A concrete mixer is an instrument that serves as the heart and core of modern day cement mixing operations, continuously churning cement, sand or gravel, and water to form concrete. All modern day infrastructure such as houses, buildings, complexes, wells and many other structures require concrete, which is used as a binding material and is produced by mixing the raw material inside the mixer. The mixer consists of a revolving drum in which the cement is mixed along with the sand, gravel and water to form a cement slurry.
Most cement mixers can either be stationary and fixed or on-site and movable allowing for greater mobility across distances and on-site mixing. The volume of cement mix produced in these kind of mixers may vary from 0.75 m3 for smaller batches up to 9 m3.Movable concrete mixers mix concrete usually on the way to the construction site. The concrete is continuously mixed inside the truck so that the cement is in a liquid state and this is done by either rolling the drum or agitating it. A spiral blade is also present in the drum which allows for the mixing of the slurry or the unloading of it. These trucks can usually carry up to 18000 KG of concrete usually with the most common truck capacity being 6.1 m3. The weight of these trucks can usually be anywhere from up to 9000 KG to 13,600 KG.Most concrete mixers stay near to their plants as the slurry can start setting in quite fast.
There are many smaller mixers also available for some smaller residential purposes which do not require cubic metres of cement when bags of cement along with sand and water can do the job. Such mixers are very common throughout the African, Middle-eastern and Indian subcontinents. The capacity of such small and portable concrete mixers varies accordingly upon price and may range anywhere from 200 KG to 700 KG.These mixers may be powered by gasoline engines but usage of an electric motor is much more common which is connected to a standard mains. Self-loading concrete mixers are designed to batch, mix and transport concrete. These types of mixers are particularly useful I places where there is a shortage of manual labour or mixer trucks are not suited to the job.
Concrete mixer market shows positive growth in future. In India there are many organizations operating which make concrete mixers such as L&T concrete mixer, Triton valves, Jaypee India limited, Volvo concrete mixer, ACE concrete mixer and many more. As the pandemic moves on, along with the increase in demand in the infrastructure sector there is an expected increase in the demand of cement mixers as well.
