„The aim was the new development of an innovative modular system“

Liebherr has been developing and selling mixing plants for concrete production for over 60 years. Their new innovative modular system now profits from all this years of experience. The company is presenting the new edition of the “Betomix” to the public for the first time at bauma; the new plant will be available from 2023 (see article on p. 82). Jürgen Forster, Production manager at Liebherr for the mixing plant division, and Henrik Utoft, Team leader loading and shipping, commented on this in a BFT interview.

BFT International: Mr. Forster, Mr. Utoft, the new plant platform differs from the predecessor model in both technical and conceptual terms. What are the specific new developments?

J. Forster: The new plant platform will replace several series at the beginning of next year. During development, we focused on a modular design. In concrete terms, this means that individual modules such as the mixer and scale module, but also the feeder module, can be planned, manufactured and combined with other modules independently of one another. Several designs can be realized by the appropriate choice of the support frame: Steel foundation for gravel foundation, steel foundation with a high degree of pre-assembly for an assembly optimization on the construction site or the classic anchoring parts for the construction site assembly. The customer benefits from shorter delivery times, faster assembly and high parts availability. In addition, he is more flexible in the configuration of his plant.

H. Utoft: This modular design also has several advantages from a logistical point of view: Due to significantly more pre-assembled parts, fewer parts have to be manually packed and shipped. Another advantage is that the modular design means we always have the same basic dimensions. This makes planning the vehicles easier.

BFT International: Why did you make these innovations? Were there specific customer requirements?

J. Forster: For us it was a mixture of customer requirements as well as our striving for optimization and technical innovation of the plants. With the innovation, we have adapted to the changed market situation. In particular, the rising costs as well as logistical challenges that require efficient and high-performance material supply and production played a role. On the other hand, we are responding even more explicitly to our costumers’ wishes: Depending on the application, different mixing systems can now be installed with the same basic system.

BFT International: A technical innovation that immediately catches the eye of experts is the so-called ring-pan mixer with variable agitator speed. What is the principle and the development idea behind this?

J. Forster: The ring-pan mixer is characterized in principle by high mixing quality and high efficiency due to the agitator systems. With this ring pan mixer, two powerful drives allow infinitely variable control of both the main speed and the whirler speed. This creates the prerequisite for efficient and highly variable production of a wide variety of concrete types. Even highly complex concrete formulations for the precast industry are no problem with this mixer.

BFT International: What advantages does the new series offer in a real-life application?

H. Utoft: The aim was quite clearly the new development of an innovative modular system. The modular design already comes into play again in the construction of the new “Betonmix”. The feeder elevator is a concrete example: This can simply be ‚attached‘ to the respective mixing plant, regardless of the plant capacity. Due to the vertical installation, up to  20 % less space is required for the entire plant.

J. Forster: In addition, the built-in frequency converter ensures greater energy and resource efficiency. This offers the potential to reduce energy consumption by up to 30 %. Regarding cement as a resource, the frequency converter operates with an accuracy of +/- 0.5 %. To put it in concrete terms: for a typical recipe with 300 kg of cement per cubic meter of concrete, up to 7.5 kg of cement can be saved.

BFT International: Mr. Forster, Mr. Utoft, thank you very much for the interview and good luck for the future!

Interview: Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Silvio Schade, Chefredakteur BFT International