The Conco Companies have an impressive fleet of modern, state-of-the-art concrete pumps in addition to Telebelts. We use this equipment to help us complete projects faster and more efficiently for our customers.
One of our more recent additions to our fleet is a couple of Telebelt® TB 105 Telescopic Belt Conveyors that are available from our Southern California and Washington State locations. The Telebelt is a versatile tool that can be used to convey a wide variety of materials ranging from sand all the way to 4-inch rock. It has an operating capacity of up to 360 cubic yards per hour and provides a cost-effective alternative to transporting materials with a crane and skid-steer. The belt conveyors can eliminate the labor-intensive process of having to re-handle the material and are ideal in congested jobsites with uneven, muddy ground. They can also be the solution in areas with low clearances or a tight access point as well as a job that requires material to be deposited below grade. Conco uses our Telebelts to assist with mat pours, large foundations and footings, and backfill. The 105 Telescopic Belt Conveyors come with a variety of hopper options and have a horizontal reach of 105 ft. and an 18” conveyor belt width. They can handle concrete from 0” to 12” slumps and can be setup and operated under heights as low as 16 ft. In addition to transporting concrete, the belt conveyors are used to transport rock, gravel, backfill and other materials. Our Telebelt® TB 110 offers many of the same benefits as the 105 Telescopic Belt Conveyors but with a capability of 5 cubic yards per minute. It too has an easy setup even in congested areas or rough terrain. Please visit our website for more information and specifications on our Telescope Belt Conveyors along with our concrete pumps. The Conco Companies are one of the foremost suppliers of concrete services for the Western U.S. We got our start in 1959 in the Bay Area by offering clients the best value on a broad range of concrete services and products. Since that time, we have taken a leading role as top concrete contractors in the region. We have four regional offices serving California, Oregon, Nevada, Colorado and Washington.
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An interesting report from the Portland Cement Association (PCA) illustrates the various uses for portland cement as it is one of the key ingredients in concrete. They suggest that while concrete is very important to the way we live, and in fact surrounds us, it is often overlooked. They explain that concrete “makes our homes and offices durable and more resilient in natural disasters, it makes our roads and bridges strong and last longer, and thanks to its permanence and energy efficiency, it helps sustain our environment.”
From their illustration, the PCA’s breakdown of how concrete is used includes 8.4% on water and waste systems, 8.9% for industrial and commercial buildings, 27.5% on one-and-two family houses, and 30.8% on the construction of highways, streets and bridges. The other 22.1% is used to build offices, hotels, hospitals, religious institutions, educational institutions and public utilities. Concrete is a mixture of cement paste (cement and water) and coarse and/or fine aggregate. Almost all modern cement is portland cement, which was patented in 1824 by the Englishman, Joseph Aspdin, who named it for its similarity to a building stone quarried on the Isle of Portland. The PCA also describes the various components of concrete as containing 7 to 15% cement, 14 to 21% water, 60 to 75% of aggregate and as much as 8% of air. At The Conco Companies, we have been involved in a wide range of projects from towering skyscrapers, to mixed-use high-rises, hospitals, educational, public utilities and parking structure projects. Conco Pumping is one of the largest pumping and belting companies in the United States and has a reputation for delivering first-class concrete pumping services since 1975. At Conco Reinforcing, we own and operate two state-of-the-art facilities that give us the resources to be a single source for all your rebar fabrication and installation needs regardless of the project size. Please visit our website to learn more about the various concrete services offered by Conco. Conco is one of the leading concrete contractors in the Western U.S. and offer a wide range of quality services and products. Our experience includes providing services for commercial, educational, parking and other construction development as well as public works projects. We serve California, Washington State, Oregon, Colorado and Nevada. Source: cement.org/civilization At The Conco Companies, we have a long history of adopting the latest concrete technologies as well as purchasing the latest state-of-the-art equipment to provide our customers with the best range of options for their project. One of the types of pumps that we find are very beneficial in projects with challenging placement specifications is our articulating boom pumps.
Also known as roll-and-fold or Z-fold, articulating boom pumps are available in four-section multi-Z booms or five-section Z-Fold booms and provide us with lots of versatility and a large working range. The pump is it a good choice for hard-to-reach areas or when you need the ease of their maneuverability. In addition to providing a good vertical reach, articulating booms are very easy to transport as they fold into a compact size. At all of our pumping locations, we have a Putzmeister 28Z, which is the perfect example of the versatility of a four-section Multi-Z boom. Its compact size and great flexibility makes it a great choice for congested job sites. Features include the smallest front outrigger footprint of all models in its class, a smooth concrete flow, and a vertical reach of 89 feet 7 inches. Also since the 28Z does not need a large vertical clearance to unfold, it can be set up and used inside of a building. The versatility of the multi-Z’s configuration does not require the boom to be fully extended in order to pump; and as the longer, straighter pipe allows for a less stressful concrete flow, it can result in better wear on parts. The Putzmeister 28Z is also adaptable to a variety of material. Please visit our website to see our full list of concrete pumps and Telebelts that are available at each of our Southern California, Northern California and Washington State locations. The Conco Companies are a leading supplier of concrete services for the Western U.S. and got our start in the Bay Area in 1959 by offering clients the best value on a wide range of concrete services and products. Since that time, we have taken a leading role as one of the top concrete contractors in the region. We currently serve California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Colorado. The strength of concrete can be increased by a number of methods including using a higher grade of cement or a mineral admixture such as ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS). It can also be strengthened by using a low water to cement ratio (W/C) as well as by using well-graded angular aggregates.
Adding more cement to the mix or reducing the ratio of water to cement in the cement paste are two of the easiest ways to strengthen concrete. “Every desirable physical property that you can measure will be adversely affected by adding more water,” so explains the Portland Cement Association. The strength of concrete is also influenced by the quality of raw materials, the ratio of coarse/fine aggregate, temperature, relative humidity, compaction of concrete and the curing process. The quality of the aggregate is recognized by the size, shape, texture and strength of the material and the coarse/fine aggregate ratio will determine the amount of water that is needed. When the amount of fine aggregate is increased in relation to the coarse aggregate, the aggregate surface increases and demands more water. This means the water/cement ratio is increased, which decreases the compressive strength of the concrete. The cement used in the mix should be stored under dry conditions and be manufactured using the most appropriate standards. Even the purity of the water used in the mix can have an effect on the strength of the concrete. Another factor that impacts strength is the compaction of concrete because if there is poor compaction of the plastic concrete; air is entrapped and reduces the strength of the concrete. If concrete contains 10% trapped air, it is estimated that the strength of the concrete can be affected by as much as 30 to 40%. Furthermore, to allow concrete to reach its maximum strength, concrete contractors take into account the air temperature, relative humidity and wind speeds at the time the concrete is poured and in the early curing period. Higher temperatures allow concrete to gain strength more quickly but the final strength is actually lower when hydration occurs at too fast of pace. It also sets up the danger of shrinkage and cracking. Newly placed concrete may be periodically ponded, sprayed, or misted with water or a membrane-forming curing compound or covered with curing sheets. At The Conco Companies, we are one of the leading concrete contractors in the Western U.S. and offer a wide range of quality services and products. Our experience includes providing services for commercial, educational, parking and other construction development as well as public works projects. We serve California, Washington State, Oregon, Colorado and Nevada. Sources: quora.com/What-are-some-ways-to-increase-the-strength-of-a-concrete cement.org/for-concrete-books-learning/concrete-technology/faqs theconstructor.org/concrete/factors-affecting-strength-of-concrete/6220/ While there are many applications in which lightweight concrete is the most appropriate choice so are there as many that require heavyweight concrete. Lightweight structural concrete is made using lightweight coarse aggregate and/or lightweight fine aggregate. It typically has a density of approximately 105 pounds per cubic foot as compared to that of normal concrete mixes that have a density of 150 pounds per cubic foot. A common use for lightweight concrete is to reduce the overall load or weight of an entire concrete structure such as on bridge decks, beams, slabs and walls of concrete structures.
Heavy natural aggregates or manufactured aggregates such as iron or lead shot are used to manufacture heavy concrete and offers a density in the range of 270 pounds per cubic foot. There are a number of applications where heavyweight concrete is used including underground garages, as counterweights, radiation shielding in medical or nuclear facilities, and offshore for ballasting in pipelines. Recently another reason for using heavyweight concrete is being implemented by the Crossrail track slab construction project in London, UK. The contractors are using a dense, heavyweight concrete as a sound barrier and to mitigate vibrations across a certain part of the track slab that runs underneath a business section near the Bond Street station. This particular section of track includes several recording studios that rest above it that do not wish to have any sound interfere with their work. The concrete mixture took 12 months to develop and included laboratory and plant trials. The end product contains “MagnaDense, which is an aggregate that is around twice as dense as normal aggregate.” Develop by LKAB Minerals, the natural aggregate is “manufactured from the iron oxide Magnetiteis and is formed of black ferrimagnetic natural iron oxide (Magnetite).” The Conco Companies’ mission is to be the best supplier of concrete services in the Western United States and to bring expertise, experience and quality to each project. We continue to upgrade and expand facilities to better serve the growing market for public works projects, commercial, parking structures, educational, and other construction development. Sources: giatecscientific.com/knowledge-center/concrete-news/heavyweight-concrete-to-minimize-sounds-and-vibrations/ everything-about-concrete.com/lightweight-concrete.html Cement is the key ingredient in concrete, and as the Portland Cement Association (PCA) explains, portland cement is “the generic term for the type of cement used in virtually all concrete, just as stainless is a type of steel and sterling a type of silver.” To manufacture cement, lime, silica, alumina, iron and other materials are heated to extremely high temperatures that create marble-size balls or nodules called clinker. Next the clinker is ground up and mixed in with limestone and gypsum.
The production of cement accounts for 5 percent of manmade carbon dioxide emissions but the PCA reports that since the 1990s, the US cement industry has been “committed to minimizing emissions, waste, energy consumption, and the use of virgin raw materials. In addition concrete is a very durable product that is used to produce sustainable infrastructure that is resistant to damage from natural disasters and fire. Concrete structures are also more energy-efficient to heat and cool and concrete pavement has been shown to provide better fuel economy. The PCA cites the fact that the US cement industry employs nearly 13,800 workers and has an annual payroll of approximately $959 million. When concrete-related industries are included, the number of employees rises to 490,691 and the annual payroll is $22.5 billion. In California, The Conco Companies home base, the cement industry contributes $36.6 million to the state revenue and together the cement and concrete-related industries contribute $5.4 billion. Altogether there are 90 cement plants located in 33 states and every state in the continental US has distribution facilities. In California there are 10 plants and 11 terminals. In Washington State, another place where we provide concrete services, there are three plants and nine terminals. Please visit Conco’s website to learn about our concrete services and to get a look at many of our recent projects. The Conco Companies are a leading supplier of concrete services throughout the Western U.S. We got our start in the Bay Area in 1959 by offering clients the best value on a wide range of concrete services and products and are now one of the foremost concrete contractors in the region. Our concrete services include commercial, educational, industrial and public works projects as well as parking structures. Source:cement.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/calif-statefacsht1_15-d2.pdf?sfvrsn=0 Most material, including concrete, shrinks as it dries. The Portland Cement Association (PCA) points out that the most common amount of shrinkage is about 1/16 of an inch in a 10-foot length of concrete. To alleviate the problem, joints are placed in concrete pavement and floors “to allow the concrete to crack in a neat, straight line at the joint, where concrete cracks due to shrinkage are expected to occur.” Likewise expansion joints are placed in bridges, concrete walls and other structures to allow for shrinkage and to control cracking.
To help move and place concrete efficiently, concrete specialists add more water to the mix than what is strictly necessary to hydrate the cement materials. Once the concrete is placed, the excess water begins to separate from the hardening concrete, which results in a loss of volume that causes the concrete to shrink. As the concrete’s reinforcement or base friction works to restrain it, the tensile stresses in the slab cause the cracks. Since shrinking is one of the inherent properties of concrete, it is impossible to totally eliminate cracking but it can be controlled. This is the job of concrete contractors and engineers who strive to understand and address the volume change that takes place in the concrete in order to reduce the amount of shrinkage. The PCA explains that, “The shortening of concrete slabs can be caused by temperature decreases or moisture loss. These two causes are also related to curling and warping of slabs, respectively. Curling is the deformation of the slab due to a difference in temperature between the surface and the bottom of the slab (temperature gradient). Slab “warping” is the deformation of the slab surface profile due to a difference in moisture between the surface and bottom of the slab (moisture gradient),” To help solve the shrinkage problem, contractors take care to use the proper concrete mix design that will require the least amount of water as well as use the largest size of aggregate appropriate to the job. Contractors especially watch for fluctuating temperatures during the first 24 hours after the concrete is placed. The Conco Companies are a leading supplier of concrete services for the Western U.S. and got our start in the Bay Area in 1959 by offering clients the best value on a wide range of concrete services and products. Since that time, we have taken a leading role as one of the top concrete contractors in the region. Our offices serve California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Nevada. Sources: concretenetwork.com/concrete/concrete_cracks/preventing_concrete_cracks.htm cement.org/cement-concrete-applications/cement-and-concrete-basics-faqs/lists/technical-information/concrete-cracking Over the last several decades, technological advancements in the concrete industry have led to improvements in both the strength of concrete as well as the longevity. In fact, experts predict that concrete mixes of today can produce concrete that will last for hundreds of years rather than just decades of concrete structures from the 20th century. Along with the superior performance, concrete has also become “greener” to produce.
With new materials being used in the production process, changes in the mixture’s proportions, and increased recycling efforts, concrete’s environmental impact has been reduced and durability improved. AggregateResearch.com states that, “new concretes have better corrosion resistance, equal or higher compressive and tensile strengths, higher fire resistance, and rapid curing and strength gain. In addition, the production and life cycle of these new concretes will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 90%.” High Performance Concrete (HPC), Ultra-High Performance Concrete (UHPC), and geopolymer concrete are new types of concrete mixtures that offer several advantages over traditional concrete with few disadvantages. For example HPC and UHPC are produced using industrial waste by-products such as fly ash, blast furnace slag, and silica fume. The addition of these by-products reduces the amount of portland cement required in the mix, which in turn, cuts down on the amount of carbon dioxide emitted during the production of the cement. Also there are an abundance of the by-products and are typically less expensive than portland cement. Other advancements in the industry include producing fiber reinforced concrete, which is premixed with dry components to create higher tensile and flexural strengths than found in standard concrete. Fiber reinforcement can be done with steel fibers, glass fibers, synthetic fibers and natural fibers and is less expensive than hand tied rebar. The Conco Companies are a leading supplier of concrete services for the Western U.S. and got our start in the Bay Area in 1959 by offering clients the best value on a wide range of concrete services and products. Since that time, we have taken a leading role as one of the top concrete contractors in the region. Our offices serve California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Nevada. Sources:aggregateresearch.com/articles/19247/Advances-in-new-concrete-technology.aspx Portland cement is the most common type of cement and typically originates from limestone. It is the key ingredient in concrete, mortar and stucco and used throughout the world. When added to concrete, it is the paste that binds the aggregate (consisting of gravel and sand) with the water.
Defined as hydraulic cement (cement that not only hardens by reacting with water but also forms a water-resistant product), it is “produced by pulverizing clinkers consisting of essentially hydraulic calcium silicates, usually containing one or more of the forms of calcium sulfate as an inter ground addition.” The concrete mix’s strength depends on the reaction of the calcium silicates with the water. The Portland Cement Association explains that, “Cement is manufactured through a closely controlled chemical combination of calcium, silicon, aluminum, iron and other ingredients.” To produce portland cement, raw materials such as limestone, shell, or chalk are combined with clay, silica sand, shale, bauxite, fly ash, slag and iron. This mixture is heated in huge cement kilns at temperatures as high as 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit. A dark grey nodular about the size of a marble called a clinker is produced from the extreme heat and is ground into a fine powder to make the cement. Once it has cooled, a small amount of gypsum may also be added to control the setting process. Portland cement is thought to be the invention of Joseph Aspdin, a bricklayer from England, and named for its similarity to a common building stone found on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England. Aspdin experiments were conducted in his kitchen stove where he fired ground limestone and clay together to create the first artificial cement. His new cement was a much stronger material than the standard unfired crushed limestone used during that period of time. Conco’s mission is to be the best supplier of concrete services in the Western United States and to bring expertise, experience and quality to each project. We continue to upgrade and expand facilities to better serve the growing market for public works projects, commercial, parking structures, educational, and other construction development. Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_cement, cement.org/cement-concrete-basics/how-cement-is-made As one of the nation’s leading commercial concrete contractors, The Conco Companies have undertaken many challenging jobs placing concrete over our nearly 60 years in the industry. We attributed our success to our seasoned team of professional engineers, managers, pump operators, and finishing crews as well as to our large fleet of state-of-the-art concrete pumps.
We know that many projects Conco has been a part of, and in fact a large majority of structures built since WWII, would not have been possible without the use of concrete pumps. Before pumps, cranes were used to lift large buckets known as skips to move the concrete where it was needed. Since a bucket could only hold around 2 cubic yards of concrete, it was a time-consuming, labor-intensive job. Although records indicate that the first patent for a concrete pump was applied for in 1913 by C. A. Cornell and S. A. McKee, they did not do much with it. After unsuccessfully attempting to lift concrete to the top of a German war memorial in 1927, engineer Fritz Hell began working on a pump that would handle that type of job. By 1930, the Rexnord Company in Milwaukee, WI introduced the Pumpcrete, invented by C. W. LeValley. Following WWII, Germans and other Europeans made a number of innovations to the pump’s design in order to meet the demand for more sophisticated equipment during the reconstruction period. The first hydraulic pump was developed by the Torket Company of Germany in the 1950s and operated with water. The EverythingaboutEquipment website explains that by 1957, “the Schwing Company manufactured a fully hydraulic double-cylinder pump that used an oil-operated ram with a water-flushed cylinder.” During the 1980s and 90s, many of the largest manufacturers of concrete pumps were either German or Japanese. The Conco Companies are a leading supplier of concrete services for the Western U.S. We got our start in the Bay Area in 1959 by offering clients the best value on a wide range of concrete services and products. Since that time, we have taken a leading role as one of the top concrete contractors in the region. We have four regional offices serving California, Nevada, Washington, Oregon and Colorado. Sources: ritchiewiki.com/wiki/index.php/Concrete_Pump concretepumping.com/dictionary/index.php/The_PumpCrete_by_Rexnord_or_Chain_Belt_is_believed_to_be_the_worlds_first_Concrete_Pump_1930 |
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