Big orders for and progress in plant and concrete mixing technology has been continuing at a rapid pace over recent months, as Guy Woodford reports
Shantui recently completed an eye-catching US$3.2 million deal with a customer in the United Arab Emirates for 50 concrete mixer trucks. The deal is said to be an important breakthrough for the Chinese company’s concrete machinery in the Middle East market, raising brand awareness and laying a solid foundation for building market share.
Over the past y
Shantui has clinched a US$3.2 million deal to supply 50 of its concrete mixing trucks to a UAE customer
Big orders for and progress in plant and concrete mixing technology has been continuing at a rapid pace over recent months, as Guy Woodford reports
1171 Shantui recently completed an eye-catching US$3.2 million deal with a customer in the United Arab Emirates for 50 concrete mixer trucks. The deal is said to be an important breakthrough for the Chinese company’s concrete machinery in the Middle East market, raising brand awareness and laying a solid foundation for building market share.
Over the past year, Shantui has focused on localising its sales, relying on dealers to tap into customer demand and connect with end users – leading to this major UAE order. The customer is said to be one of the largest ready-mix concrete firms in the Middle East. Prior to placing the order, the chairman of the buying company’s group visited Shantui, taking tours of both its global headquarters in Jining, China and its concrete machinery manufacturing base in Wuhan, and seeing Shantui’s concrete mixing equipment successfully come through a number of rigorous tests.
Combined with a large sale of more than 200 units to Saudi Arabia in the Q1 2014, Shantui's concrete mixing products are said by the firm to be gaining “unquestionable momentum” in the Middle East market.
Meanwhile, in what is said to be a first for the ready mix sector, UK customers are set to benefit from the introduction of new mobile Ultra ready-mix concrete plants.
7406 Lafarge Tarmac has invested in two units to strengthen its existing nationwide concrete offering and provide customers with 24-hour security of supply to projects in remote locations.
The two new mobile Ultra plants can be transported direct to site as a standard load and assembled within just 24 hours to significantly reduce plant installation times, says Lafarge Tarmac. The plants can operate round-the-clock to deliver continuous supply and can produce volumes of up to 60m3/hour. The mobile Ultra units also minimise vehicle movements to and from site, reducing logistics costs and carbon emissions.
“We’re constantly looking for innovative solutions to help customers address challenges and deliver construction projects as effectively as possible,” said Richard Stares, commercial director for Lafarge Tarmac’s Ready-mix business.
“Clients have told us that a traditional mobile plant isn’t always suitable, so we wanted to offer an alternative to meet these needs.”
Each plant is operated by a dedicated onsite technical team to provide expert advice and support to deliver ready-mix concrete to meet the specific requirements of any project.
A new generation of the established718 Liebherr MPS control system for concrete mixing plants has just come on the market. Quick reaction times and maximum precision provided by the processor control featuring real-time capable operating system are said by the German firm to ensure outstanding plant outputs and concrete quality. The open system of this software-based solution allows upgrading at any time, as well as integration into other data systems.
The state-of-the-art display screen visualisation of the Litronic-MPS III provides a detailed overview of functions for the mixing technician, and in turn straightforward operation of the overall plant. A requisite and uniform consistency of the concrete is claimed to be guaranteed via after-run optimisation, tolerance monitoring and adjustable moisture measuring. All data pertaining to, for example, customers, material orders or concrete types are administrated on the left-hand monitor of two. The right-hand monitor provides complete plant visualisation with interactive direct operation in real time.
Designed for continuous operation in demanding ambient temperatures, the system comprises a computer, a speedy four-channel precision amplifier, keyboard, two monitors (more upon request), VPN router for the Teleservice and a control panel with PC box and software. The PC box is equipped with a ventilator and fi ne dust filter to ensure optimum operating safety of the PC and uninterrupted power supply (UPS) as a result of minimum overpressure and dust-free air. A USP with overvoltage protection is designed for an extended temperature range and is also included within the delivery scope.
After a long and stringent testing stage carried out at2203 CIFA’s research centre in Senago, near Milan, Italy, the firm’s Energya 9 plug- in hybrid truck mixer has made its debut on construction sites and is now actively at work in Bolzano, a province in north-east Italy, under the watchful eye of the operators and technicians of Beton Eisack. Christian Auer, one of Beton Eisack's proprietors, said, “The truck is great because it gives us the edge over our competitors in the most environmentally-sensitive work sites. At Beton Eisack we're extremely safety-conscious and environmentally driven so a low pollution hybrid truck featuring very quiet operation can hardly fail to impress. Then there are the [Energya 9’s] operational benefits, especially on work sites in confined spaces such as in tunnels and inside enclosed industrial sheds, and also when work must be carried out at night or in residential areas where noise is poorly tolerated.”
The Energya 9 has a patented movement system for its drum, which is driven by an electric induction motor instead of the truck's hydraulics. The induction motor is powered by a lithium ion battery that can be recharged by plugging a lead into a power grid outlet. Battery charging is swift, at just 18 minutes for a full charge, when using the CIFA-designed quick-charging column that can be installed in any batching plant. Even plugging into a normal industrial 380V outlet is said to result in surprisingly fast charging of around four hours.
The batteries can also be charged directly via an engine-driven generator as the truck travels between batching plant and work site; autonomous recharging is further aided by the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS), developed by CIFA to recover energy during vehicle acceleration and deceleration stages, transferring the kinetic energy to a power take-off which then drives the on-board generator. This complete and integrated system is said by CIFA to help reduce engine wear and gives big savings in fuel consumption of 27% if the mixer drum battery is recharged from the power grid), allowing amortisation of the purchase price in little over four years of use.
Another key green factor of the Energya 9 is that its use of electrically driven drum rotation means the truck engine can be switched off immediately on arrival at the site, and concrete placing procedures can be performed without the emission of atmospheric pollutants and with far lower noise levels than conventional mixer systems. Laboratory and field tests performed by CIFA showed that site noise levels are reduced by 10dB, making it possible to work in densely populated areas, during the night time, in the immediate proximity of hospitals and in other noise sensitive sites.6791 Ammann’s recent acquisition of German firm Elba has strengthened its position on the international market for concrete mixing plants. Elba’s high-quality plants have been especially in demand in Central Europe, Russia/CIS, the Middle East and North Africa. As Ammann is taking on the existing, well-oiled management crew, the subsidiary in Ettlingen will become the concrete centre of the Ammann Group.
Speaking of the Elba acquisition, completed mid-March 2014, Hans-Christian Schneider, CEO, Ammann Group, said, “We are delighted to have found in Elba the Ideal partner in the concrete plant segment. We are now in a position to meet the needs of our customers worldwide with well-established, high-quality concrete plants developed and manufactured in Germany.”
2595 Simem says it has set a new production record for its concrete batching plants after generating more than 4million m³ of concrete during works to expand the Panama Canal. The plants are said to have been working 24 hours a day in what is the biggest and most expensive infrastructure construction project in the world. “We have installed in Panama two plants that produce 1,400m³ of concrete per hour," explains Federico Furlani, the Italian company’s managing director.
UK surfacing contractor3016 Cemex Paving Solutions recently took delivery of a new Rapidmix400CW, the high volume mobile continuous mixing plant manufactured by Northern Ireland-based 316 Rapid International.
Fully mobile and self-contained, the Rapidmix400CW offers a complete plant powered by its own power source, with on-board compressor and generator. Fitted with a self-erecting system, using hydraulics, the plant can change from travel mode to fully operational within a few hours. The Rapidmix400CW mixes up to 400tonnes/hour depending on application and provides feed rates that are fully adjustable for the aggregate, cement and water systems. The recently updated unit incorporates full weighing options for all materials - aggregates, cement and water, which means the new generation Rapidmix400CW offers record keeping that is automated, precise and detailed. The Rapidmix is said to be an Ideal solution for a wide variety of applications, including - Roller compacted concrete (RCC), Cement Bound Materials (CBM), Bentonite Enriched Soils, Coldmix bitumen emulsions, Contaminated Land Treatment and Recycled Asphalt Paving (RAP).
Over the past year, Shantui has focused on localising its sales, relying on dealers to tap into customer demand and connect with end users – leading to this major UAE order. The customer is said to be one of the largest ready-mix concrete firms in the Middle East. Prior to placing the order, the chairman of the buying company’s group visited Shantui, taking tours of both its global headquarters in Jining, China and its concrete machinery manufacturing base in Wuhan, and seeing Shantui’s concrete mixing equipment successfully come through a number of rigorous tests.
Combined with a large sale of more than 200 units to Saudi Arabia in the Q1 2014, Shantui's concrete mixing products are said by the firm to be gaining “unquestionable momentum” in the Middle East market.
Meanwhile, in what is said to be a first for the ready mix sector, UK customers are set to benefit from the introduction of new mobile Ultra ready-mix concrete plants.
The two new mobile Ultra plants can be transported direct to site as a standard load and assembled within just 24 hours to significantly reduce plant installation times, says Lafarge Tarmac. The plants can operate round-the-clock to deliver continuous supply and can produce volumes of up to 60m3/hour. The mobile Ultra units also minimise vehicle movements to and from site, reducing logistics costs and carbon emissions.
“We’re constantly looking for innovative solutions to help customers address challenges and deliver construction projects as effectively as possible,” said Richard Stares, commercial director for Lafarge Tarmac’s Ready-mix business.
“Clients have told us that a traditional mobile plant isn’t always suitable, so we wanted to offer an alternative to meet these needs.”
Each plant is operated by a dedicated onsite technical team to provide expert advice and support to deliver ready-mix concrete to meet the specific requirements of any project.
A new generation of the established
The state-of-the-art display screen visualisation of the Litronic-MPS III provides a detailed overview of functions for the mixing technician, and in turn straightforward operation of the overall plant. A requisite and uniform consistency of the concrete is claimed to be guaranteed via after-run optimisation, tolerance monitoring and adjustable moisture measuring. All data pertaining to, for example, customers, material orders or concrete types are administrated on the left-hand monitor of two. The right-hand monitor provides complete plant visualisation with interactive direct operation in real time.
Designed for continuous operation in demanding ambient temperatures, the system comprises a computer, a speedy four-channel precision amplifier, keyboard, two monitors (more upon request), VPN router for the Teleservice and a control panel with PC box and software. The PC box is equipped with a ventilator and fi ne dust filter to ensure optimum operating safety of the PC and uninterrupted power supply (UPS) as a result of minimum overpressure and dust-free air. A USP with overvoltage protection is designed for an extended temperature range and is also included within the delivery scope.
After a long and stringent testing stage carried out at
The Energya 9 has a patented movement system for its drum, which is driven by an electric induction motor instead of the truck's hydraulics. The induction motor is powered by a lithium ion battery that can be recharged by plugging a lead into a power grid outlet. Battery charging is swift, at just 18 minutes for a full charge, when using the CIFA-designed quick-charging column that can be installed in any batching plant. Even plugging into a normal industrial 380V outlet is said to result in surprisingly fast charging of around four hours.
The batteries can also be charged directly via an engine-driven generator as the truck travels between batching plant and work site; autonomous recharging is further aided by the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS), developed by CIFA to recover energy during vehicle acceleration and deceleration stages, transferring the kinetic energy to a power take-off which then drives the on-board generator. This complete and integrated system is said by CIFA to help reduce engine wear and gives big savings in fuel consumption of 27% if the mixer drum battery is recharged from the power grid), allowing amortisation of the purchase price in little over four years of use.
Another key green factor of the Energya 9 is that its use of electrically driven drum rotation means the truck engine can be switched off immediately on arrival at the site, and concrete placing procedures can be performed without the emission of atmospheric pollutants and with far lower noise levels than conventional mixer systems. Laboratory and field tests performed by CIFA showed that site noise levels are reduced by 10dB, making it possible to work in densely populated areas, during the night time, in the immediate proximity of hospitals and in other noise sensitive sites.
Speaking of the Elba acquisition, completed mid-March 2014, Hans-Christian Schneider, CEO, Ammann Group, said, “We are delighted to have found in Elba the Ideal partner in the concrete plant segment. We are now in a position to meet the needs of our customers worldwide with well-established, high-quality concrete plants developed and manufactured in Germany.”
UK surfacing contractor
Fully mobile and self-contained, the Rapidmix400CW offers a complete plant powered by its own power source, with on-board compressor and generator. Fitted with a self-erecting system, using hydraulics, the plant can change from travel mode to fully operational within a few hours. The Rapidmix400CW mixes up to 400tonnes/hour depending on application and provides feed rates that are fully adjustable for the aggregate, cement and water systems. The recently updated unit incorporates full weighing options for all materials - aggregates, cement and water, which means the new generation Rapidmix400CW offers record keeping that is automated, precise and detailed. The Rapidmix is said to be an Ideal solution for a wide variety of applications, including - Roller compacted concrete (RCC), Cement Bound Materials (CBM), Bentonite Enriched Soils, Coldmix bitumen emulsions, Contaminated Land Treatment and Recycled Asphalt Paving (RAP).
