Saudi Readymix Concrete Company (SRMCC), among the leading suppliers of ready-mix concrete in the Middle East, has recently commissioned Saudi Arabia's first Putzmeister truck-mounted concrete pump with one-sided narrow outriggers.

The OSS system allows the safe support of a truck-mounted concrete pump just on the one working side of the machine, explains a spokesman for the German manufactuer of the concrete pump.

''The swivel range of the boom is restricted by a sensor so that the concrete pump can only be operated in a safe working area. When used on congested and poorly accessible construction sites, a truck-mounted concrete pump with OSS system requires considerably less setting-up space. In the field, this means increased safety for the pump operator,'' he says.

The new truck-mounted concrete pump with a 42 m vertical boom reach is currently being used to convey concrete on the Al Subeaei Commercial Complex at the intersection of King Abdul Aziz and Prince Faisal Bin Fahad streets in Al Khobar.

On completion, the 15-storey high-rise will be among the tallest buildings in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.

SRMCC reports that the company has been able to continuously extend its share of the market with the new OSS-supported M 42 because the one-sided narrow outriggers make it possible for the long-reach boom pump to access construction sites which cannot be safely served by other concrete pumps with this boom reach.

"The pump performance of this machine is excellent - but the OSS system is a major plus point,'' says Hani Keshta, cooridinator of Saudi Readymix Concrete projects. "The Al Subeaei Tower is situated at the junction of two very busy roads and there is hardly any space available to set up the machine. We can, therefore, only use this truck-mounted concrete pump - otherwise we would block the traffic.

''Our M 42 with the OSS system is used on average on three construction sites a day and it looks as if this machine is going to be our most popular concrete pump!" he adds.

With a construction height of approximately 60 m, the Al Subeaei Tower rises over the skyline of Al Khobar and has been designed to be an office and residential building. It accommodates two basement car-parking levels, a ground floor, a mezzanine level, two technical floors and 13 typical floor with an area of 1,960 sq m each.

As soon as the shell has attained a building height that is beyond the working range of the M 42, Saudi Readymix Concrete will arrange for a stationary BSA concrete pump that will use the concrete via two Putzmeister stationary booms. SRMCC thereby guarantees its customer a continuous flow of concrete, the spokesman says.

Saudi Readymix Concrete has a fleet has more than 200 truck-mixers and 60 truck-mounted concrete pumps - Putzmeister's share of which is 80 per cent.

SRMCC has pumped over 1.5 million cu m of concrete over the past year. The numerous Putzmeister concrete pumps are looked after by the local Putzmeister dealer Medco which is based in Al Khobar.

SRMCC is a subsidiary to the contractors group of Khalid Ali Alturki & Sons.

In the UAE, Putzmeister is represented by German Gulf Enterprises which recently conducted a series of seminars on hydraulics, electrics, application and working safety of concrete pumps.

Putzmeister has also supplied concrete pumps and concrete distributors to Iran for several water and power projects.

Among these were a long-reach boom crete pump BRF 55.16, two stationary BSA 1405 E, two concrete distributors TSV 3-6 for tunnel formwork and shotcrete manipulators of type Wetcrete WKM 103. The machines will be initially used at the Masjed-Soleymann dam, for the Kouhrang III irrigation tunnel and for the construction of the Godar-Landeh water channel.