. This guide walks through that flow one stage at a time, explains the words a plant maker will use (grizzly, surge pile, deck, closed circuit), shows how the number of stages decides what you can sell, and lists the dust controls every plant must have. It is written for a contractor, quarry owner or first-time investor who wants to understand the plant before a maker sends a layout drawing. No prices are quoted here.
What is a crushing and screening plant?
It is a set of machines joined by belt conveyors that turns raw stone into graded products. “Crushing” means breaking the stone. “Screening” means sorting it by size on a shaking sieve. One crusher on its own makes a mixed heap of big and small pieces. The screens are what turn that heap into products a builder will pay for, because a slab needs 20 mm stone and a road base needs a different mix.
People in the trade also call it a stone crusher plant, a crusher unit or simply “the crusher”. The machines are the same whatever the name. A small plant may be one jaw crusher, one cone and one screen on a few hundred square metres. A large one adds a third and fourth stage, a sand washer and a dozen stockpiles.
Figure 1 shows the flow of a typical three-stage plant. The numbers match the stages explained below.
Figure 1: How stone flows through a three-stage crushing and screening plant
How to read Figure 1: 1 and 2 are the primary stage, 3 is the buffer that keeps the next crusher full, 4 and 5 form the secondary stage with its closed circuit (the red return line), 6 is the tertiary stage, and 7 is where finished stone waits for trucks. Stone moves between every box on belt conveyors.
What are the stages of a stone crusher plant?
There are six jobs in a full plant: feeding, primary crushing, secondary crushing, screening, tertiary crushing and, where sand is sold, washing. Table 1 lists what goes into each stage and what comes out, with real figures from Indian makers’ published machine tables.
Table 1: The stages of a crushing and screening plant
| Stage | Usual machine | What goes in | What comes out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feeding | Hopper with a vibrating grizzly feeder | Blasted rock from dumpers or loaders | A steady flow to the jaw; small stone, soil and mud screened off first |
| Primary crushing | Jaw crusher | Rock up to the jaw’s feed limit (Propel’s AVJ 811 takes up to 715 mm) | Stone of about 100 to 140 mm (CPCB) |
| Buffer | Surge pile or silo | Primary-crushed stone | An even feed so the cone runs full |
| Secondary crushing | Cone crusher | 40 to 60 mm and larger stone (Propel’s AVC 250 cone takes up to 200 mm) | Stone down to 10 mm or smaller (CPCB) |
| Screening | Vibrating screen, 1 to 4 decks | Everything the crushers make | Separate sizes; oversize sent back to be crushed again |
| Tertiary crushing | VSI crusher | Small stone (Propel’s AVVI 200 takes up to 58 mm) | Cubical chips and crushed sand |
| Washing (optional) | Sand washer | Crushed sand with dust in it | Washed sand, with the fine dust removed |
The figures in this table are examples from single models. Every maker offers a range of sizes, and the right one depends on your rock and your output.
Feeding. Dumpers tip blasted rock into a steel hopper. Under it, a vibrating grizzly feeder (a shaking tray with heavy steel bars, set apart like a comb) pushes stone into the jaw at a steady rate. Small pieces fall between the bars and skip the jaw, which saves wear and power. Puzzolana’s grizzly feeder page notes that it also removes mud and other unwanted material at this point. On quarries with a lot of overburden (topsoil and weathered rock) this one step keeps clay out of the finished stone.
Primary crushing. The jaw crusher squeezes stone between a fixed steel jaw and a moving one, like a giant nutcracker. Wikipedia’s crusher article puts a jaw crusher’s reduction ratio (feed size divided by product size) at about 3:1 to 5:1. That is why one machine cannot do everything. A 600 mm boulder comes out at roughly 120 to 200 mm, which is still far too big to sell for concrete. How each crusher type breaks stone is explained in our jaw crusher vs cone crusher guide.
The surge pile. Between the primary and secondary stages most plants drop the stone onto a stockpile or into a silo and draw it out from underneath. This sounds like a wasted step, but it matters. Metso’s crusher guide says a cone crusher should always be “choke fed”, meaning its chamber stays full of rock, and that a stockpile or silo is the easy way to smooth out the uneven flow from the quarry. A cone that runs half-empty makes flaky stone and wears its liners unevenly.
Secondary crushing. A cone crusher takes the primary-crushed stone and breaks it again towards the product sizes. Its output size is set by the closed side setting (CSS), the narrowest gap at the bottom of its crushing chamber. Propel’s AVC 250, for example, runs with a CSS of 26 to 35 mm.
What does the screen do in a crusher plant?
The screen is a large steel box with one or more mesh decks stacked inside it, set at a slope and shaken by a motor. Stone fed on top bounces down the slope. Pieces smaller than the mesh holes drop through to the deck below; pieces too big ride off the end. With three decks you get four products out of one box: the stone too big for the top deck, and what stops on each of the decks under it. A fourth deck gives one more product.
The vibrating screen is the most common type in Indian plants, according to CPCB. Propel, for instance, builds its MVS screens with 1, 2, 3 or 4 decks. A plant making 40, 20, 10 and 6 mm stone plus dust needs enough decks, or enough screens, to split all of those.
Two words come up when you discuss screens with a maker:
- Scalping is screening before a crusher to take out what does not need crushing. The grizzly feeder scalps before the jaw.
- Oversize is what stays on top of the mesh. CPCB’s description of a plant is simple: oversize is returned to the secondary crusher for further crushing and then goes back to the screen. Undersize carries on to the stockpile.
The screen sets the final product size far more than the crusher does. If your 20 mm stockpile has too many big pieces in it, a torn or worn mesh is a likely cause.
What is a closed circuit in a crushing plant?
A plant runs in closed circuit when the screen sends oversize stone back to the crusher on a return conveyor, so nothing too big can leave the plant. In open circuit, stone passes through the crusher once and whatever comes out is what you get.
Closed circuit is the normal choice for a secondary cone. Metso’s crusher guide lists three gains: it improves the shape of the stone, it keeps the feed to the next stage steady, and it re-crushes flaky pieces (thin, slab-like chips). Flaky stone packs badly in concrete and road layers, so buyers check for it. The red dashed line in Figure 1 is that return loop.
The cost is a bigger cone and more belt, since part of the stone goes round two or three times. A maker sizing your plant will ask how much of the cone’s output you expect to recirculate. That share, the circulating load, is one reason two plants with the same jaw crusher can produce very different tonnes per hour.
What is the difference between a two-stage and a three-stage crusher plant?
The number of stages is the number of crushers the stone passes through in a row. Metso describes its portable plants as working in a “two- or three-stage application”, and Puzzolana describes its VSI as the preferred choice for the third or fourth stage. Table 2 sets out what each layout is for.
Table 2: Plant layouts by number of crushing stages
| Layout | Crushers in line | What it can sell | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single stage | Jaw only, sometimes with a screen | Rough, mixed stone for fill, sub-base or a mobile job | Demolition waste, one-off site jobs |
| Two-stage | Jaw, then cone, with screens | 40, 20 and 10 mm aggregate and stone dust | The common small and medium crusher unit |
| Three-stage | Jaw, cone, then VSI | All of the above, plus cubical chips and crushed sand | Plants selling to RMC plants, road contractors and builders who need sand |
| Four-stage | Jaw, two cones, then VSI | Finer, better-shaped products at higher output | Large plants with a wide product list |
A real three-stage example: Propel’s published case study of a plant at Vijayawada runs an AVJ 811 jaw, a cone and an AVVI VSI with two 4-deck screens, and makes 40, 20, 12 and 6 mm aggregate plus dust. A second Propel case study, from Gujarat, gives the flow in one line: quarry feed, primary crushing, secondary crushing, screening, tertiary crushing, final screening, then graded aggregate.
The right number of stages follows from what you can sell nearby. Concrete wants mostly 20 mm and 10 mm stone with good shape, so a plant near an RMC market almost always ends up with a VSI. Which size goes into a slab, a footing or a road is covered in our aggregate sizes guide.
How does a crusher plant make sand?
A VSI (vertical shaft impactor) makes most crushed sand. It throws stone outward from a fast-spinning rotor against a lining of rock or steel, and the stone breaks along its natural weak lines. Metso notes that VSI crushers are used at the last stage, especially when the product must have a precise cubical shape. Feed is small: Puzzolana’s PMVSI 500 takes 20 to 25 mm stone.
Sand is everything that passes the 4.75 mm sieve, the line IS 383:2016 draws between fine and coarse aggregate. The same standard defines crushed stone sand as fine aggregate made by crushing hard stone. Its foreword adds an important warning: plain crusher dust (quarry dust) cannot be called crushed sand unless it is processed to meet the standard. The processing removes the very fine dust.
One common way to do that is a sand washer. Propel’s SW 75 sand washer handles 45 to 60 tonnes an hour, and its SW 200 handles 120 to 160. Washing needs water, settling ponds and space, so plan it before you fix the layout. The difference between dust and sand, and what each is used for, is covered in our quarry dust and M-sand guide.
What dust controls must a stone crusher plant have?
Every stone crushing unit in India must keep dust in the air below a fixed limit. Schedule I of the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986 says the suspended particulate matter measured between 3 and 10 metres from any process equipment of a stone crushing unit shall not exceed 600 micrograms per cubic metre. The same schedule lists five measures: dust containment and suppression on the equipment, wind-breaking walls, metalled roads inside the premises, regular cleaning and wetting of the ground, and a green belt along the boundary.
CPCB’s Environmental Guidelines for Stone Crushing Units (2023) turn that into plant design points:
- Crushers enclosed with GI or MS sheets on top and on at least three sides, from ground level.
- Conveyor belts covered from one transfer point (node) to the next.
- The unloading area at the hopper covered on three sides and the top, with one side open for trucks, and water sprinklers.
- Stockpiles of stone above 5 mm kept wet; piles of 5 mm and smaller kept covered.
- A wind-breaking wall around the crusher, 3 feet higher than the highest node of the crusher.
- Metalled or concrete roads, and two to three rows of tall trees on the boundary.
- Operation only between 6.00 AM and 10.00 PM, to spare nearby homes the noise.
CPCB also sorts units by output: small scale up to 25 tonnes an hour, medium scale 26 to 100, and large scale above 100. Your State Pollution Control Board’s consent to establish and consent to operate will carry conditions like these, so put the enclosures, sprinklers and wall into the plant drawing from the start. Fitting them later is harder. The approvals themselves are explained on our blog in the stone crusher licence post, and haul roads and fog cannons for the quarry around the plant are in our dust suppression guide.
Stationary, semi-mobile or mobile: which plant layout?
A stationary plant sits on concrete foundations with fixed steel structures and long conveyors. It suits a quarry with many years of stone ahead of it and a steady market. A semi-mobile plant is built on skids or a wheeled chassis so it can be moved with a crane and trailers when the quarry face moves away. A mobile (tracked) plant carries its crusher, feeder, engine and often a screen on one crawler machine that walks under its own power, and is set up in hours.
A mobile unit saves the haul from the face to a far-off plant and can be taken to a demolition site or a road job. A stationary plant is easier to enclose fully against dust, as the CPCB rules below expect, and easier to extend with a third stage later. The choice mostly follows how long you will stay on one spot. Who makes each kind in India is listed on our blog in stone crusher manufacturers in India.
Which machines work around a crushing plant?
The crusher stays put. Everything that brings stone to it and takes stone away is a machine you buy, hire and service like any other site machine, and on most sites those machines cost as much attention as the plant.
- At the quarry face, a 20-tonne class excavator such as the Tata Hitachi EX 210 Infra (20,300 kg operating weight, 0.86 to 1.5 m³ buckets as per its current listed spec) loads blasted rock into dumpers. Oversize boulders that will not pass the jaw mouth are split with a hydraulic rock breaker.
- At the hopper and the stockpiles, a wheel loader (payloader) feeds stone and loads trucks all day. Loaders with a 3 m³ class bucket are a common size here, for example the LiuGong 856H MAX (3.5 m³) and the JCB 455-5N (3.3 m³).
- Blasting decides how big the rock arrives. Rock blasted too coarse means more breaker hours and a slower jaw; the powder factor guide explains the link.
Planning the loading side of a plant? Compare wheel loader models and specifications and connect with a verified dealer. The full machine list for a stone quarry, from drills to dumpers, is in our quarry equipment guide.
How do you plan a crushing and screening plant?
A maker will design the plant around your answers to a few questions. Have them ready, in this order, before you ask anyone for a layout:
- Products. Which sizes can you sell within trucking distance, and in what share? This decides the number of stages and screen decks.
- Rock. Granite, basalt, limestone or sandstone. Hard, abrasive rock wears liners fast and changes which crusher suits each stage.
- Feed size. The largest rock your blasting and loading will deliver. This sets the jaw size, or tells you how many boulders need the breaker.
- Output. Tonnes per hour you need, counted over real working hours (remember the 6 AM to 10 PM limit).
- Power and water. Crushers, screens and conveyors run on electric motors, so a grid connection of the right load matters. A diesel generator is a backup or a stopgap; see our guide to sizing a diesel generator. Washing and dust sprays need a reliable water source.
- Space. Room for stockpiles of every product, truck turning, the wind-breaking wall and the green belt.
- Paperwork. Quarry lease, consent to establish and consent to operate settled before the order, not after.
Once those are fixed, ask each maker for a flow sheet like Figure 1 with the tonnes per hour marked on every belt. Comparing flow sheets side by side shows at once which offer has an undersized cone, too few screen decks or no room to add a VSI later.
When you are ready to equip the quarry face and the loading side, browse the range of excavators and talk to a verified dealer.
Sources
Plant stages, product sizes, the oversize return, the size classes of units and the dust-control measures are from CPCB’s Environmental Guidelines for Stone Crushing Units (July 2023). The 600 micrograms per cubic metre limit and the five pollution control measures are from Schedule I of the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986, entries 11 and 37, as published by CPCB. Sand definitions and the 4.75 mm line are from IS 383:2016, Coarse and fine aggregate for concrete. Choke feeding, closed circuit, VSI use and two- or three-stage plants are from Metso’s aggregates crusher and plant pages. Machine figures are from the published model tables of Propel Industries (AVJ jaw crushers, AVC cone crushers, AVVI VSI, grizzly feeders, MVS screens, sand washers and two plant case studies) and Puzzolana (jaw crushers, grizzly feeders, VSI crushers). Reduction ratios and the grizzly bypass are from Wikipedia’s crusher and mechanical screening articles. All were read on 4 November 2026. Excavator and wheel loader figures are from each machine’s listed specifications.
Prices, specifications and features are indicative, vary by variant, location and date, and should always be confirmed with the official OEM or authorised dealer before any purchase decision. DesiMachines is not liable for decisions taken on the basis of information that may have changed after publication.