Concreting Solutions Witness Hitech Advancements
Concrete equipment manufacturers have been carrying spate of improvisations in their product categories to deliver higher productivity and availability, P.P. Basistha takes a look at the recent advancements.
There is all round development in the concreting equipment industry. Manufacturers have been presenting newer solutions across the product verticals so as to cater the newer requirements of the contractors, working in high rise construction and most notably concrete road infrastructure projects. The machineries, manufacturers argue, consisting the batch mix plants, are capable of delivering higher concrete output in conjunction with batching concrete based on desired specifications of the contractors. While the pumps are capable of pumping various grades of concrete at higher pressure at longer heights and distances. The transit mixers are able to retain the appropriate quality of concrete, manufacturers also claim, while transporting them across longer lead distances while retaining the desired concrete quality.
Gujarat-based concrete equipment manufacturer Apollo Inffratech Pvt. Ltd. is offering concrete batch mix plants indexed to the finished material throughput requirements of present design specifications of concrete roads. “Typically, slip form pavers with widths of 5.5 meters for paving 250 mm thick pavements at 1 metre/ minute, needs to be backed by 120cum/hr batching plants. For project with two-lane pavement of 9-10 meters, backup concrete throughput is required from 160 cum/hr plants. We have an elaborate portfolio of 100-120-160-180 cum/hr batching plants for concrete road and other infrastructure projects. We also offer lower capacity plants between 20-90 cum/hr,” informs Mr. Mitul Patel, Apollo Inffratech.
He continues, “Exact rated throughput to our plants with faster uptime is enabled by twin shaft mixers with holding hopper. Twin shaft Mixer facilitates release of the mixed concrete based on gravitational force, thus minimizing wear of plates. This is on contrary by pushing system for releasing concrete offered by the competition products. Further, the advantage of twin shaft mixers is that they can handle varied sizes of aggregates ranging from 80-120mm based on the project requirements.”
He adds, “Concrete mixed design needs to be delivered and laid at faster cycle times, so that the exact cement to water ratio is maintained without being hardened prematurely. Faster release of the concrete based on twin shaft mixers facilitates the retention of the batched concrete mix design” Apollo’s concrete batch mix plants are fitted with BHS or Sicoma twin shaft mixers.
Mr. Patel further mentions, “Our plants pass the cost benefit to our customers based on their programmable logic controlled enabled functionality (PLC). The PLC takes direct signal from the load cells, ensuring the desired mixing quality and accuracy, enabling the contractor to obtain the specified concrete output. This also delivers faster cycle time of the plants.”
Apollo Inffratech, which manufactures its concrete batch mix plants at Rajpur in Mehsana, Gujarat, has a tie-up for marketing US origin HEM slipform pavers with paving width from 2.75-13.5 meters. The pavers deliver the right quality of vibration at right frequency for getting the appropriate paving. The vibration in the vibrator can be undertaken individually and collectively. The company has a joint venture with Carmix (Italy) for self-loading mobile mixers.
Sharing details about the company’s product support, Mr. Patel informs, “We provide application engineering support to the road contractors on the required quality of additives to be mixed in concrete and batching for obtaining the proper quality mix. Products and parts support is ensured through our well placed components delivery system across the country.”
KYB Conmat has targeted its new i Pump technology SCP 7500, 72 cum/hr, trailer mounted stationery concrete pumps for high rise construction. “SCP 7500 working on s-valve technology is most ideal for high rise building construction above 100 meters height. The pump with high rate of pumping capability is also suitable for dams, weir and barrage construction involving 300 meters height. The new i-pump, comes with a digital display for easy human machine interface. The display shows details of oil temperature, concrete output, pumping pressure, pumping rate, engine speed, engine stroke in the pump while in operation. SCP 7500 also features fault diagnostic system for easy trouble shooting. The pump can be operated remotely with the help of its inbuilt radio remote control mode of operation. High levels of safety systems, consisting safety grill, alarm systems, are the additional competitive features of the pump, all which goes on to ensure the high availability of the equipment,” says Mr. Nagesh Kudva, Marketing Director KYB Conmat. SCP 5000, 50 cum/hr stationery pump is another offering from KYB Conmat’s concrete pump product portfolio.
Targeting road construction, the company with its manufacturing facility near Vadodara Gujarat is banking on its new CRP 2400, 240 cum/hr, high capacity, concrete batch mix plants. “The high capacity pump features Sicoma’s or BHS Sonthofen’s twin shaft mixers for delivering higher levels of homogenous concrete at faster cycle times, so as to have quality even surface. This is as necessitated by road construction projects. Further, twin shaft mixers helps towards countering damage to the mixer parts. The other advantage is that it facilitates towards accommodating bigger sizes of aggregates as well as numerous materials, comprising -25 mm aggregates, sand, crusher dust, cement, fly ash and concrete admixtures, as required for pavement quality concrete as well as dry lean concrete in concrete road projects,” informs. Mr. Kudva.
He adds, “CRP 2400, which can be customized either with four or six bins based on the customer’s requirements, does not requires any ramp for loading the aggregates. The plant is directly connected through conveyors from the crushing plants located nearby.”
KYB Conmat offerings of smaller and medium capacities of concrete batch mix pumps comprises of CRP 300, 30 cum/hr, CRP 750, 75 cum/hr, CRP 450, 40 cum/hr, CRP 900, 90 cum/hr , CRP 600, 60 cum/hr. The bigger capacity plants constitutes of CRP 1200, 120 cum/hr, CRP 1600, 160 cum/hr, CRP 1800, 180 cum/hr, CRP 2000, 200 cum/hr, CRP 2400, 240 cum/hr plants.
KYB has delivered two units of CRP 2400 for 80 km, 10 meters wide concrete road project in Andhra Pradesh between Ananthpur and Gutti being constructed by M/S. SRK Construction. KYB Conmat has recently delivered 90 cu mt/hr capacity plant for 200 meters tall, Chandrodaya temple construction at Mathura. The company will be delivering four transit mixers of 7 cum and one SCP 7500 and one rack & pinion elevator for the project as part of the package.
KYB Conmat has set up its new 24x7 customer care call centre that directs calls to the designated departments comprising electrical, mechanical or structural based on the complains. It has its dedicated stock yards for providing parts support for its equipments.
Sany India is looking to leverage its presence in the concrete equipments business through its diversified offerings. According to Mr. Sanjay Saxena, VP & Business Head, Heavy Equipments Division, Sany Heavy Industries India, “Our STM 6, 6 cum and STM 7, 7 cum transit mixers, with option of mounting it on Ashok Leyland, Tata, Eicher, AMW chassis and other commercially available chassis introduced in Jan 2016 have found extremely encouraging response from the market with sales crossing 300 units in first year itself, enabling us to gain around seven percent of the market share. The mixers drum based on Sany’s design from China delivers appropriate quality of concrete.” STM 6 and STM 7 works on slave engines.
Sany has also introduced its SBP 30, 30 cum and SBP 60, 60 cum concrete batch mix plants. Mr. Saxena says, “The batching plants are manufactured at our state of the art Pune facility is based on twin shaft design. This enables the unit to deliver ten percent more productivity as compared to the other plants offered in market.” Sany India will be looking to promote its higher capacities 90-120-180-240 cum meters concrete batch mix plants from its China facility. The products will be targeted for the concrete road sector, RMC and high rise requiring higher concrete output. The Chinese construction equipment conglomerate will promote and the products through its thirteen dealers backed by the company’s own trained force of twenty plus service engineers.
Expanded range & pumping abilities
Putzmeister India has introduced its new ‘E-Smart series’ of concrete stationery pumps. The new E-Smart, s-valve technology pumps are available with concrete pumping capacities of 40-50-60-70-90-100 cum/hr, manufactured at its Goa factory with most of the components indigenously developed.
According to Mr. Parminder Gabri, Director-Sales, Putzmeister Concrete Machines, “The new series of E-Smart pumps feature very high levels of efficiency and safety owing to their design and hardware. Higher levels of operational efficiency in the pumps are delivered through the new Human-Machine-Interface mechanism (HMI). HMI delivers information on the pressure, temperature, RPM, fuel consumption. Information on the number of strokes is also shown in the equipment. This allows the pump operator to set and reset the machine according to the pumping requirements. Besides, it also allows him to undertake any preventive maintenance, if necessary.”
Sharing further details, he says, “One of the notable features of our new pumps is that they have one centralized location for operation of the hydraulic-electrical and engines. This is in contrast to our previous pumps which had individual operating systems for the hydraulic, electric, and the engines. With independent operating systems, it was difficult for the operator to precisely identify the area of defects. With centralized integrated operating systems, it will be now quite easy for the operator to identify and rectify the defect in the particular operational area of its occurrence.”
Putzmeister plans to increase marketing of the pumps in high-rise and metro projects. The company expects that with the new advanced operational and safety features, the E-Smart series will outpace the demand for its existing range of stationery pumps. Mr. Gabri says, “With the new pumps we will upgrade our existing users as well as those looking for higher productivity and efficiency. Operational support to the pumps is provided through our trained operators who are with the machines during the initial period of commissioning.” Putzmeister provides service back up through its pan India 20+ parts depot and 40+ services centers.
Putzmeister currently has 5000+ pumps working in India. Based on the requirements of the customers, the company upgrades and refurbishes the machines in total or in parts. Further, based on the requirements of the customers to pump the desired quality of concrete, Putzmeister also provides complete solutions through its specialists in its Concrete Project Division. The company has 150 resident service engineers and service centers across four regions of the country. The German origin, concrete stationary and boom pumps manufacturer, based in Verna, Goa, markets its pumps through its own marketing channels in India.
Aquarius has added electrically powered stationery concrete pumps in its product line. It introduced compact, 700 series concrete pump driven by three cylinder diesel engine few years back. The Pune based company will be now offering pumps in three series comprising. 700 / 1000 / 1400 series models, with concrete output ranging between 30 / 50 / 70 / 90 /120 cum/hr capacity at various concrete pressure levels such as 61 / 91 / 107 / 160 / 172 bar.
“The electrically powered pumps are best suited for construction areas like hydro-electric power projects as well as tunnel concreting work. According to the local legislation, there are strict environmental pollution norms for the equipment powered with diesel engine working in such conditions. Taking into cognizance, we have introduced these electric powered pumps,” says Mr. Yogesh Salvi, Manager Exports & Special Applications, Aquarius Engineers.
He continues, “Based on the rising trend of high rise construction our new products also includes, 1000 & 1400 series stationery pumps for ready mix concrete and specialized high pressure pumps as model 1400 HPD + stationery concrete pump. Featuring state of the art latest generation S-valve – ‘Transfer Tube Technology’ and inbuilt sensors, the operator can analyze various functionality of this pump while in operation. This can help the operator adjust the quick settings or undertake any brief preventive maintenance. The 1000 and 1400 series stationery pumps can pump concrete at a vertical height between 120-150-170 and even to 250 meters backed with high pressure @ 172 bar.”
He informs, “Our pumps featuring s-valve technology comes with forward and reverse concrete suction mechanism. The pumps and connected pipeline are designed to ensure that there is no drop in concrete pressure while pumping the concrete, which is most crucial while achieving greater pumping distances. This is ensured through innovative clamp design & rubber seals joining the pipelines used for pouring the concrete. The inbuilt hydraulic system in the pumps can withstand pressure while pumping varied grades of concrete thereby ensuring consistency in throughput.”
Mr. Salvi says, “Aquarius pumps are fitted with reliable hydraulics. Ease of maintenance at the job site and ease interchangeability of fast moving spares across any series model enables the owner and the operator to maintain minimal inventory makes them cost competitive to own and operate.”
Product support by Aquarius, the Pune based concrete equipment manufacturer is rendered through its own regional offices and warehouses located across the country. Aquarius has its production facilities in Pune and Goa.
Introduction of new concrete pumps with advanced feature is expected to drive sales for the manufacturers in a market where there is an excess supply of existing equipment. However, for increasing the acceptability of the newer pumps, it will be vital for OEMs to render appropriate product support for the pumps in high rise projects, especially by way of operation and training.
NBM&CW May 2017