Concrete Trucks

[N. Thornton]

Hi

What happens when a concrete truck gets stuck in traffic, or breaks down? How do they remove the result, dynamite??

Regards, NT

[sPoNiX]

afaik, they carry some sort of additive that they can add to the concrete that stops it setting.

sPoNiX

[John Schmitt]

The traditional approach is molasses or sugar. A surprisingly small amount prevents the set of cement, less than 0.1% on cement weight. If it is really a burning issue, I'll look up chapter and verse in Fry's.

John Schmitt

[The Natural Philosopher]

As long as the drum turns, it doesn't set.

Concrete doesn't even start to set for 4 -5 hours.

If you left it turning for 24 hours, you would just pour out a load of fairly powedery stuff that had set, but had been ground back to dust.

[T i m]

Have you ever make the mistake of buying your own mixer and lending it to a *mate* and it comes back looking like a chewed up toffee? This effect is created by *him* beating the solid concrete out of *your* mixed with *his* sledgehammer ... !

As my Dad used to say .. "Never a lender or borrower be .." and also

"If you lend something to someone, you have everything to loose and nothing to gain .." (mainly when I tried to borrow money)

Funnily he also said "when are you getting all your tools out of my garage" ..?

All the best ..

T i m

[IMM]

You gain friendship.

[Hywel]

If you're lending your cement mixer to someone you should already have that.

[Christian McArdle]

Quickly lost when you leave 100kg of concrete in it.

Christian.

[T i m]

LOL .. indeed! ;-)

>

[PoP]

Slightly different, but related.

A few years ago I was the support engineer for Esso Fawley (near Southampton). I got to know people really well over a period of time, and one day found myself in the section where they fill up the tanker lorries with bitumen (I think it was, but anyway it was something that sets into a solid lump).

There was picket action taking place at Dover at the time. The chap I was chatting to said that they had a number of tankers return to depot as a result. I asked why they didn't just sit on the motorway outside of Dover until the next boat sailed (silly question as it happened, but it seemed logical at the time).

He said that when the tankers leave Southampton the mixture is hot in the back of the tanker - but it cools down. If they haven't reached their destination to unload by the time the cooling has reached a particular point then the only way to unload the tanker is with a pickaxe.

So the tankers come back to base to be unloaded into a big kettle which keeps it hot until the next journey.

Unions, don't we just love 'em?

PoP

[Mark S.]

Easier still, take a few minutes to cut up any wood you rip out, make it into "sticks" and bag it up for a neighbour to burn, they love me. ;-)

Mark S.

[IMM]

Can't do without em.

[Toby]

The chocolate for the fancy (well they sell 'em in Harrods) chocolatiers on our industrial estate turns up in tankers. They have heaters in them to keep it liquid so it will pump, maybe technology has moved on a bit.

They've got a pumped chocolate ring main in the factory, extended power cuts really piss them off.

[Owain]

"Toby" wrote | They've got a pumped chocolate ring main in the factory,

I bet it doesn't aerate the chocolate as well as a waterfall though, even if an open chocolate river does contravene the hygiene regulations these days.

Owain

[T i m]

Ha, they'll have to close Willy Wonka down then?

T i m

[Rick Dipper]

I need a huge pile of concrete at my place which has poor access so I spent a day on this subject.

The BIG COMPANY told me they can mix it with addertives to give 3 hours from batching to being in the correct position.

The ONE MAN OPERATOR told me it can be in the truck all day and as long as its turing you will get 30-60 minuites from when it comes out.

So it soulds like its all about keeping it turing.

More of a worry is if you have a 4 truck poor, and the 4th one does not arrive, what do you do with the other 30 tonnes of the stuff ?

Rick