Crusher Plant Capacity: What TPH Means and How to Size a Plant

What does TPH mean on a stone crusher?

TPH stands for tonnes per hour. It is the weight of stone a crusher can pass in one hour of continuous running, and it is the figure every Indian maker prints in its model table.

The figure always comes with conditions, and Puzzolana spells them out in a note under every jaw crusher table. Its capacities are approximate and assume a continuous, regular feed of stone with a bulk density of 1.6 tonnes per cubic metre and standard jaw liners. The lower figure is for hard stone and the higher one for medium-hard stone. The note adds that output can vary with the type of feed material, its gradation (the mix of big and small pieces), the type of feeding, clay and moisture, bulk density and how the rock fractures. Propel’s tables carry a shorter warning: details may vary based on application.

Bulk density is the weight of a cubic metre of loose broken stone, air gaps included. It matters because a crusher swallows a volume of stone, not a weight. A heavier rock, or a mix that packs tighter, puts more tonnes through the same chamber.

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) uses the same unit to class plants. Its Environmental Guidelines for Stone Crushing Units (July 2023) call a unit small up to 25 TPH, medium from 26 to 100 TPH and large above 100 TPH, and count about 16,931 units in India running anywhere between 0.1 and 1,400 TPH.

Why is a crusher’s capacity given as a range?

Because the same machine makes very different tonnages on different rock and at different settings. Three things move the figure.

Rock hardness comes first. Puzzolana’s note puts hard stone at the low end of every range, so a granite or basalt quarry should read the left-hand number. Next is the jaw setting. The closed side setting (CSS) is the narrowest gap at the bottom of the jaw; a wider gap lets more stone out each stroke but makes bigger stone, as the jaw crusher vs cone crusher guide explains. Every model has a CSS range, and its TPH range runs across it. Last comes the feed itself: clay, wet stone and a mix with too many fines all lower the tonnes.

Table 1 sets out published figures for jaw crushers from two Indian makers, Propel Industries and Puzzolana, chosen to cover small to large plants.

Look at how wide each band is. The PJC 9260’s top figure is more than four times its bottom one. A buyer who plans a hard-rock plant on the top number is planning for output that will never come.

How do you calculate the crusher plant capacity you need?

Divide the tonnes you want to sell in a day by the hours the plant will actually crush. The answer is the TPH your primary jaw must deliver.

The hours are where most plans go wrong. CPCB’s guidelines say a stone crusher unit should run only between 6.00 AM and 10.00 PM, so 16 hours is the most any plant can count on, and your consent to operate may set tighter hours. Inside that window the jaw stops for feed gaps, for liner and mesh changes, for a jammed boulder and for power cuts. Count the hours you expect to crush, not the hours the gate is open.

A worked example. Say you can sell 800 tonnes of aggregate a day and expect 8 real crushing hours. You need 100 TPH. Your rock is hard granite, so read the low end of Table 1: the AVJ 508 starts at 75 TPH and the PJC 9260 at 70 TPH, so either covers 100 TPH without being pushed to its limit. Now say the target is 250 TPH from the same granite. The AVJ 508’s 300 TPH top figure is for medium-hard stone, so it would be working at its edge all day. A model whose low end sits near 200 TPH, such as the AVJ 912, is the honest fit.

The money side of the same sum, from tonnes per day to monthly profit, is worked through on our blog in stone crusher business profit.

How do you convert crusher TPH into cubic metres or brass?

Divide tonnes by the bulk density. At the 1.6 tonnes per cubic metre that Puzzolana rates its jaws on, a 100 TPH plant moves about 62.5 m³ of stone an hour.

Much Indian aggregate is still sold by the brass, a trade unit of 100 cubic feet, which is about 2.83 m³. At 1.6 t/m³ one brass of stone weighs about 4.5 tonnes, so the same 100 TPH plant makes about 22 brass an hour.

Real stockpiles are rarely exactly 1.6. The Indian loading code IS 875 (Part 1) gives dry, well-shaken broken stone 1,600 to 1,870 kg per cubic metre, which puts one brass between about 4.5 and 5.3 tonnes. The unit weight of building materials guide lists the figures for sand, stone and soil side by side. If you sell by the brass and pay for power and diesel by the tonne, weigh a few trucks of each product once and use your own figure.

What size of stone can a jaw crusher take?

About four-fifths of its gape. The gape is the width of the jaw’s mouth at the top, the smaller of the two feed-opening figures in Table 1. Across the 14 jaw models in Propel’s and Puzzolana’s tables, the largest feed stone is 79 to 86 percent of the gape: the PJC 9260 has a 600 mm gape and takes stone up to 500 mm.

Figure 1 shows where the gape and the CSS sit on a jaw crusher.

Feed size decides the jaw as often as tonnage does. If your blasting sends 700 mm boulders to the hopper, a jaw that takes 450 mm will stall on them, however many tonnes an hour it is rated for. You then have three choices: a bigger jaw, a hydraulic rock breaker on an excavator to split the oversize at the hopper, or tighter blasting so the rock comes smaller. The powder factor guide explains how blasting sets the size of the rock that reaches the crusher.

How big should the cone crusher, screen and VSI be?

Big enough that none of them becomes the slowest stage, because a plant only makes what its slowest stage passes. The jaw sets the plant’s TPH; everything after it has to keep pace with that flow.

The cone has two jobs to match. First, its maximum feed size must take the jaw’s product. CPCB says a primary crusher turns boulders into stone of about 100 to 140 mm, and in Propel’s AVC range the smallest cone takes stone only up to 120 mm while the AVC 160 takes 150 mm. Second, its tonnage must cover the stone the jaw sends it plus the oversize that comes back. In closed circuit the screen returns stone that is still too big, so the cone crushes some of it twice and carries more tonnes than the plant sells. Ask the maker what share of the cone’s output it expects to return, called the circulating load, and check the cone is sized for the jaw’s flow plus that return.

Screens see everything: the jaw’s output, the cone’s output and every tonne that goes round again. Their rating rises with deck area, from 300 TPH on Propel’s 6 m² MVS 1540 to 800 TPH on its 15.1 m² MVS 2561. A VSI only takes small stone, 32 to 53 mm across the AVVI range, so it handles only the share of the flow you send it for chips and sand.

Add up the motors while you are at it. A plant built from an AVJ 508 jaw and an AVC 160 cone already needs 165 kW for its two crushers, before screens, feeders and belt conveyors. That load decides the grid connection you apply for, or the backup set; the generator size calculation guide shows how motor starting current changes the answer.

How many loaders and dumpers does a crusher plant need?

Enough to put the plant’s TPH into the hopper every hour, and to take the same tonnes away again as product. Divide the TPH by the load each machine carries per trip to get trips per hour.

A wheel loader (payloader) feeding the hopper from a stockpile is the common case. The LiuGong 856H MAX is listed with a 3.5 m³ bucket and a 5,500 kg payload, and the JCB 455-5N with a 3.3 m³ bucket and a 5,490 kg payload, as per their current listed specs. For a 100 TPH plant, a loader carrying 5.5 tonnes a trip has to tip a little over 18 full buckets an hour, one every 3 minutes 18 seconds or so. At 200 TPH that becomes one bucket every 1 minute 39 seconds. Whether one machine can hold that pace depends on its cycle time and how far it drives between pile and hopper, and the wheel loader productivity guide shows how to work that out.

Where dumpers tip straight into the hopper from the quarry face, the sum is the same. Dumpers carrying 20 tonnes each must arrive five times an hour for a 100 TPH plant, one every 12 minutes, and ten times an hour at 200 TPH. At the 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 those dumpers. How many dumpers one excavator can keep busy is a separate calculation, set out in the shovel and dumper combination guide.

A plant that waits for stone is a plant losing tonnes. Metso’s guidance on cone crushers asks for a full crushing chamber and a stable, continuous feed, and a surge pile between the jaw and the cone exists to protect exactly that.

Planning the feeding side? Compare wheel loader models and specifications and connect with a verified dealer.

Why does a plant make less than its rated TPH?

Because the rating assumes ideal conditions that a working quarry rarely has all day. The makers’ own notes list most of the reasons.

Hard rock pulls output to the low end of the range, as Puzzolana’s note says. Clay and moisture make stone stick in the chamber and blind the screen mesh. A feed with too much fine material fills the chamber without being crushed. Uneven feeding, with the hopper empty one minute and overflowing the next, keeps the crusher from running full. Worn jaw plates and cone liners change the setting and the shape of the chamber, so the product grows coarser and the screen sends more back. Every one of these shows up as fewer tonnes on the weighbridge.

There is also the clock. A plant rated 100 TPH that loses an hour a shift to feed gaps and stoppages makes 700 tonnes in an 8-hour shift, not 800. Keep a log of crushing hours and weighed tonnes for the first month; that real figure is the capacity to plan your sales on.

What should you ask a crusher maker about capacity?

Ask for figures tied to your conditions, in writing, before you compare prices.

1. The jaw’s TPH at the CSS you need for your products, for your rock type, and the bulk density it assumes.
2. The largest feed size it accepts, checked against what your blasting delivers.
3. The cone’s maximum feed size and its TPH at your setting, plus the circulating load it expects.
4. Screen size and number of decks, and the tonnes each deck carries.
5. Total motor kW for crushers, screens, feeders and conveyors.
6. A flow sheet with the tonnes per hour marked on every belt.

Two offers with the same jaw can differ by a whole stage once the flow sheets sit side by side. When you are ready to equip the quarry face and the loading yard, browse the range of excavators and talk to a verified dealer.

Sources: capacity ranges, feed sizes, settings and motor ratings are from the published model tables of Propel Industries (AVJ jaw crushers, AVC cone crushers, AVVI VSI, MVS screens) and Puzzolana (PJC jaw crushers, including the capacity note on its PJC 9260 page), read on 6 November 2026. Plant size classes, the 100 to 140 mm primary product and the 6.00 AM to 10.00 PM operating rule are from CPCB’s Environmental Guidelines for Stone Crushing Units (July 2023). The cone feeding guidance is from Metso’s crusher pages. Broken stone density is from IS 875 (Part 1). Loader and excavator figures are from each machine’s listed specifications; the gape ratio and every trip and conversion figure are our own arithmetic from those numbers.

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.