A Short History of Concrete Pumps

Today we are all accustomed to seeing the long booms of concrete pumping trucks at a construction jobsite.  While some of the booms have a reach of over 60 meters, if was not all that long ago that these state-of-the-art boom pumps did not exist. 

In the early 20^th century, the method used to move liquid concrete from a cement mixer involved using wheelbarrows.  As buildings started getting taller, the process to move the concrete entailed lifting it in large buckets known as skips.  This was a laborious procedure as each bucket typically only held about 2 cubic yards of concrete.   

It wasn’t until 1927 that two German engineers, Max Giese and Fritz Hull, decided to try and pump concrete through pipes.  They had success pumping concrete to a height of 125 feet (38 meters) and a distance of 130 yards (120 meters).   In 1932, Jacob Cornelius Kweimn patented a concrete pump in Holland. 

While there were a several different designs of concrete pumps over the ensuing years, the biggest advancement occurred in 1957.  This was the invention of a twin cylinder hydraulic concrete pump from Friedrich Wilhelm Schwing’s company, Schwing GmgH.   In fact the principle of the company’s design was quickly adopted by almost everyone in the industry and is still the standard design used throughout the world.  

The invention of the concrete pump provided concrete contractors with the ability to pump concrete at a much faster rate than buckets could lift it and to bring up a constant supply of concrete to reach the rising heights of modern construction projects.  Furthermore, the placing hoses allow the liquid concrete to be positioned exactly where it is needed and eliminated the need to distribute or move it around. 

At The Conco Companies, we are one of the leading concrete contractors in the Western U.S. and offer a wide range of quality services and products.  Our experience includes providing services for commercial, educational, parking and other construction development as well as public works projects.  We serve California, Washington State, Oregon, Colorado and Nevada.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_pump

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