Transporte e Commercio Ltda. (TCL), situated in the town of Contagem in the metropolitan area of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, is one of the oldest and most important quarries in the region. The company has invested in a new concept for producing manufactured sand - using cone and vertical shaft impact (VSI) crushers in tandem.

In the late-1990's TCL had started to wash crushed fines produced in the quarry, transforming them into concrete sand by using vibratory screens, screw washers, hydrocyclones and dewatering screens.

Manufactured sand was already accepted in the market especially by concrete producers. The main favorable characteristic of the manufactured sand is the consistency in its quality, both in gradation and lack of contaminants.

The manufactured sand also meets the concrete producers' requirements in guaranteeing an alternative source of this important material, in both the medium and long term. In view of the increased restrictions in natural sand production this factor is considered of extreme importance.

With the success of this operation TCL decided to invest in a plant dedicated to the production of manufactured sand, not only to satisfy the increasing demand, but also to provide a superior quality product, particularly in particle cubicity that was still not satisfied simply by washing the fine aggregate.