Concrete pump

Because it is a fluid, concrete can be pumped to where it is needed. Here, a concrete transport truck is feeding concrete to a concrete pumper, which is pumping it to where a slab is being poured.

Pumping concrete into aluminum concrete formwork in Mexico.

A concrete pump is a tool used for transferring liquid concrete by pumping. There are two types of concrete pumps.

The first type of concrete pump is attached to a truck. It is known as a trailer-mounted boom concrete pump because it uses a remote-controlled articulating robotic arm (called a boom) to place concrete with pinpoint accuracy. Boom pumps are used on most of the larger construction projects as they are capable of pumping at very high volumes and because of the labour saving nature of the placing boom. They are a revolutionary alternative to truck-mounted concrete pumps.

The second main type of concrete pump is either mounted on a truck and known as a truck-mounted concrete pump or placed on a trailer, and it is commonly referred to as a line pump or trailer-mounted concrete pump. This pump requires steel or rubber concrete placing hoses to be manually attached to the outlet of the machine. Those hoses are linked together and lead to wherever the concrete needs to be placed. Line pumps normally pump concrete at lower volumes than boom pumps and are used for smaller volume concrete placing applications such as swimming pools, sidewalks, and single family home concrete slabs and most ground slabs.

There are also skid mounted and rail mounted concrete pumps, but these are uncommon and only used on specialized jobsites such as mines and tunnels.

Mechanism

These are piston-type pumps. They can deal with hundreds of atmospheres of head. Such piston-style pumps are suitable to push cylinders of heterogenous concrete mixes (aggregate plus cement).

World record

The world record was set at on 7 August 2009 during the construction of the Parbati Hydroelectric Project, near the village of Suind, Himachal Pradesh, India, when the concrete mix was pumped through a vertical height of 715 m (2,346 ft) using SCHWING STETTER concrete pump.^[1][2]

As of 2011, an even larger concrete pump was built and sent to Japan's post-quake relief effort.^[3]

Gallery

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  Construction site with concrete pump.

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  A Putzmeister concret pump in Germany in 1985.

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  Folded concrete pump for transport.

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  Boom concrete pump

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  Concrete pump

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  Putzmeister brand positive displacement mortar and plaster pump.

Links

For concrete pumps technology in general see High-density solids pump.

References

1. ^ "Concrete Pumping to 715 m Vertical - A New World Record Parbati Hydroelectric Project Inclined Pressure Shaft Himachal Pradesh - A case Study". The Masterbuilder. http://www.masterbuilder.co.in/ci/293/Concrete-Pumping/. Retrieved 21 October 2010. 
2. ^ "SCHWING Stetter Launches New Truck mounted Concrete Pump S-36". NBM&CW (New Building Materials and Construction World). October 2009. http://www.nbmcw.com/articles/equipment-a-machinery/5470-schwing-stetter-launches-new-truck-mounted-concrete-pump-s-36.html. Retrieved 21 October 2010. 
3. ^ "Russian plane delivers American pump to Japan". .the news tribune. April 2011. http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/04/09/1619190/russian-plane-delivers-american.html. Retrieved 9 April 2011.