1958-2008: Putzmeister Celebrates 50 YearsWith growth above average for many years, consolidated sales of over EUR1 billion and 3,900 employees, Putzmeister is today one of the most successful and innovative German construction machinery manufacturers.The company founded 50 years ago in 1958 is today, with over 20 subsidiaries worldwide, one of the leading providers of concrete pumps and booms, mortar pumps and screed conveyors as well as pump and silo systems for industrial high density solids. Putzmeister's range of products is rounded off with mobile conveyor belt systems and high pressure cleaners for professional operators. Customer supportFrom the outset, the founder of Putzmeister, Karl Schlecht, stuck to the importance of contact with the customer, which does not end upon delivery of the machine, but also has to be maintained in the period following delivery. Caring about customers and their problems meant Putzmeister was in a position to detect weak points in the design (if relevant) at an early stage and thereby optimise PM machines promptly. Closeness to the customers required a dense sales and service network. Putzmeister began establishing its own branches in Germany as early as the 1960s. From the 1970s, international subsidiaries were also opened in Italy, the UK, France, Spain, Brazil and South Africa, and later also in the USA, China, Korea, Japan, Russia, India and Turkey. In addition, a well trained organization of around 300 dealers and service support points supported PM sales at home and abroad.Concrete and high density solids pumpsPutzmeister extended its range of products with the development of concrete pumps in the 1960s. With the concept of a hydro-hydraulically driven two-cylinder piston pump combined with the flapper system (1969), Putzmeister stirred things up for the established manufacturers. This was followed in 1971 by the invention of a compression-proof transfer tube in connection with concrete pumps driven by hydraulic fluid.Since 1977, Putzmeister has used its know-how in pumping technology to convey other materials than mortar and concrete. Initially series-produced concrete pumps were used to transport sludge or to transport earth excavated during tunnelling works up to ground level. But Putzmeister soon developed the machines further into powerful pumping systems for transporting high density solids. The systems - depending on the conveyed medium - could be combined with special supply and metering devices, mixers, silos or discharge equipment.Typical fields of application for Putzmeister high density solids pumps include mining and sewage treatment plants as well as waste, bio-waste and special waste disposal plants. But Putzmeister high density solids pumps also undertake various delivery jobs in the cement industry, power plants, the oil and gas industries, in water treatment and for land reclamation along the coast. Their pump output is up to 500 cu m/h.Whether in construction above or below ground, on small, private construction sites or for large projects, Putzmeister pumps have been used for decades to apply plastering mortar to outer and inner walls, to pump floor screed and to place concrete accurately in formworks. To enable flexible use, Putzmeister has a wide range of truck-mounted concrete pumps, which can be combined with flexible booms. These machines are designed for pump outputs of up to 200 cu m/h. Shotcrete machines for tunnel constructionIn the early 1990s, Induresa engineers and applications specialists began to press ahead intensively with the development of a modern shotcrete machine. Induresa Putzmeister then presented in 1994 the first shotcrete manipulator it had developed itself, named Wetkret.The extremely robust design, easy usability and its numerous sensible details meant the Wetkret found over 60 customers at home and abroad in less than five years of production. Since then, the complete development and production of the Putzmeister shotcrete machines for the world market is carried out at the Putzmeister Ibérica. In addition, to relieve production in Aichtal, Germany, the experienced manufacturing plant in Madrid takes over the assembly of certain truck-mounted concrete pumps and trailer concrete pumps for the Spanish market too, the components for which are supplied from Germany. Click here and here. Visit www.putzmeister.esFollowing the success of the transfer tube designs for pumping concrete, Putzmeister also attempted to use this technology in the mining and tunnelling industries. These steps helped the diversification of the company. Dual-arm "spray buffalo" during tunnelling work for Deutsche Bahn's high speed rail sections In Japan, during the construction of the subway, Putzmeister pumps soon not only pumped concrete in the tunnel, but also the excavated material from tunnelling out of the tunnel to the surface. The removal of the ground material from the site - this was fine, compact sludge from sedimentation, so-called "sea silt" - was seen in Japan as particularly dirty work. Through the use of the Putzmeister concrete pumps, the excavated material was handled completely differently. However, the material was conveyed directly from the tunnelling machine to the pump and transported through a pipeline to the surface. The huge breakthrough in the conveying of excavated material using pumps was then achieved in 1988 during the tunnelling of the Channel tunnel under the English Channel.Pioneer on the Channel tunnelPutzmeister technology made a significant contribution to the construction of the 50 km Channel tunnel. Between 1988 and 1994, 15,000 workers ensured that the EUR15 billion tunnel project was pushed forward and completed. Putzmeister know-how played a decisive role in boring and securing the three tunnel tubes laid on average 40 metres under the seabed.Putzmeister presented two solutions that were given a lot of attention in the industry: the first was a particularly powerful high density solids pump, which delivered vast quantities of excavation material from the tunnels to a dumpsite. The second was a computer-aided injection and filling system, with which the ring between the extrados and the surrounding rock mass - accurately metered - was concreted with special two-component mortar. Putzmeister supplied three ultramodern mortar injection and backfilling systems, with which the excavation void between the lining segment ring and the surrounding rock mass was concreted using special two-component mortar. In order to be able to produce and inject the exact quantity of quick setting mortar mixture on site each time, Putzmeister had installed the plant in the rear carriages of the tunnelling machines.The components pumped in from outside were metered and intensively mixed by fluidised mixers. Putzmeister injection pumps completely filled the gap around the concrete lining segment with this material. It was important during this work that Putzmeister controls automatically adjusted the injection pressure to the ambient pressure.Since work continued at the Channel tunnel construction sites seven days a week and around the clock, the site managers also expected a correspondingly high level of reliability from Putzmeister technology.Putzmeister installed a mighty pumping facility which on the French side below the station for breaking and mixing the excavated tunnel material. The facility consisted, among other things, of eight large volume high density solids pumps, which together were designed for delivery rates of 1,200 cu m/h. The facility pumped the coarse-grained chalk pulp with embedded flint over a distance of 1.8 km to a landfill site, where the material hardened in a relatively short time to form stable ground.Similar models of Putzmeister high density solids pumps had been used shortly before on the underground metro in Lille, where comparable ground conditions prevailed. On previous attempts, it had already been shown that the flushing that had been originally planned using large amounts of water was not practical for excavated chalk. Visit www.putzmeister.de/pm_online/data/PM_4062_GB_Post_74_web.pdf 23/08.