Rapid International - Barrow-on-Soar Concrete Batching Plant

Barrow-on-Soar Concrete Batching Plant

We celebrated the completion of this project with an official opening by former Liverpool football star, Ian St John. (see opposite)

We began work on the Brett Landscaping Ltd operation in March of this year. The Barrow site in Leicestershire was the source of lime in the early 19th century and Precast Concrete Production started in 1890. There are now six factories on site, producing a wide range of hard landscaping products to compliment the existing Brett Landscaping range. Mr Roy Sims of Wardgate Project Services managed the project on behalf of Brett Landscaping.

Ian St John

Project
The project brief was to convert the existing single colour sequential batching and mixing plant supplying concrete to an OMAG block paving plant into a 3-colour blending of concrete with a state of the art new mixer allowing greater flexibility and variety in the colours of block paving. It is also intended to produce the same products as that currently made at Cliffe in Kent, saving distribution costs.
The project included the reuse of a section of the existing plant, supplied in 1988, which included the bins and silos. A new Rapid mixer platform was installed, complete with a Rapid pan mixer. Also supplied were 3-colour concrete blending conveyors and other associated equipment. The aim was to increase the existing 1m3 batch size to 1.5m3 batches in order to best utilise the capacity of the existing OMAG press.

New Aggregate Feed System
The existing bin outlet feeders were replaced with new belt feeders, controlled by variable speed facility for accuracy in weighing. Underneath the bins, Rapid fitted a new weighed belt conveyor, supported on load cells, designed to accept the new batch size. When the batch has been weighed up, it is discharged into a mixer-filling skip hoist, bringing the material up to the mixer. For Brett, this results in more accurate dosing, less waste and more importantly, better quality concrete.

The Mixer
The new Rapid 3-door R1500 pan mixer produces 1.5m3 batches of semi-dry concrete. It is faster and more efficient than the previous one, resulting in a much higher output. It has a holding hopper beneath each door for each colour of concrete produced. Each of these hoppers has a variable level control, allowing the re-order level to be changed, according to the rate at which the concrete is used. This effectively guarantees continuous fresh concrete delivery to the press.

Access hatches are provided on the mixer (gulled winged lids opened by pneumatic cylinders) and the holding hoppers to allow access for maintenance. All the hatches are fitted with trapped key interlocks, requiring isolation of the mixer motor and pneumatics before entry.

Transportation of Mixer

Multi Colour Mixes
On the outlet of each holding hopper is a belt feeder with variable speed drive. This discharges onto a collecting conveyor to the press hopper. The conveyor has a reversing facility, allowing any unwanted concrete to be removed from the system. The belt feeders can be operated in various sequences to produce multi colour mixes.

Pigment is batched in powder form, from big bag dispensers, into a weigh hopper above the mixer, for consitent colours. Big bags are lifted from ground level up to the 2nd floor of the mixer platform using an electric chain hoist.

PIL
The PIL control system allows automatic control of the blending sequence, weighing and mixing. The system has modem access for production reports and data exchange with Brett management systems and also online technical support from PIL Head Office.

	Result The improved plant has resulted in Brett Landscaping producing a higher quality of concrete block paving. In fact 175,000 blocks are produced every day, which is the equivalent of a football pitch. The new Rapid mixer enables a much wider range of colours to be made and the surface texture of the blocks has also greatly improved.
Inside the Plant

The Project Team:

Robert Godfrey - Operations Manager, Brett Landscaping
Duncan Robertson - Project Manager
Victor Pickering - Sales Director, Rapid International Ltd
Greg McPherson - PIL
Roy Sims - Wardgate Project Services

Edwin McPherson, Robert Godfrey, Victor Pickering, Roy Sims

Completed Plant