CreteFoamer Blog

The main components are the power unit, progressive cavity concrete pump, foam generator, foam eductor, and static mixer. Also mounted on the trailer are water tank, foam concentrate storage, and various auxiliary components.  The core of the power unit is a 75 hp Kubota diesel engine, which drives a hydraulic pump and a rotary screw compressor.  There is also a water pump, foam concentrate pump, and associated controls. The core of Richway VersaTrac technology is used to precisely meter foam concentrate into the water to produce foam when compressed air is added.  This eliminates any premixing such as required with many other systems.   

This system was designed by Richway engineers and is manufactured in their factory, using 38 years of machine manufacturing experience.  Like all Richway CreteFoamers, it produces a tight and uniform bubble structure, critical for consistently high quality cellular concrete.

It can produce up to 100 cubic yards of cellular concrete per hour on a continuous basis.  Density can be varied from 25 pounds per cubic foot (pcf) up to 125 pcf.  Output rate is adjustable, using simple, but comprehensive controls.  The stainless steel foam generator, eductor and static mixer are all easily cleaned. 

The 60C is a real workhorse and is ready to go to work for you when you get it.  Available options include water tank size, foam concentrate storage configuration, hopper size, and pump capacity.  It can used with either batch trucks or volumetric trucks.  It can also be used in the "foam only" mode to directly charge batch trucks at foam generation rates of 60 cubic feet per minute.  

If you need a foam generation system to do high volume cellular concrete work, then you need to look at the Richway 60C CreteFoamer.

Cellular concrete in bridge construction

Here's a photo of the driveway pour which was completed on Wednesday June 9. It was our intent to do a cellular concrete sub-base under the whole driveway, but city regulators would not permit that. They required the standard compacted fill under all the driveway that was on the right-of-way. On the rest, we used a 3" cellular sub-base (25 pcf) and a reduced density top cap (115 pcf - 5.5 inches thick)

Compaction of the cellular sub-base was not required! There was a materials cost savings, while still getting 3500 psi strength. The "garage end" load had about 7% air because we forgot to tell our producer "no air entrainment" when we ordered, so our density was lower than we intended. If we had chosen to check mix density before adding foam, we would have caught the error. As you can see in the photo, we used wire mesh for the whole driveway. City regulations required that the ROW portion was an Iowa DOT spec mix with no foam added and 800 lbs/Portland per yard. Normal 28 day strength for that mix is about 6500 psi. We used the same mix for the "garage end" load, but added the foam. We will finish the control joints and get a final inspection when it quits raining in "our neck of the woods" as many TV weather personalities, including Al Roker, seem fond of saying.

Here is a story about void filling with cellular concrete.

The lead line notes that "Since foam concrete was first developed in America in 1923 ... ". Most of the time credit is given as first developed in Sweden in the early 1920's. This is the first time I have seen America credited as the "birthplace."

The first demo day of the summer is coming ---Friday April 23, 2010

Join us at 10:00 at the Richway factory at the northwest edge of Janesville, Iowa.  (504 North Maple Street)

We will be doing a demonstration of slab jacking with cellular concrete. (Look down 2 posts to see the "results" of a test we did last week)

We will also be doing some cellular backfill and "showing off" a sidewalk poured in the summer of '08 using a lightweight cellular sub-base.  This sidewalk has not cracked, even though it has had a tandem axle steel scrap truck drive over it many times.

We will be discussing how cellular concrete backfill can provide improved quality and save money by the eliminating the labor cost and time for compaction.

See the beginning of instrumentation for our thermal insulation study.  This will be a 12 month outdoor --- in the ground--- study.  As planned, there will be 20 thermocouples used for monitoring temperatures. 

Depending on time available and the interests of our visitors, we may be doing some lab mixes of magnesium oxide (MgO)  based cements.  These are rapid setting and have high strength.  On the downside, they have potential for dissolving in water over time, so MgO cement based concrete is not recommended for exterior structural applications.

Famous Dave's Bar-B-Que sandwiches at noon and CreteFoamer tee-shirts.

See our new 4000 square foot R&D area and tours of the factory if you want. Finally, we will answer any questions you may have.