Trade Journals for the Concrete Industry

The first thing that becomes obvious in a modern pipe plant is the preponderance of safety precautions implemented by employees to meet modern production requirements. The rapid shift in production technology through the last decade of the 20th century was to automation, characterized in many facilities by hoppers passing almost silently on overhead tracks; robots placing pallets, cores, reinforcement, and jack- ets; moving floors; multiple-diameter pipe being produced simultaneously from a single pipe plant; hard and soft walled curing rooms; mechanical arms; and devices preparing pipe for cleaning and labelling, while it is moved in stages to the yard. In the beginning of the shift to fully automated plants, several machine manufacturers would supply components of a new automated facility. This shift continues to set the benchmark for the quality of concrete pipe in America, but now, plants are offered in complete packages. Automated systems produce pipe with precise tolerances in mix design, shape, and strength. The trust that owners of concrete pipeline systems have in concrete pipe has increased significantly due to product quality and plant production.