A Look at a Besser Superpac® Concrete Products Facility

Besser equipment is designed with features geared to improve production efficiency and profitability. This Besser Superpac system at Allied Concrete Products in Richmond, Virginia, is fully automatic. Each durable piece of equipment provide smooth operation and is built to handle the largest possible load. The Besser batch plant and material handling equipment is the perfect complement to the Superpac and product handling equipment, providing trouble-free operation day in and day out. A material bin system is positioned to easily fill each band with a different material. Bolt on vertical extensions allow for 60, 100 or 140 ton capacity each. Material is gathered from the appropriate compartments and delivered to the receiving hopper the batch mixer. This facility is fitted with the 160 cubic foot, heavy-duty, spiral blade batch mixer The gentle figure 8 roll-in-fold action ensures complete mixing without material degradation. Ni-Hard abrasion resistant blades and drum liners extend the service life for the mixer. The Besser product line also includes higher intensity mixers, depending on the application. A holding hopper accepts a full load materials from the mixer, this allows for quick cycle times as required when producing solid products.The mix is then discharged onto a metering belt and fed into the Superpac. The Superpac is a large pallet, six-at-a-time concrete products machine that operates at up to nine cycles a minute. This unmatched production equals up to an impressive 3,240 block an hour. The Superpac is capable of producing 2 inch to 12 inch product including paving stone and slabs, retaining wall units, architectural units and standard block. Product delivery height is constant, regardless of the type of concrete masonry units being produced. Block are continuously moved from the Superpac to the MS-12 Multi-Spade Besser-Matic by the front delivery conveyor. Pallets of block are placed onto the loader accumulator capable of handling 10 levels high. The Multi-Spade Besser-Matic loads the concrete masonry units onto and off of the racks. The fully automatic LSC-100 consists of a transfer car and crawler with a payload capacity of 100,000 pounds. The LSC-100 Rack Transporter System gently carries the racks of green units to the kiln for curing and retries racks of cured products. The variable speed allows rack to be handled slowly when necessary and quickly when practical. Programmable electronic controls and diagnostics maximize uptime and performance. The LSC travels on rails and carries the cured units to the unloading side the Multi-Spade Besser-Matic. The pallets are then removed from the rack, unloaded onto a conveyor to advance toward the next step in the manufacturing process. The Block Turnover configures the concrete products as the units are fed from the Depaletter. The turn mechanism provides smooth operation even at high speeds. Clamp pads are segmented, rubber face steel to provide maximum control for varying end core configurations and product sizes. The counter controls can selectively turn only the base course or they can count and turn partial pallet loads for handling odd block and mixed mold boxes accurately. Operator controls determine which units require turning to create the most effective queue pattern. Allied operates two 54 inch Besser cubers which have the flexibility to handle products ranging from 2 inches to 24 inches high while keeping up with the fast pace Superpac. Block are fed to the turntable and arranged by patternmakers to create the desired tier pattern. Once the required number of block are placed on the transfer area, they automatically push into the tier forming area. Each tier is moved to the cube forming area whereas gently and precisely placed into the proper arrangement. Concrete products produced by the Superpac are all dimensionally consistent, strong and attractive whether landscape, architectural or standard. Besser equipment has the ability and versatility to produce a wide range of specialty products, which is why Besser is the perfect choice for concrete producers. For more in-depth information about this system and other pieces of Besser equipment, contact your Besser representative or visit the Besser website at www.besser.com.