Italy-based Carmix says it has helped revolutionise the concrete industry thanks to continuous technical innovation and the development of digital technologies that simplify on-site operations utilising its 40-plus years of experience.

One such innovation is Concrete-Mate, a load-cell electronic weighing system that weighs the concrete mix directly inside the drum.

“Concrete-Mate is a digital revolution in concrete production and adds to those values that have always characterised Carmix philosophy: to offer a self-loading concrete batching plant, able to prepare concrete how, where and when you want,” says Anton Zhukov, Managing Director.

“Unlike many weighing systems in the market where a hydraulic weighing system is installed on the bucket, the one designed by Carmix is equipped with four electronic load cells on the drum bottom, providing extremely accurate data on concrete quality,” he says.

Available only on the Carmix 3500 TC model, this load-cell electronic weighing system allows the operator to simultaneously dose and check all aggregates as they are loaded inside the drum, including water. This simplifies the control of each aggregate, reducing dosing error. In addition, the system can store up to 15 different mix designs with up to 99 components at a time. Multiple combinations can be created with these elements, based on the construction site. Once the desired mix design has been stored, the software suggests the doses for each element, the sequence of operations and the time needed for each process step, thus eliminating any potential error, Zhukov adds.

When loading is complete, the PC in the control cabinet automatically prints a ticket with all data, which can be saved on a USB stick as well.

The four load cells act as weight sensors directly where the mix is made. “Compared to systems that use pressure sensors on the loader, this system guarantees direct control of components right where the mix is made, greater accuracy and a maximum two per cent weight deviation, as in the most sophisticated concrete plants. Monitoring of finished product and check of the operator’s performance add to this superior performance. Concrete-Mate adapts the concrete recipe to moisture content input, by automatically recalculating the water:cement  ratio,” he adds.

“Concrete-Mate is a digital mix-design manager running a standard readymix concrete plant-level management software that applies four load cells inside the mixing set and guarantees a top quality concrete mix in compliance with international concrete standards (UNI 206-1 - ASTM – ACI, etc),” he explains.

With its full digitalisation, Concrete-Mate allows individual operations to be quality controlled. The software issues a certificate with all analytical mix-design data at the end of process, including client name, construction site, operator name, as well as the mixing time, any deviation between loaded and virtual weight and a total weight check.