Producing prestressed floors efficiently

Boulogne Composants Béton (BCB), one of France’s long-established precast companies (since 1968), expanded its machinery to keep production efficient and to stay at a top level. The automated machines were provided by Echo Precast Engineering, a Progress Group company.

Automated machinery

Given how the construction market is evolving, the need to work more efficiently and responsibly with our resources than ever before and to ensure a safe working environment for employees is well-known across the industry. Automated machinery can make work easier for staff while saving material and resources at the same time. In full awareness of this trend, BCB moved ahead in terms of automation, time saving and high-quality production by installing a D-Flyer flying bucket and a SmartJet automatic plotter. The D-Flyer flying bucket transports dry or wet concrete from the mixer to the designated position on elevated tracks, which are positioned such that they do not interfere with any other production machine or people, which increases both safety and efficiency. Concrete delivery happens in intermediate hoppers located in fixed positions or via a moving half-portal or bridge line supply to feed the machinery on long beds. All speeds can be customized from its PLC in the control cabinet. The automated plotter makes it possible to add the required markings to hollow-core slabs. However, in this case the plotter is tailor-made for plotting with paint on the long production beds. With these markings on the beds, it is possible for shop-floor staff to place the required forms and inserts on the beds before concrete pouring. The markings can be applied exactly as planned since plotting takes place fully automatically, and the information is transferred to the machine directly while also being checked by specially designed software.

Why modernize?

According to BCB, the main advantage of the new machinery is a combination of high performance, reliable service, support and advice, and smooth commissioning provided by Echo. As an additional service to satisfy the client, the plotter and flying bucket have been tailored to their needs and even painted in the company colors. “We decided to invest in this new equipment when we were modernizing our production plant. The flying bucket allows us to feed our production lines more safely, but it also achieves better control of the reaction of the fresh concrete during its transit from the concrete plant,” says BCB’s management and adds: “The SmartJet plotter enabled us to control the plotting process by computer and even if a zero error rate is virtually impossible, it reduced the sources of measuring errors considerably. In addition, it allowed us to save working time.”

Understanding customer needs

Boulogne Composants Béton (BCB) is a family-run company based in Boulogne-sur-Mer. It currently employs about 40 people who design and manufacture a wide range of linear structural elements made of concrete, as well as prestressed or reinforced floors and hollow-core slabs. Also, a local ready-mix concrete business is part of their scope of delivery. For their hollow-core production and prestressed flooring, they were looking for a supplier who spoke French and understood their customs as well as their vision of modernizing the plant while engaging their staff. Now that the machines are in production and have completely replaced the old ones, their performance is in line with expectations.