Local concrete equipment manufacturer, PMSA, has suggested concrete manufacturers follow a phased approach to streamline manufacturing and position themselves to fully capitalize on an inevitable leap in demand for precast units post lockdown.
Having suffered varying degrees of financial distress during hard lockdown, concrete manufacturers should look towards optimizing their current operations and modernizing plants in order to cut input costs and boost production. Incremental upgrades are not prohibitively expensive but can have the effect of radically improving output volumes.
PMSA marketing and sales manager, Quintin Booysen, adds that plant upgrades offered by PMSA on most major brands of brick, block and paver making machinery has the additional benefit of improving productivity of the plant, reducing cement consumption and allowing faster strength gains of concrete products.
Opportunity awaits
“While cash flow is tight and money hard to come by it is increasingly obvious that companies need to be re-geared for a new way of doing business. Companies right now need to get back to full production but do it carefully so that they preserve cash flow while still upgrading and boosting plants.
“These upgrades start with simple measures like new production boards which give better quality end products, cement savings, less breakages and can even improve curing times. Additional measures can include the installation of moisture measuring systems and control in aggregates and concrete mixers. By not considering and adjusting for moisture in aggregates, you could be partially dosing water in place of aggregate. Wet aggregate contains water trapped around the aggregate particles and by measuring the aggregate moisture content and adjusting for the moisture you get a better ratio of cement to aggregates and ultimately achieve better strength while reducing cement usage.
“Other important upgrades include vibration systems which are critical in any manufacturing method, whether ready-mix, wet, brick and blocks or any other manufacturing process. Vibrators help to remove air bubbles in wet mixes and ultimately reduces voids on cured concrete. A more controlled vibration gives better density and compaction for more consistent strength and less breakages.
Good vibrations
“On bigger machines such as 1400 x 840 board size, our PMSA UltraVibe system have amplitude and frequency settings which can be set to provide the perfect setting for better production and curing. These amplitude and frequency settings can be changed in split seconds as required for optimal compaction, cement savings, higher speeds on machines and better end products.
“Smaller machine types using 600 x 500mm boards can benefit through the fitment of specialized variable speed drives (VSD) to control frequency for better filling and our PMSA braking systems can replace old DC braking systems for quicker start and stop speeds.
“Better vibration can also be achieved with VSD systems and in combination these upgrades can make an older or less advanced plant more productive and able to produce more competitive products by improving strength, using less cement, producing products that are less prone to breakages in the packing stages and provide all-round better control of manufacturing processes.
“Cement prices are on the way up and one way of countering this is to optimize plants and curing processes to allow a reduction in cement in the process. We believe that the more control you have over your plant the better you are able to control efficiencies and costs for better control of your business.
Supplier of choice
Coupled to this, once you have this highly efficient machine running where seconds start meaning something in terms of production rather than days lost with some inferior products. Concrete manufacturers need a supplier that responds as quickly by providing top quality service and support to make machines more productive in these types of efficient environments.
“From service and spares to boards and optimizations you need to make sure your supply chain responds effectively. Because our longstanding customers usually operate so productively we have a full range of spares and parts to uphold manufacturing and respond quickly to ensure seamless operation of our plants. That is also part of the reason why “PMSA is Built to Last”.
“So before buying new equipment to meet surging demand post lockdown you may be able to upgrade existing plants to get into a position to supply more and better-quality products more cost effectively.
Gearing up
“We think that progressive concrete manufacturers need to be in the front of the queue to upgrade plants and improve productivity to meet surging demands that are already exceeding production capacities in some regions of the country.
“From design through to commissioning an all-new plant can easily take eight months which means that those who are thinking of ramping up now will only realistically start-up their new plants next year – so those decisions need to be fast tracked to shorten the lead times. In the meantime, we suggest upgrading your existing plants.
“With no end in sight for the pandemic it is a good idea to reduce inter-company COVID-19 transmissions through automation of processes. It is worth noting that almost all production plants can be automated to reduce transmission of the disease, as well as enabling more seamless shift changes and a smaller core team. There are many options and the trick is to find a strategy that works for each specific company.
