Building A Batching Plant

Earlier in the year we sold our first Stetter Batching Plant in the UK to Total Concrete in Woking. To help document the occasion we set up a time-lapse camera on site for three months. What was interesting to see so clearly was the main visible work of erecting the plant itself only took a week. Much more time was spend before hand on preparation and ground work, and then afterwards on connecting, testing etc.

The plant produced it's first commercial batch in May and is continuing to function well (as you'd expect), and the guys at Total are really happy with the quality and service provided by Schwing Stetter UK. Everyone happy!

A Day in the Life (of an S20)

A few months back I was invited by James Harding at Hardcrete to take some video footage of a day's pour in Chorleywood. They had recently bought a new Schwing S20 mobile pump and were happy to allow me to film for the day while they poured the 150 cubic metre concrete foundation for a new home.


We particularly wanted to show the main feature of the new S20 in that it could set up without extending outriggers beyond the edge of the vehicle itself, demonstrating that the machine could set up in very tight locations - a good thing for working in cities and towns in particular.

While I was there everyone working on the project was happy to say how pleased they were with the new Schwing machine - which is always great to hear.

We even set up a time-lapse camera and got the drone out for a bit of aerial footage! Several weeks later I had managed to edit it down to under 7 minutes. The result is above...

Cover Shot

A few months back our colleagues in Germany were putting together a new brochure for the latest SP 2800 static pump and asked me if I could provide a photo. This meant tracking down a 2800 machine we had recently sold that was working on a site not too far away and that I could get on site to get some photos. Thankfully such an opportunity existed over near Canary Wharf.

Unlike mobile boom pumps which can make for wonderful shots because of the boom arched majestically against a skyline, static pumps don't naturally lend themselves to looking good in pictures. They are typically hidden away in a dismal corner out of the way which makes it even more difficult to get a flattering photograph. However as luck would have it, this one had a backdrop which included a raised railway line (the DLR), some buildings and if I waited for the right moment, the sun between the buildings which would reflect in the water on the ground near the pump.

The Germans were very happy with the result and as you can see, used one of my shots on the front cover of the new brochure, which arrived here at the office a few weeks later!

Her's my original shot:

Surprising Reception

I got a nice surprise the other day. Hughie, our UK MD had just come back from head office in Germany and showed me a picture of their new reception. The main feature in that new reception is a three panel image consisting of one my photos!

It was the one I took of the Reilly's job at Merseylink, which also featured in this year's calendar and also a jigsaw puzzle!

Who'd have guessed when I took that photo it would become so enduring!

And here is the original:

New Reptor in Ireland

There may not be any snakes in Ireland but there is certainly now one Reptor! Scott, our chief engineer was down in Oranmore (near Galway) yesterday commissioning a new S 38 SX Reptor for its new owners.

They began the pour at 7am and had finished pouring the 200m³ by 1pm with every load going straight through - as you'd expect from a new Schwing.

Now is it off to celebrate with a Guinness or a Jameson's?

Training For Cats

Today was the second of two days of training in our offices conducted by a gentleman from Caterpillar engines. As readers may be aware, our static pumps all now come with Cat engines and so it is important for our engineers to fully understand the technical aspects of these.

This training was to bring us up to speed with the latest (full and final) specifications for diesel emissions using Diesel Emission Fluid (AdBlue being a popular example). This means our engineers are now qualified to maintain the latest generation of Caterpillar diesel engines.

As well as our own engineers, we invited engineers from a couple of our clients, Coinfords and Careys to come along to the training too - because the more our customers get out of their Schwing Stetter equipment, the better it is for everyone.

Swash No Buckle

A bit earlier I was asked to gather up some information about pump pressures with regard to the angle of the swash plate. Now not being an engineer, this term went straight over my head and so Hughie, the MD very kindly took some time to show me what this meant.

I had seen plenty of hydraulic system drives (the bit that that turns engine revs into hydraulic oil being pushed around the system) but had never known how one worked. I am pleased to say that now one more of the many wonders of hydraulic engineering has  been revealed to me, and very interesting it is too!

Basically a circle of cylinders and pistons connected to an angled plate spins. Both the cylinder block and the angled 'swash' plate spin at the same time so the swash plate pulls the pistons in and out as each cylinder/piston moves around the circle. The changeable angle of the plate determines how much the pistons actually move in and out for each revolution.

The pistons moving away from and out of the cylinder block are drawing hydraulic oil into those cylinder while the ones moving back into it are pushing the oil out, having brought it around to the other side, and so oil is forced to move continuously from one side to the other. Ingenious!

Seeing (and have a play with) the cut away working demonstration one above really helped me to understand what was going on. So now next time someone talks about the angle of the swash plate, I'll know what they mean.

Sweet!

Just arrived! The third batch of our (predictably) popular sweet boxes has just been put safely away.

After noting which sweets were more popular in the last lot, or rather which ones tended to get left behind in an otherwise empty box, we swapped a couple of varieties for some new ones. I'm pleased to say the lemon sherbets are a new addition - these will be my personal favourites I'm sure. (Although I must point out at this time I have not actually had any).

These are of course strictly for our customers (other than the odd box opened out for us by the MD) and certainly make an interesting and possibly quite unusual 'promotional product'! And if it helps remind people about how much they love Schwing Stetter, all the better!