The volumetric concrete mixer has gained popularity in recent years, but isn’t something you see at every job site. As a result, the large truck with its pour spout and levers leaves many people scratching their heads and wondering, “What exactly is that?” Although the General Chipping team doesn’t regularly work with volumetric mixers, we love educating our friends and colleagues about what’s available in the concrete industry. Here’s what we hope is a helpful overview of the volumetric concrete mixer.
First and Foremost: What is it?
The volumetric concrete mixer is basically a concrete production plant on wheels. Instead of creating the concrete ahead of time and transporting the product to jobsites via redi mix truck, the volumetric mixer combines concrete’s various ingredients (water, cement and aggregate) on-site. Teams pour the exact amount of concrete they need right then and there.
Why Would People Use a Volumetric Mixer?
Companies that opt to use volumetric concrete mixers like the fact that they pour only the amount of concrete needed for a job. That can mean less wasted time and money. The volumetric concrete mixer also allows operators to control exactly how much of each ingredient goes into the concrete, making it possible to make quick, custom batches on-site — or to correct a batch that seems to be too thick or thin during that initial pour.
What Else Should I Know About Volumetric Mixers?
Volumetric mixers tend to be best suited for smaller concrete jobs, such as road work requiring 20 or so yards of material. For larger work, we recommend sticking with traditional ready mix concrete trucks and central mixers. Also, we mentioned above that we don’t do much work with volumetric mixers. That’s because, due to the fact that the concrete isn’t mixed inside a drum, as with traditional redi mix trucks, they don’t require chipping.
We hope this overview offered some helpful insight into the volumetric mixer, a handy tool for crews carrying out certain concrete work. If you have questions on this, feel free to get in touch! You can find other great information on our Resources page. As always, our crew is here to help.
