Ready Mix Central Mixer Maintenance Tips
Regular maintenance on your tilt mixer is your best insurance against breakdowns and downtime. You have a big, powerful concrete plant that may look indestructible, but it needs consistent attention to keep the central mix drum spinning and the profits rolling in. The first step to take in your maintenance plan is to establish a schedule and follow it faithfully. Assign appropriate tasks to the responsible employees, and be certain that they understand the importance of their assignments. A comprehensive tilt mixer maintenance schedule identifies steps that you should take at 5 different intervals:
• Continuous monitoring during operation
• Daily Maintenance
• Weekly Maintenance
• Monthly Maintenance
• Annual Maintenance
To download a tilt barrel maintenance schedule developed by the engineers at CON-E-CO in Blair, NE, click on this link: https://maconcrete.com/presentations/Maintenance_and_Fluids.ppt . All maintenance programs begin with the basics, and the first rule of tilt mixer maintenance is cleanliness. It’s crucial that you clean your concrete batch plant mixer at least once a day by running stone and water through it. If you can make time for a mid-day cleaning as well, that’s even better. Proper lubrication is an absolute necessity, especially for the steel tire and the gears. Both wet and dry lubricating methods are available, but we believe that dry lubrication is better. For optimum performance, apply dry lubricant by hand, once a day, to the tire and all the gears if you don’t have an automatic oiling or lubrication system in place. Some maintenance procedures aren’t quite as obvious as these basic ones, but they’re just as important. Here are three that can help you prevent very costly breakdowns and repairs, and the subsequent loss of income:
1. Pay close attention to everything you see and hear. If something in the movement of the mixer just doesn’t look right, check it immediately. If you hear any strange sounds, then something probably is wrong. Take the time to find out what’s making the unusual noise.
2. Check on a daily basis to see if material is building up under the urethane liner on the drum. The drum liner reduces the buildup of hard concrete, but without proper maintenance, concrete will seep under the liner, lift it, and peel it away from the drum. So clean the liner daily and reseal it as necessary.
3. Look for excessive play in the tilting mechanism. The tilt mixer should run very smoothly at full tilt, but wear in the bearings may allow the mixer to move farther than it should. Examine the hardened bearings at the rod ends on the tilt cylinders. Replace them as necessary, and keep in mind that it’s much better to replace them before you think they’re completely worn out than to give them a chance to bend or even to shear off. That’s a repair you never want to make.