Who uses Cart-Away concrete? Why? What? Where?

The following findings are from of a ten-day field survey conducted in several rental and landscape supply locations. Each location serves their community with a small concrete batch plant and a fleet of trailers. The purpose of the survey was to discover who used concrete in a trailer and what projects were being served.

Your customer mix will probably be very much like what we report here.

But first, some background on trailer-delivery.

 

Cart-Away Explores Peristaltic Concrete Pump

For many years customers have been asking for a concrete pump that would work well with the Cart-Away concrete mixers. These requests have lead us to begin development of a peristaltic concrete pump. We are working with Monolithic to adapt their squeeze pump technology to fit the capabilities of the Cart-Away mixers. We are please to introduce the Cart-Away Skweez Pump. (Planned Introduction - Summer of 2017)

A Squeeze Pump

A peristaltic concrete pump uses a squeezing motion on a rubber hose to move concrete. Better known as a Squeeze Pump, these machines are simpler to operate and to maintain than the common piston pump. The peristaltic concrete pump is also more forgiving and less dangerous than other concrete pumps. The Cart-Away Skweez Pump is the perfect pumping companion for the mid-sized mixers in the Cart-Away product line. We chose peristaltic pumping technology because it can be stopped and started between concrete mixing batches. Piston driven concrete pumps work at much higher pressures and do not perform well on small batch applications where stopping between batches is necessary.

Less Wear

A peristaltic concrete pump design has a number of advantages over a piston pump. The most valuable to you is that there is less wear on moving parts. The abrasive nature of concrete is a real killer for the steel mechanisms of piston pumps. With a peristaltic pump, the rubber squeeze-hose keeps the material confined and prevents any metal parts from coming in contact with the abrasive concrete. Because the concrete only touches rubber hose, you get the equivalent of a brand new pump every time you replace your hose! This saves you a bunch of money in machining, replacement parts and downtime when compared to a piston pump rebuild.

Wear Parts

It really boils down to what it cost to replace worn parts. Piston pumps rely on metal parts to force the concrete out the end of the hose. From the first day of operation, concrete rubs against the metal and begins to wear the piston pump. As the abrasion continues, the pump degrades, and it takes serious money to replace the worn out machined parts. Peristaltic concrete pumps experience wear as well, but a hose can be replace by people on the job-site for a relatively low cost. Operators of a peristaltic pump will typically stock spare hoses and be prepared to change them when pumping efficiency drops.

Less Danger

Peristaltic pumps do not push at the same high pressure as a piston pump. Consequently, a worker is far less likely to get hurt from a squeeze pump. There are real dangers from a hose rupturing or a clamp letting go when working with the high pressures created by a piston pump. On the other hand squeeze pump operators really need to know what they are doing, and they need to make sure their concrete mix good for pumping – one that properly moves through the system. Remember: the better the concrete mix, the better it pumps. Harsh, low cement-ratio mixes will not give you a superior end-result concrete, nor will they pump well. Such mixes need higher pressure pumps. Here’s another fantastic advantage of the peristaltic pump: its delivery of the shotcrete is much more even. Unlike the piston pump, the peristaltic pump does not bounce the nozzle operator all over the place. Consequently, material goes onto a surface with a smoother, steadier action, producing a much nicer outcome. We would love to get your input on the Cart-Away Skweez Pump idea. If you have some experience with concrete pumping or shotcrete, we would love to have you reach out to us and share your expertise. Cart-Away wants to do this right and we welcome your thoughts.

Cell tower requires portable concrete mixer

When Global Tower Service needed a cell tower foundation poured in the top of the Chuckwalla Mountains, they turned to the Cart-Away CUBE. The remote location and the need to pour over 30 cubic yards of concrete made this portable cement mixer a very practical solution. Getting a ready-mixed truck to the site was not cost effective and using a smaller contractor mixer would have slowed the construction progress to a crawl. When the cell tower project had ended, Cart-Away asked the project manager how the CUBE worked, and he came back with:

Concrete mixing in trucks and trailers

Over the years we have helped hundreds of ready-mixed concrete suppliers get established within their community. And during that time we have seen many different combinations of portable cement mixing solutions. 

Good concrete mixer maintenance takes a little extra effort

On a recent trip into California we found a company that is the World Champion of mixer cleanliness. The guys at River City Rentals have set a very high bar for their equipment maintenance programs, and their Cart-Away portable concrete mixers are a great example of this effort. Cement mixing has always been a bit messy - Requiring attention to good clean-up procedures in order to extend mixer life. Consistent cleaning is particularly important in a rental business where most customers don't feel responsibility for keeping the equipment maintained. At River City Rentals in Auburn they have established a policy that every portable concrete mixer that returns to the yard receives a wash-down before going back out. They use a pressurized washing system and industrial soap to knock off any concrete splatters or build up on the trailers as soon as the trailer gets back to the yard, and the results are fantastic!

Touring cement mixer locations in the east

I spent the past week traveling in Pennsylvania and Maryland to visit companies that sell ready-mixed concrete in the region. Many of these locations have been providing small batches of concrete to local contractors and homeowners for over 30-years. Some of these portable concrete providers also rent equipment and others sell building materials along with the ready-mix. Regardless, this trip was a history lesson for a concrete geek like myself.

Portable concrete mixer history

]Using small trailers in the delivery of ready-mixed concrete started in the 1960's, and some of the locations that I visited near Baltimore started selling concrete nearly that long ago. The delivery trailers where very different from the modern portable concrete mixers of today. The interesting part of my trip is that most of the locations that I visited are still using very old single axle trailers to make the deliveries.

Haiti to benefit from better concrete production

Joel Troyer is a man on a mission... A mission for stronger buildings in Haiti. After doing some volunteer work in the earthquake ravished nation, Joel decided that they needed a portable cement mixer in order to build back better. He came home and started searching for the appropriate mixing device. His search lead him to the Concrete MD cement mixer, designed for very remote building locations. The mixer met his specifications and so he began a fund-raising campaign in his community.

DC has decorated concrete cows, but Cart-Away has Cash Cows

Someone is mixing a little fun into the Maryland workday using the local concrete cows. They are sneaking around decorating the bovine and adding some entertainment for the community. 

The current cost of diesel fuel has trucking companies scrambling to find ways to save. This past week showed us another example of what truckers mean when they say "load-consolidation". We loaded a portable concrete mixing trailer up onto some bridge rails at the back of his load!

For the past few years the construction economy has been slow, and so has the sale of portable concrete mixers. We are cautiously optimistic that things are improving. This full truckload of 1-yard concrete mixing trailersis headed out to support a new Cart-Away Concrete location. There are more concrete batching plants and trailers ready to load on the trucks. It is nice to see the factory pumping out a steady stream of Cart-Away portable mixers again!