The Different Types of Concrete Pumps

What are concrete pumps?

Concrete pumps are tools used for transferring freshly mixed liquid concrete to the location where it is needed on a construction site. Concrete pumps are common fixtures on building sites today because they increase the efficiency of building projects, especially in terms of building high-rises. Before concrete pumps, contractors had to get buckets of concrete lifted by cranes and now it’s possible to pump concrete up to the highest floors.

How It Works

A concrete pump works by using a valve system and the basic principles of hydraulics. After a mixing truck pours liquid concrete into a hopper, the concrete pump sucks the liquid concrete through a valve system and into the area where it needs to be laid down. Most concrete pumps will also have a twin-cylinder hydraulic, which consists of two parallel cylinders. The first cylinder is known as a material cylinder. It pulls concrete out of the hopper. The second one is the discharge cylinder, which pushes concrete out of the pump.

Different Types of Concrete Pumps

Mobile Pumps

This pump consists of a concrete pump and a placing boom that is mounted on a truck chassis. The advantage of using this pump is that the booms can vary in size, which means that concrete can be pumped quickly to any location within the boom range.

Stationary Pumps

This pump is mounted on a trailer and concrete is delivered to the location through a separate pipeline attached to the trailer. For precision in placing the concrete, the pipe is then attached to a placing boom.

Truck Mounted Static Pump

A static or stationary pump is mounted onto a truck bed, but it doesn't have placing booms, which means that workers will have to use separate placing hoses to get the concrete to the appropriate area. These are perfect for quick jobs since they can also drive them directly to building sites.

Truck Mixer Concrete Pump

This is an all-in-one model that has a concrete mixer with a pump attached to it. This way, both mobile and static pumps will have a large hopper to get concrete.