Increased demand of equipment with distinctive features are driving the stationary concrete pumping and concrete boom pumps sector in India.
Partha Pratim Basistha explores the equipment variants being provided by manufacturers to cater project specific requirements and overall emerging market demand.
Contrary to couple of years back, specialization is being characterised in utilization of concrete pumps among contractors both for high end and real estate projects. The distinction is essentially in terms of usage of equipment with enhanced concrete pumping pressure, better reach and rugged features to counter abrasion.
Requirements of equipment with improved reach, supported by increased pumping pressure is mainly on account of bigger size project requirements, not to mention tight completion schedules. In accordance with this, Hindustan Construction Corporation used number of Schwing Stetter stationary concrete pumps to pour concrete to its recently completed landmark, Bandra-Worli Sea Link Project in Mumbai. "Based on pouring concrete at high intensity with greater precision, the contractor used eight numbers of Indian manufactured BP 1800 and Germany imported, BP 3500 stationary concrete pumps with a pumping output of 46 cubic meter/hour-65 cubic meter/hour. Additionally,
21 numbers of Schwing Stetter's, AM 6SHN of transit mixtures were deployed for the completion of India's mega project," says,
Mr. V.G. Sakthi Kumar, Chief Operating Officer, Schwing Stetter (India) Private Limited. He adds, "for pumping concrete efficiently, Schwing uses advanced rock valve and flat gate valve technology in its stationary pumps." Schwing Stetter makes pumps available having an output capacity between 46 cubic meter/hour-96 cubic metres per hour.
In demand with bigger size project requirement, prominent concrete equipment manufacturer Greaves Cotton also offers stationary concrete pumps of higher capacity. As per
Mr. K. Sunil Kumar, head Construction Equipments Division, Greaves Cotton "Greaves offers stationary concrete pumps having concrete output of 90, 60, and 46 cubic meter/hour. The equipment can undertake vertical pumping upto a distance of 120 meters and horizontal pumping upto a distance of 430 meter. The equipment has centralized grease pump for automatic lubrication of moving parts."
While Greaves truck mounted GCP 350 DRT metro pump is capable of delivering concrete output of 46 cubic meter/hour, comes with a compact design with less overall length and neat storage of end hose and foldable side door, "essential" to work in crammed project sites added Mr. Kumar.
Driven by Application
While emerging bigger size project requirements is essentially driving the concrete stationary pumps and boom pumps sector. It is also the heterogeneous construction application requirements that is driving the sector as well. "Though demand of equipment with increased pressure for higher output, meant for bigger projects continues to characterize the market demand,
there are also demand of mid size equipment as well based on assorted nature of projects requirements," according to
Mr. Brahmanand Pandey, Chief Marketing Officer, Sany Heavy Industry India Private Limited. The Chinese construction equipment manufacturing major's concrete stationary and truck mounted boom pumps have been used in India's major infrastructure projects comprising, Delhi Metro Railway Corporation, Commonwealth Games village in New Delhi, irrigation and dam projects etc.
Equipped with S-valve concrete pumping technology, Sany offers its HBT-60 C1413, HBT-60 C 1816 stationary concrete pumps bearing a concrete output of 60 cubic meter/hour. It also offers its HBT-40 C 1410 D concrete pumps having a concrete output of 40 cubic meter/hour apart from having 80 cubic meter/ per hour stationary concrete pumps for the Indian construction equipment market.
As per Mr. Pandey, "having being placed with advanced wearable S-Valve technology, the seal structure in our stationary concrete pumps can automatically make up abrasion clearance, with favourable seal performance. It is made up by pile welding. The axle head made of high–strength alloy steel is processed through nitration, thus being prevented from cratting." He adds, "the new wearable concrete piston in our stationary pumps is developed after study, selection and repeated tests on hundreds of prescriptions. The distinction between a traditional concrete piston and ours lies in the fact that it is made of wearable polyester reinforced urethane material to have a longer service life."
Sany which makes available concrete placing booms having a reach of 32 & 38 meter height would be launching its new mobile concrete pump. The new pump, according to Mr. Pandey, "would be developed exclusively for the Indian construction sector with necessary technological inputs. The equipment would have a concrete output of 40 cubic meter/hour mounted on an Indian truck chassis.
Assorted offering of concrete pumps is also provided by Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology Development Co. Ltd. Relatively new entrant into Indian construction equipment market, the construction equipment manufacturing conglomerate's concrete pumps have found their usage in projects. According to
Mr. Jimmy Pan, the G.M. of Zoomlion Concrete Machinery Division Overseas Business Unit, "more than 60 sets of Zoomlion Trailer Pumps are working in projects, such as L&T Delhi Metro project, Ahluwalia Contracts in Mumbai, JMD Limited in Gurgaon. Two sets of Zoomlion truck-pumps were used by 23YE Construction Group Co. Ltd, a Chinese contractor involved in major construction projects in Jharkhand, Bokaro, Kolkata." Mr. Pan adds, "This year, Zoomlion also successfully recommended a package solution of Concrete Machineries to M/s Simplex for their Libya project."
Mr. Pan says, "We can offer array of concrete pumping equipment to suit different applications." He elaborates, "We can offer a wide variety of Trailer Concrete Pump with the capacity from 40 cubic meter/hour to 125 cubic meter/hour with famous brand engines, such as Volvo, Cummins, DEUTZ, Kirloskar engines. For Indian market, we have designed HBT40RS, HBT60RS (40&60 cubic meter/ per hour) S-Valve equipped trailer concrete pump fitted with local Kirloskar engine, and Japanese hydraulic circuits. The trailer pumps have PLC to reduce the amount of electric components, making in turn the machinery more intelligent."
He informs, "For truck-mounted concrete pump, Zoomlion can supply different model truck pump which ranges from 22 meter to 60 meter matched with the world famous chassis such as BENZ, VOLVO, ISUZU, DAF, MARK, and so on. Moreover, the steel of our truck pump are imported from Sweden, Japan, Australia and USA, clubbed together with our professional manufacturing technique making them technologically refined products. However, for Indian market, we have specially designed 22 meter and 37 meter truck-pump with Ashok Leyland chassis which is more practical and economical."
Zoomlion makes available full range of Concrete Machinery, under its brand comprising trailer Concrete pumps, truck-mounted Concrete pumps, truck-mounted Line Pumps, concrete mixing plant and transit mixers. It set a global record by pumping C100 HPC (High Performance Concrete) concrete to the height of 434 meter in Guangzhou West Tower project in China.
At par with other manufacturers, home based Aquarius Engineers Private Limited has deployed its stationary concrete equipment and boom pumps in prominent projects across the country. This includes, Delhi Metro, Penna Cement in Andhra Pradesh, ROB project at Jharkhand, etc. Aquarius has so far produced and delivered 800 numbers of concrete equipment. As per
Mr. Abhijeet Sonawane, Manager Technical & Product Support, Aquarius Engineers, "our boom pumps are highly efficient owing to its significant features primarily owing to its low Diesel Fuel consumption, low wear and tear parts. Additionally, the delivery pipeline is well designed for smooth concrete discharge from the end hose. While proportional servo control valve used for boom movement making the boom pump flexible and precise for proportional distribution of concrete."
He adds, "a boom pump can be powered by either the truck engine (Propeller shaft is cut and separate Splitter Gear Box is used for directing the truck engine power to either truck movement or Boom Pump operations) or by a separate engine.
Aquarius offers the second option i.e. a separate engine is used for driving the concrete pump & boom functions; truck is used only for transportation. Thus the engine can be used very effectively & economically as there are no power transmission losses."
On technology employed in the concrete pumps to pump concrete at high pressure and also to ensure safety. Mr. Sonawane informs, "we use Servo Valves for boom operations and slewing, pilot operated check valves for outrigger system (important from safety point of view) and Flow Pressure & Power Regulations control in Concrete Pumping System.
The concrete pumping system and technology we are adopting is state-of-the-art. This additionally is suited for the local site conditions in India. As long as the concrete is homogeneous, non-segregated and pumpable Aquarius pumps are capable to pump the so called ultra strength concrete."
Aquarius have 32 meter and 36 meter vertical reach boom pumps in its product range. It recently delivered Stationary Placing Booms – Hydro-Mechanical type of size 10 and 12 meter placement radius. The company would be launching fully hydraulic operated stationary concrete placing boom of size 17-meter horizontal radius.
In line pumps, Aquarius Fuel Economical series for the normal applications of 12 to 20 floors pumping heights. It has recently launched another model of line pump for RMC applications. This pump will have enhanced ease of handling due to lesser overall length; but at the same time other features of bigger cylinder diameter, sufficient engine power and concrete pressure are maintained intact in this new model.
As per Mr. Sonawane, "an output of 70 cubic meter/ hour is sufficiently higher for most of the projects in India. If pumps of higher output are used, it also causes higher wear & tear of wear parts and delivery pipeline due to higher velocity of concrete. Aquarius offers both the options of output 70 cubic meter/ hour and more also."
Wide range of equipment for varied concrete output requirement is offered by Revathi Equipment Limited. The Chennai based company offers its Revathi Waitzinger stationary concrete pumps manufactured in technical collaboration with Waitzinger of Germany bearing concrete output at 46,55, and 66 cubic meter/hour through its three models THP 45D, THP 50D, THP 60 D respectively. The stationary concrete pumps as per
Mr. Ramakrishnan Sanjeevi, Vice President & Business Unit Head, Revathi Equipment, "possess high wear resistant alloy steel S-valve, heavy duty drive system, chromium plated conveying cylinders for uniform output and longer shelf life."
In truck mounted boom pumps Revathi offers RTP 17 for pumping concrete at 17 meter height. However, it can also provide through import boom pumps from Waitzinger having a reach of 24, 32,35,36,37,42 and 47 meter respectively. "The advanced pedestal design of the Revathi-Waitzinger boom pumps allows them to be highly flexible to pour concrete from 0-360 degrees," says Mr. Sanjeevi.
Unique and latest designed machines are provided by Apollo Infratech. They manufacture trailer mounted concrete pump PMP40D with concrete output of 40 cubic meter/ per hour. They are the only manufacturer to provide manganese steel castings in flat gate valve assembly and both high and low pressure pumping. Due to this they can pump upto 75 meter vertical and 380 meter horizontal. They also provide electric version of the same model. These machines are most competitive to own and operate, as per
Mr. Sanjiv. V. Torvi, Manager Marketing, Apollo Infratech.
Not to be left behind, to take on the unleashed opportunities in stationary concrete and placing sector CONMAT is looking to forge a technical alliance to come out with new range of concrete stationary and boom pumps. "We are in the process to forge a new foreign technical collaboration to launch altogether a new variant concrete STATIONARY and boom Pumps. The product line is expected to be launched during the course of next six months" says
Mr. Nagesh Kudva, Director, Conmat.
Concrete equipment manufacturer to introduce new product variant also includes M/s. Bhai Pumpcrete Pvt. Ltd. As per
Mr. Bhai Manpreet Singh, Director, "within the next couple of months, we would be introducing extensively new version of our PC 25 and PC 60 trailer mounted concrete pumps for the Indian construction sector.
He points out: With new rugged features of the pumps it will have improved performance, smooth flow of concrete, harsher concrete will be possible to be pumped, higher output and minimal maintenance."
Bhai Pumpcrete P Ltd, has its presence in this sector in a small segment for the past 9 years in trailer mounted concrete pumps and now would be introducing the products with additional features comprising of open loop hydraulics, 0.25mm hard chrome plated cylinders, cutting rings and spectacle plates hard coated with tungsten, automatic lubrication system.
Additionally, the pumps will also have features consisting of hydraulic manifold, enlarged outlet of 165mm and modified version of S-valve, heavy duty agitators with gear box, fully variable concrete output control.
As per him, the field trials for the newly modified pumps are done at various construction projects in the country. Only after thorough running of the machine at site conditions under supervision of senior engineers of the company is the product then launched. "Bhai's trailer mounted concrete pumps have two different models with an maximum output of 36 to 55 cubic meter /hour respectively. Bhai Pumpcrete Pvt. Ltd has its corporate office located at New Delhi and has its production units at Ludhiana.
This is ably being supported with a dedicated team of Sales and Service team with its offices in New Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Ludhiana and Kolkata.
It is quite commendable to note that there are good deal of concrete pumping and placing equipment available to contractors to suit varied requirements as mechanization sets in an increasing order. Before acquiring the equipment contractors can make a checklist for selecting the right equipment weighing the pros and cons of its features. However, it is perceived among the features most essential would be taking into account the valve technology employed before buying the right nature of equipment. For knowledge sake it should be mentioned that in rock valve and s-valve the wear and tear part is low. However, the concrete requires to be disciplined before pouring it into the pump. But flat gate valve equipped machines can take upon any nature of concrete. Deliberations on other features could be a part of standard exercise it is felt.
