What is the best air compressor for a concrete batching plant?

ELGi's 3 to 15HP Single-Stage and Two-Stage reciprocating compressors are the best air compressor for a concrete batching plant as they are fitted with oil bath air filters as standard. Concrete batching plants are dusty environments and the oil bath air filters are designed to offer an excellent degree of filtration.

ELGi air compressors also have the capacity for prolonged use, with minimum maintenance, ensuring seamless compressor performance in any external environment.

Usage of Compressed Air in Concrete Batching Plant
Concrete batching plant is an equipment in which aggregates (sand, gravel, crushed stone, slag, etc) are batched, mixed with water, cement and other additives homogeneously to obtain concrete of the desired strength and quality.

Layout of a Concrete Batching Plant

• Aggregate bins: contain sand, gravel, and other aggregates
• Cement silo: container used for storage of bulk cement onsite
• Mixer: the heart of a batching plant where ingredients are mixed together to form concrete

Operating Cycle of a Concrete Batching Plant

Charging: A cyclic process of continuously feeding all ingredients to the mixer, ensuring the mixer is not idle and proportion of all ingredients is precise.

Mixing: This is the complete blending of materials required for production of a homogeneous concrete.

Discharging: After mixing, the concrete mixture is evacuated from the mixing chamber to the RMC (Ready Made Concrete) truck via a discharge chute.

Why Compressed Air is Critical in a Concrete Batching Plant
Compressed air is used in the control system tyically during charging and discharging cycles to actuate pneumatic valves in the aggregate bins and the mixer. As charging, mixing and discharging is a continuous operation in a concrete batching plant, the compressor must be up and running to ensure seamless operation. Compressed air is also used to clean the silos so that the right proportion of cement and flyash is charged, thereby ensuring the desired output quality.

In Aggregate Bins, valves are controlled by load sensing cells and PLC. Compressed Air is required for opening these valves based on the signals from load cells for discharging aggregates to the hopper/ conveyer belt.

In the Mixer, Compressed Air is used for operating the pneumatic delivery valves which aids in unloading mixed concrete onto the ready-mix concrete (RMC) truck. Concrete typically sets in 30 to 40 minutes. If it is not delivered on time from the mixer, the concrete will set inside the mixer with no other option than to replace the entire mixer.

Compressed Air is utilised for cleaning the silos and for dusting the deposits in the silo walls/lining during operation. If silos are not cleaned at regular intervals, the holding capacity of silos will be reduced due to accumulated residue, resulting in decreased output quantity.

Compressed Air is used as an alternate for water for cleaning the silos. If water is used for cleaning, the silo must be dried before loading, which takes ample time, thereby reducing productivity.