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What is Ready Mix Concrete ?
What is Ready mix concrete ? Ready mix concrete refers to concrete that is specifically manufactured for delivery to the customer's construction site in a freshly mixed and plastic or unhardened state. Concrete itself is a mixture of Portland cement, water and aggregates comprising sand and gravel or crushed stone.
Ready-mix concrete is concrete that is manufactured in a factory or batching plant, according to a set recipe, and then delivered to a work site by truck mounted in–transit mixers. This results in a precise mixture, allowing specialty concrete mixtures to be developed and implemented on construction sites. Ready-mix concrete is often preferred over on-site concrete mixing because of the precision of the mixture and reduced work site confusion.
Advantages of Ready Mix Concrete
- Ready Mix Concrete (RMC) allows speedy construction through programmed delivery at site, mechanized operation with consequent economy.
- RMC reduces the labour cost and site supervising cost.
- RMC comes with consistency in quality through accurate & computerized control of sand aggregates and water as per mix designs.
- Production of RMC helps in minimizing cement wastage due to bulk handling.
- Production of RMC is relatively pollution free.
- Reduced project time resulting in savings in all aspects.
- Proper control and economy in use of raw material resulting in saving of natural resources.
Disadvantages of Ready Mix Concrete
- The materials are batched at a central plant, and the mixing begins at that plant, so the traveling time from the plant to the site is critical over longer distances. Some sites are just too far away, however the use of admixtures like retarder can be added.
- Furthermore, access roads and site access have to be able to carry the greater weight of the ready-mix truck plus load. (Green concrete is approx. 2.5 tonne per m³.) This problem can be overcome by utilizing so-called 'mini mix' companies which use smaller 4m³ capacity mixers able to reach more-restricted sites.
- Concrete's limited time span between mixing and curing means that ready-mix should be placed within 210 minutes of batching at the plant. Modern admixtures can modify that time span precisely, however, so the amount and type of admixture added to the mix is very important.
