Text | Niels Rouvrois Images| Creus Concrete Solutions
The largest mixing plant with skip in the world is located in Wielsbeke Belgium
From compact and large mixing plants to continuous mixing plants for stabilized sand and industrial waste: Creus Concrete Solutions profiles itself as a total specialist. And they like to take on the challenge. For example, at the beginning of this year, the Poperinge-based manufacturer delivered the world's largest planetary mixer with skip for prefab concrete producer CBS Beton, which can now produce 4.5 m³ of concrete per batch.
To accommodate the company's growth, CBS Beton was looking for a way to dramatically increase production capacity.
To accommodate the company's growth, CBS Beton - producer of precast concrete elements, retaining walls and silo walls, among other things - was looking for a way to dramatically increase its production capacity.
"As part of our growth, our existing mixing plant had become too small," says Simon Houtekier, operations director at CBS Beton. "We were constantly pouring concrete to meet demand, leaving little to no time for maintenance. Our maximum capacity was no longer sufficient."
Mixer with skip
In its search for an upgrade, CBS Beton quickly came to the established Creus Concrete Solutions. "We, as exclusive distributor of Eurostar, have a planetary mixer that can produce 4.5 m³ of concrete per batch," explains Stijn Defraeye of Creus Concrete Solutions.
"A big difference with the 2 m³ that the previous mixer of CBS Beton could handle. The production capacity is thus more than doubled and that is what a major player like CBS Beton also needs. It is certainly not the first time we have installed a mixer of this size, but it is the first time we have installed it with skip instead of conveyor belt."
The choice for skip over conveyor was mainly for practical reasons. Simon Houtekier: "For us it was important that the new installation could be realized within the existing infrastructure. In that respect, a belt conveyor was not an option due to lack of space." Stijn Defraeye confirms, "It was quite a challenge that we had to fit such a large mixer in the existing situation.
We placed a large new mixing platform in the existing hall, including a new weighing wagon. We modified the outlets of the bunkers to cope with larger flows. We optimally upgraded both the supply and the mixer, of course always with a focus on guaranteeing the production operation. Furthermore, we also installed an additional cement silo, which now brings the total to four 110 m³ silos."
Easy maintenance
Not only in terms of capacity, but also in terms of maintenance of the mixer, CBS Beton is taking a big step forward. Stijn Defraeye: "Everything is equipped with automatic cleaning heads. There are five cleaning heads in the mixer itself and an additional cleaning head on both outlets.
This greatly reduces the maintenance time at the end of the day. It may not be a very big adjustment, but the added value is certainly not to be underestimated. Creus Concrete Solutions continuously investigates how mixers can be made even more user- and maintenance friendly. Quality, continuity and easy maintenance are very important to our customers."
"Mixers do get dirty," Simon Houtekier continues. "Before, we regularly had to stop pouring to clean the mixer. That was necessary to avoid the mixer being too dirty to clean properly in the evening.
Now we enjoy an automatic cleaning cycle, both for the mixer itself and for the outlet pipes. And that is quite exceptional. Overall, this new installation is a great improvement for CBS Beton. The mixer has been active since January and has already broken all our records. We are therefore extremely pleased of our the investment and our cooperation with Creus Concrete Solutions." ■