Concrete Mixer Truck

A concrete mixer truck is also known as an in transit mixer, and it is used to mix and transport concrete from a plant or factory to a construction site. It canbe charged with water and dry materials, and the mixing of the concrete occurs while it is being transported, but sometimes it is loaded with ready-mix concrete. The second option involves the concrete already being mixed and then being loaded onto the concrete mixer truck.

A concrete mixer truck keeps the concrete in its liquid state through turning of the drum, also called agitation, until delivery. Usually, the drum is made out of steel but more modern trucks use fiberglass drums so as to reduce the weight of the truck. The inside of the drum on a concrete mixer truck has a spiral blade, which continually pushes the concrete deeper into the drum in one direction. This is called charging the mixer.

When the drum turns in the opposite direction, it is called discharging the mixer. This pushes the concrete out of the drum and into the chutes that guide the thick concrete directly onto the site that requires it. If the chutes or the concrete mixer truck cannot get right to the site where the concrete is required, the concrete goes through a pump connected to a hose, or a conveyor belt that is extended to the site.

Some concrete mixer trucks are rear discharge trucks, which mean they need both a driver and a chuteman. The chuteman is needed to guide the chute to the areas where the concrete needs to be placed, as directed by the contractor. More modern trucks are made to be front discharge ones, where there are controls inside the truck so that the driver himself can move the chute to all the areas where the concrete has to be discharged.

Usually, a concrete mixer truck will not travel too far from the plant or factory. This is because the concrete starts to harden and set up as soon as it is loaded into the drum of the truck. Most contractors, as a result, ask that the concrete only be transported in this manner if it can be transported to the site ninety minutes after it is loaded into the truck. At instances where there is a traffic jam, or where the truck breaks down, the concrete will harden and workers will have to use jackhammers or dynamite to break up the concrete in the concrete mixer truck.

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