As part of its recent £10 million expansion, leading UK & Ireland paving and walling manufacturer, Tobermore, has recently invested in a bespoke state-of-the-art Rapid concrete batching plant.

The newly erected Rapid plant will facilitate a further one million square metres of block paving per year.

A longstanding customer, Rapid has previously installed six bespoke concrete batching plants over the last forty years at Tobermore’s County Londonderry headquarters. The newly installed seventh Rapid plant will enable Tobermore to meet a surge in market demand for their hard landscaping products.

The new Rapid batching plant is comprised of a 20m3 dump hopper to receive aggregates and sand and an inclined 750mm wide conveyor to convey materials to the shuttle conveyor. The shuttle conveyor subsequently distributes aggregates to each of the aggregate bins. Aggregates and sands are stored in a series of 29 storage bins, of varying sizes, from 4.7 – 100m3. This represents the greatest number of bins Rapid has ever installed on a plant.

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Two 600mm and one 750mm weighed belt conveyors collect materials from the aggregate and sand storage bins and discharges this to the main transfer conveyor, leading to the changeover tower. From the changeover tower, the materials are transported to the mixer house via a 750mm wide inclined batch conveyor. The batch of aggregates is then subsequently distributed via a diverter shoot to each of the holding hoppers, until required by the mixers. Three 150 ton silos feed the mixer via the screw conveyors.

A series of six wet batch hoppers under the face mix and four hoppers under the back mix, offers an almost endless amount of blending combinations.

The multi-floor mixer platform design allows maximum access for cleaning and maintenance. Designed to house the plants two integral mixers, the platform is also sized to accomodate the travelling wet batch hoppers (backing and face hoppers).

The new plant has a gross internal floor area (GIFA) of 4416m2 and is expected to create dozens of local jobs from many departments including production, despatch and haulage not to mention sales and administration.  

David Henderson, Managing Director - Tobermore, commented on the investment: "I am extremely proud that our new factory is now operational. This is an astonishing achievement! This new plant will give us significantly increased capacity to make another one million square metres of block paving per year.

"Amidst the backdrop of a global pandemic, where many firms are struggling, we recognise how fortunate we are to be able to undertake this level of capital investment and job creation.

"We are already looking forward to 2021 when we will be able to take huge amounts of new business on board."

Jarlath Gilmore, Sales & Marketing Director – Rapid, added: "We're delighted that Tobermore has once again selected Rapid to manufacture their new bespoke, state-of-the-art, batching plant. It's a pleasure to partner with a progressive organisation that shares our values for unrelenting quality and excellence."