CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY

ANNA UNIVERSITY, CHENNAI

AR6013 R - 2013

2017
CONSTRUCTION METHODS AND EQUIPMENT

Batching plants - Transit mixers

A concrete plant, also known as a batch plant or batching plant or a concrete

batching plant, is equipment that combines various ingredients to form concrete.
Some of these inputs include water, air, admixtures, sand, aggregate (rocks, gravel,
etc.), fly ash, silica fume, slag, and cement. There are two main types of concrete
plants: Dry mix plants and Wet mix plants, and also plants that contain both a transit
mix side and a central mix side while utilizing common material storage points. A
concrete plant can have a variety of parts and accessories, including: mixers (either
tilt drum or horizontal or in some cases both), cement batchers, aggregate batchers,
conveyors, radial stackers, aggregate bins, cement bins, heaters, chillers, cement
silos, batch plant controls, and dust collectors.

Types

A Dry mix Concrete Plants, also known as Transit Mix Plants, weighs sand, gravel
and cement in weigh batchers via digital or manual scales. All the ingredients then
are discharged into a chute which discharges into a truck. Meanwhile, water is either
being weighed or volumetrically metered and discharged through the same charging
chute into the mixer truck.

A Wet mix Concrete Plants, combines some or all of the above ingredients
(including water) at a central location into a Concrete Mixer that is, the concrete is
mixed at a single point, and then simply agitated on the way to the jobsite to prevent
setting (using agitors or ready mix trucks) or hauled to the jobsite in an open bodied
dump truck.

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Agitator trucks used for ready mix concrete pumps Guniting equipments

Concrete mixer

A concrete mixer (often mistakenly called a cement mixer) is a device that

homogeneously combines cement, aggregate such as sand or gravel, and water to
form concrete. A typical concrete mixer uses a revolving drum to mix the
components. For smaller volume works portable concrete mixers are often used so
that the concrete can be made at the construction site, giving the workers ample time
to use the concrete before it hardens. An alternative to a machine is mixing concrete
by hand. This is usually done in a wheelbarrow; however, several companies have
recently begun to sell modified tarps for this purpose.

Trucks and trailers - Concrete mixing transport trucks

Special concrete transport trucks (in–transit mixers) are made to transport and mix
concrete up to the construction site. They can be charged with dry materials and
water, with the mixing occurring during transport. They can also be loaded from a
"central mix" plant, with this process the material has already been mixed prior to
loading. The concrete mixing transport truck maintains the material's liquid state
through agitation, or turning of the drum, until delivery. The interior of the drum on a
concrete mixing truck is fitted with a spiral blade. In one rotational direction, the
concrete is pushed deeper into the drum. This is the direction the drum is rotated
while the concrete is being transported to the building site. This is known as

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"charging" the mixer. When the drum rotates in the other direction, the Archimedes'
screw type arrangement "discharges", or forces the concrete out of the drum. From
there it may go onto chutes to guide the viscous concrete directly to the job site.

Concreting Plant

Concreting ~ this site activity consists of four basic procedures

1. Material Supply and Storage - this is the receiving on site of the basic materials
namely cement, fine aggregate and coarse aggregate and storing them under
satisfactory conditions.

2. Mixing - carried out in small batches this requires only simple hand held tools
whereas when demand for increased output is required mixers or ready mixed
supplies could be used.

3. Transporting - this can range from a simple bucket to barrows and dumpers for
small amounts. For larger loads, especially those required at high level, crane skips
could be used.

4. Placing Concrete - this activity involves placing the wet concrete in the
excavation, formwork or mould; working the concrete between and around any
reinforcement.

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Small Batch Mixers ~ these mixers have outputs of up to 200 litres per batch with
wheelbarrow transportation an hourly placing rate of 2 to 3 m3 can be achieved.
Most small batch mixers are of the tilting drum type. Generally these mixers are hand
loaded which makes the quality control of successive mixes difficult to regulate.

Medium Batch Mixers ~ outputs of these mixers range from 200 to 750 litres and
can be obtained at the lower end of the range as a tilting drum mixer or over the
complete range as a non-tilting drum mixer with either reversing drum or chute
discharge. The latter usually having a lower discharge height. These mixers usually

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have integral weight batching loading hoppers, scraper shovels and water tanks thus
giving better quality control than the small batch mixers. Generally they are
unsuitable for wheelbarrow transportation because of their high output.

Transporting Concrete ~ the usual means of transporting mixed concrete produced

in a small capacity mixer is by wheelbarrow. The run between the mixing and placing
positions should be kept to a minimum and as smooth as possible by using planks or
similar materials to prevent segregation of the mix within the wheelbarrow.

Dumpers ~ these can be used for transporting mixed concrete from mixers up to
600 litre capacity when fitted with an integral skip and for lower capacities when
designed to take a crane skip.

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Ready Mixed Concrete Trucks ~ these are used to transport mixed concrete from a
mixing plant or depot to the site. Usual capacity range of ready mixed concrete
trucks is 4 to 6 m3. Discharge can be direct into placing position via a chute or into
some form of site transport such as a dumper, crane skip or concrete pump.

Concrete Pumps ~ these are used to transport large volumes of concrete in a short
time period (up to 100 m3 per hour) in both the vertical and horizontal directions from
the pump position to the point of placing. Concrete pumps can be trailer or lorry
mounted and are usually of a twin cylinder hydraulically driven format with a small
bore pipeline (100 mm diameter) with pumping ranges of up to 85„000 vertically and
200„000 horizontally depending on the pump model and the combination of vertical
and horizontal distances. It generally requires about 45 minutes to set up a concrete

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pump on site including coating the bore of the pipeline with a cement grout prior to
pumping the special concrete mix.

GUNITING EQUIPEMENT

Gunite is also known as shotcrete or pneumatically applied mortar.

Shotcrete is usually an all-inclusive term for both the wet-mix and dry-mix versions.

It can be used on vertical and overhead, as well as on horizontal surface and is

particularly useful for restoring surfaces spelled due to corrosion of reinforcement.

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Gunite is a mixture of Portland cement, sand, and water, shot into the place by
compressed air.

THE PROCEDURE OF GUNITING

The cement is mixed with slightly moist sand and then necessary water is added as
the mixture comes out from the cement gun.

A regulating valve is provided to regulate the quantity of water.

The nozzle of gun is generally kept at a distance of about 750 mm to 850 mm from
the surface to be treated and the velocity of nozzle varies from 120 to 160 m/sec.

Placing Concrete ~ this activity is usually carried out by hand with the objectives of
filling the mould, formwork or excavated area to the correct depth, working the
concrete around any inserts or reinforcement and finally compacting the concrete to
the required consolidation. The compaction of concrete can be carried out using
simple tamping rods or boards or alternatively it can be carried out with the aid of
plant such as vibrators.

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Poker Vibrators ~ these consist of a hollow steel tube casing in which is a rotating
impellor which generates vibrations as its head comes into contact with the casing.

Power Float - a hand-operated electric motor or petrol engine, surmounted over a

mechanical surface skimmer. Machines are provided with an interchangeable
revolving disc and a set of blades. These are used in combination to produce a
smooth, dense and level surface finish to in-situ concrete beds.

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