A new record for concrete pumping has been set at the Burj Dubai, by German manufacturer Putzmeister, narrowly beating an existing record set by the same firm on the same building last year.
After repeated extension, the last Putzmeister 14000 SHP D Super High Pressure trailer concrete pump over the past months at Burj Dubai, on 9 April 2008 the concrete delivery was completed reaching a new world record height of 606 m in April, up from 601 m, set last November.
As a result of the predominantly steel construction of the last tower levels and the low concrete quantities used above 586m, the concrete pump was barely working to capacity for more than a few hours per week. Due to the disassembly started in the meantime, the building’s guided delivery line is no longer in the way of Burj Dubai’s interior fittings.
During the last pump operations, a concrete pressure of 200 bar was measured on the Putzmeister trailer concrete pump with S transfer tube 14000 SHP D with an output of 28 m³/h.
Overall, the three Putzmeister high-performance pumps have, during their 32 months of operation, pumped approximately 165,000 m³ of high-strength concrete.
This exclusively involves concretes of the property classes C50 for the floors as well as C60 and C80 for the walls of the central core. With a 606 m height difference, the concrete required approximately 40 minutes from the filling of the hopper to its discharge from the delivery line.
The concrete volume in the line (nominal diameter 150 up to 550 m height, after this ND 125) amounted to approximately 11 m³ with this installation height. This equates to a weight of over 26 tonnes on the Putzmeister concrete pump after every piston stroke when the S transfer tube is switched.
Putzmeister credit the extreme pump height to cooperation between the Samsung-led construction team, the machine operator Unimix as well as the local dealer German Gulf Enterprises.
Before the Burj the previous record was 532 m. This was set in 1994 by a stationary Putzmeister concrete pump BSA 2100 HE when the ring space of an ascending, 790 m long water pressure pipe was backfilled. The concrete pump BSA 2100 HE used at that time is said by the company to be the “forefather” of the concrete pumps operating at Burj Dubai.