New Rapid batching plant for Tobermore
State-of-the-art plant facilitates production of one million square metres of block paving per year
AS part of a recent £10 million expansion, UK and Ireland paving and walling manufacturers Tobermore have recently invested in a bespoke, state-of-the-art concrete batching plant from Rapid International that will facilitate a further one million square metres of block paving per year.
Tobermore are a longstanding customer of Rapid, who have installed six bespoke concrete batching plants over the last 40 years at Tobermore’s Co. Londonderry headquarters. The newly installed seventh Rapid plant will allow the company to meet a surge in market demand for its hard landscaping products.
The new batching plant includes a 20 cubic metre reception hopper and an inclined 750mm wide conveyor that delivers sand and aggregate feed materials to a shuttle conveyor for distribution to the aggregate bins. A variety of aggregates and sands are stored in a series of 29 bins – the largest number Rapid have ever installed on a single plant – of varying sizes, ranging from 4.7 cubic metres up to 100 cubic metres.
Two 600mm and one 750mm weighed collection conveyors discharge materials on to the main transfer conveyor to the changeover tower. From here, the materials are transported to the mixer house via a 750mm wide inclined batch conveyor. Each batch of aggregate materials is distributed, via a diverter shoot, one of several holding hoppers until required for mixing.
Designed to house the plant’s two integral mixers, the multi-floor mixer platform has been sized to accommodate the travelling wet batch hoppers (backing and face hoppers) and to allow maximum access for cleaning and maintenance. Three 150-tonne cement silos feed the mixers via the screw conveyors, whilst six wet batch hoppers under the face mix and four under the back mix offer an almost limitless number of blending combinations.
The new plant has a gross internal floor area of 4,416 square metres and is expected to create dozens of local jobs, including roles in production, despatch, haulage, sales and administration.
Commenting on the investment, David Henderson, managing director of Tobermore, said: ‘Amidst the backdrop of a global pandemic, where many firms are struggling, we recognize how fortunate we are to be able to undertake this level of capital investment and job creation. This new plant will give us significantly increased capacity to make another one million square metres of block paving per year.’
