CPI Euromix eliminates mortar failure and wastage with Silo Mixing Station
With contractors under pressure to get the job done well, on budget and on time, boosting efficiencies on site is never going to be easy. The construction of modern buildings demands greater control than ever before, which is why the quality of mortar should never be taken for granted. A method pioneered by CPI Euromix has been proven year-after-year and is widely considered to be one of the most successful construction innovations. CPI Euromix looks at the silo mixing station, a simple solution that has transformed a marketplace by eliminating mortar failure and wastage.
Mortar is one of the world’s oldest and most valuable building materials – our homes, hospitals and places of work simply wouldn’t exist without it.
As time has passed the production of mortar has evolved to reflect the advancements in building design and quality control. Traditional methods of producing mortar onsite were labour-intensive, requiring a great deal of elbow grease to achieve the smooth mix of the raw materials, sand and cement.
Not only was this manual method an exhausting task for onsite workers, it also posed problems in terms of quality control. Through no fault but human error, workers would either produce too much or too little mortar, and wouldn’t perhaps achieve the exact ratio of raw materials from one batch to another. And when quality is at stake, there is no room for speculation.
To assure quality control and remove the need for labour-intensive tasks, ready-mixed wet mortars were introduced. These solved the quality control problem as a factory-made material at a guaranteed standard was delivered to site on a daily basis. These ready-mixed mortars revolutionised the industry in the eighties and nineties, providing a better alternative to what came before. However there were still issues with the product’s wetness and wastage. It was a perishable product and there was always a strict timeframe for it to be used.
So the industry had to return to the drawing board. Which ready-mixed product would minimise waste, assure quality control and drive onsite efficiency?
Make way for the silo
The development of the silo and dry mix technology has proven to be a game-changer for efficiency and reliability. Combining the best of both worlds, silos offered by the likes of CPI EuroMix contains 33 tons of ready-mixed dry mortar; assuring guaranteed mixed proportion whilst eliminating wastage and delivery delays.
Filled with a pre-batched mixture of dried fine aggregate, cement and lime if required, along with other admixtures or pigments, the transportable silo enables perfectly mixed mortar to be despatched at the touch of a button.
The silo mixing station is delivered to site and once it is connected to water and power supplies, a constant supply of high-quality mortar is available. Both wet and dry mortar can be used, depending on the application and demands of the project. It has an output of at least 50 litres per minute which means it will fill a standard mortar tub in just a few minutes.
Gone are the days where contractors would pay workers to batch and mix mortar and maintain equipment. Companies can provide training schemes for operatives to be fully certified to use silo mixing stations, to further drive safety and efficiency. Moreover, site clean-up is also simpler because the material is contained in silos. The solution has transformed what was once a traditional market into one of efficiency, quality and guarantees.
Accredited to BS EN ISO 9001:2015, the industry standard accreditation for quality control, projects can now benefit from quality mortars with high bond and compressive strength, durability and colour.
CPI’s mortar in action
For the recent construction of Camden Lock Village, a 50,000 sq. m mixed-use development, CPI EuroMix used a mixture of bulk bags and silos amounting to 1,200t. The presence of silos on this project ensured the site teams were able to produce the exact amount of material required for this large-scale project.
CPI’s silo mixing station was delivered readily to site, and simply plugged into water and power supplies. As well as maintaining mix and colours, the system also minimised waste, helping to drive onsite efficiency and reduce the environmental impact of projects during construction.
Able to remove wastage and drive onsite efficiencies, the silo mixing station is one of the industry’s biggest successes over the past 20 years. A highly productive and indispensable solution on a wide range of projects throughout the UK, it would be impossible to envisage a construction world without it.
