Stanton Bonna is a leading UK manufacturer of precast concrete pipes, manholes and culverts for drainage, as part of a comprehensive range of precast offsite solutions for the construction industry. Recognising a need to upgrade their manufacturing methods to support strategic growth plans, the company recently selected a bespoke Rapid concrete batching plant for its Derbyshire site.

Part of CONSOLIS, Europe's largest precast concrete producer, Stanton Bonna, manufactures products for the water, highways, rail, housing, telecom and power sectors of the construction industry. Stanton Bonna’s comprehensive product offering includes: manhole systems, storm water management, flexible headwalls, flow control systems, vibration mitigation sleeper systems, power station cooling pipework and bespoke off-site solutions.

A new manufacturing method required for greater capacity, efficiency and reliability

Stanton Bonna's previous 'WINGET' Large Diameter (LDP) batching plant with WINGET pan mixers, was a tower-type plant erected in the 1950’s. Due to its age and condition, the plant became inherently unreliable. The company faced breakdowns, high maintenance costs, difficulty sourcing spare parts, reduced mixing speeds, inconsistency and lower than desired capacities.

Stanton Bonna recognised that without major refurbishment, the previous plant would continue to deteriorate and affect production of the current product ranges it supplied. This, coupled with the company’s strategic plan for growth, demanded the requirement for upgraded manufacturing methods.

-- Advertisement --

With a desire to achieve improved capacities, efficiency, production levels and the introduction of new products into the market, Stanton Bonna required new production facilities for bespoke product manufacture.

This new production represented a significant increase in concrete volume demand, which could not be met by the current LDP batching plant and concrete distribution system. The company subsequently secured investment to replace the previous concrete batching plant, with a new concrete batching plant and distribution system.

The Rapid solution

Rapid International collaborated with Stanton Bonna to develop a totally bespoke tower batching plant system, which would meet the desired increase in efficiency and concrete volume demand. The tower configuration was essential, as according to Rob Fifer, Major Projects Director – Stanton Bonna: "One of the key reasons for selecting the Rapid plant was its compact footprint."

The plant, which includes two Rapid planetary mixers, outputs approximately 80m3 per hour. Featuring an integral Rapid Jetwash high pressure (2000psi) mixer washout system, clean out is offered via auto-cleaning functionality.

Due to the plant’s 6x 60T aggregate bins the number of ground bunkers have been restricted, as minimal product is stored at grade with more lifted to high level. This has virtually eliminated the need to use the loading shovel, increasing efficiency.

The new Rapid batching plant platforms allows for maximum access for maintenance and cleaning, on 4 levels, maintenance; mixer; weigh hopper; and aggregate rotary conveyor; access to all levels is by stairs.

To ensure maximum output of concrete in adverse weather conditions, Stanton Bonna opted for winterisation measures, including composite cladding, lined doors and the provision to inject hot air into the bottom of the aggregate storage bins.

Collaborative design

Commenting on the collaborative design process, Rob Fifer – Major Projects Director, Stanton Bonna, remarked: "Rapid were certainly very responsive to any questions we had, both during the design and implementation phases of the project." Paul Gamble – Project Manager, Stanton Bonna, added: "Rapid were excellent, they were very proactive, worked very safely, were very much on the ball and completed the work in a very timely manner."