In the past, pouring concrete on a construction site meant a labor-intensive affair: heavy buckets would be lifted into the air and poured. The modern concrete pump is a much faster, more efficient way to move concrete to the location where it’s needed.
Often, concrete pumps are used on slab building foundations, in-ground swimming pools, and patios and garden shed foundations. They’re particularly useful on projects where the work needs to be done quickly and with minimal disruption to the surrounding area.
Hydraulic Pumps
Hydraulic pumps are important in concrete pump oxford because they push and pull liquid concrete from the hopper to the delivery system. This process saves time and money by cutting down on the amount of time it takes to haul buckets of concrete up to the pour site.
A pump is comprised of a motor or cylinder that moves fluid, a tank that stores the liquid, and a control device that directs the pump, cylinder, and tank to do what they need to do at the appropriate times. If you’re not familiar with hydraulics, hydraulics systems, and its components such as hydraulic couplers, it may be confusing to learn how these components work together.
Typically, pumps have a set of electrical controls that signal the pump to move a spool or control valve in one direction or the other. This process is known as automatic cycling, and it’s how a hydraulic pump works.
The spool or valve is moved in the direction that it was sent to be moved and when the movement is complete, an electrical signal goes to a solenoid that sends a spool over in a different direction so that the pump will cycle backward again. This is a quick way to get the pump back in operation in case you loose power and need to start over again.
Some pumps also have a sensor or solenoid that sends the spool over again when the pump cycle is interrupted by electrical problems, and these devices are used to help keep the pump from stalling out until help arrives. This helps the contractor stay on schedule and saves on labor costs, as it’s much easier to restart a cycle than to repair a pump that won’t start up again.
There are many different types of pumps that use different control systems. Knowing how these systems work and what they do will make it easier for you to find what’s wrong with your pump and help you fix it faster.
Typically, a hydraulic pump is controlled by a proximity sensor or other device that sends an electrical signal to a logic controller that controls the alternating action of hydraulic cylinders linked together by a s-tube design valve system. This circuit alternates between a material cylinder and two drive cylinders that retract when they are full of concrete, then extend in synchronized action when the material cylinder is ready to be extended again.
When the material cylinder is ready to be extended, an electrical signal is generated by the proximity sensor and sent to the logic controller, which then energizes the coils of the main directional pilot valve as well as those of the s-tube directional valves. When the S-tube directional valve reaches this position, it shifts to a fully loaded material cylinder and then changes direction, causing the concrete piston of the retracted cylinder to push the load into the S-tube.
The s-tube then carries the loaded material to the outlet and delivers it into the delivery line. Eventually, the s-tube will come to rest in the delivery line, and then it will be ready to extend again when the concrete cylinders are full of the next batch.
