2005 - Putzmeister

Title Story14 new booms for a major project1918With 34 mixing plants, numerous stationarybooms and approximately 40 concretepumps, READY MIX BETON (RMB) isone of the largest concrete manufacturersand pump service companies in theUnited Arab Emirates. RMB also has subsidiariesin Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.On the Jumeirah Beach Residences sitealone, RMB uses 14 Putzmeister stationarybooms and three BSA concrete pumps.Osman H. Ghandour founded the group ofcompanies in 1975 in the UAE capital, AbuDhabi. RMB acquired its first concretepumps from the American manufacturerTHOMSEN, later taken over byPutzmeister in the 1980s.One of the mobile RMB mixing plants iscurrently operating on the huge constructionsite of the Jumeirah Beach Residences.The plant runs 24 hours a day and produces100,000 m 3 of concrete every month. It wasoriginally only intended to produce concretehere for a few months. However, the hugedemand for concrete for this project –a total of 22 of the 40 Jumeirah BeachResidences high-rise apartments were suppliedfrom here as well as several constructionsites on Palm Island – has considerablyincreased the originally-planned number ofoperating hours.The READY MIX BETON mixing planton the Jumeirah Beach Residences siteincludes a fleet of 35 truck mixers and7 concrete pumps, including 3 stationaryhigh-pressure pumps BSA 2110 HP-D andBSA 2109 H-D. The Putzmeister pumpsplay an important role in supplying concretefor the stationary booms to the upperlevels. Concrete in pressure strength classC60/75 is handled here and pumped up tothe height of 55 floors. The aggregates consistof broken material and the w/c value of0.35 to 0.37 is low in comparison.Concrete additives, e.g. set retardingadmixtures and deflocculants are added.All over the huge area of the constructionsite, RMB employees convert the highpressureconcrete pumps as required andconnect the machines to the various risersfor the individual high-rise towers. In 2004alone, RMB commissioned 14 newPutzmeister MX 28 and MX 32 stationarybooms for this project.During the summer months in particular,employees on the construction sites makesure that the temperature of the concreteduring delivery and the heat of hydrationafter placement in the formwork are keptunder controlled conditions. This is not aneasy task when the thermometer is reading50 °C in the shade! Manufacturers concernedabout quality, such as READY MIXBETON, therefore store the aggregatesunder cover.Before filling the truck mixer, flakes of ice(100 to 120 kg/m 3 ) are often added to theconcrete batches. The concrete can thereforebe kept ”cool“ at around 25 to 30 °Cuntil arrival at the construction site.Tight deadlines, limited capacity andnecessary maintenance workdetermine the daily routineWael Chahal is responsible for the permanentavailability of the mixing plants, truckmixers, concrete pumps, delivery lines andstationary booms on the Jumeirah BeachResidences RMB site. As maintenancemanager, he must often achieve the impossibleand fulfil contrary requirements.Wael Chahal: ”We are permanently workinghere in areas of conflict between thetight deadlines, as specified by the constructioncompanies, the capacity restrictionsof concrete production and thedemands of the workshop. Some want asmuch concrete as possible – immediately,others can barely meet production demandsand our workshop insists that the mostimportant maintenance work as a minimumis carried out on the machines before theyare sent back to the construction site. Butsomehow we always manage it!“By early summer of 2005 at the absolutelatest, READY MIX BETON will clear thebusy Jumeirah Beach Residences site. Thearea is urgently required – space must bemade for further high-rise towers.The skyscrapers shoot up at a breathtaking speed, as in the Jumeirah Beach Residences project shown here.The Putzmeister stationary MX boom climbs upwards with the formwork in the heart of the building.20Efforts are made to get out of the blazing sun whentransferring the concrete into the pumps8PM 3652 GB9PM 3652 GB