BIRCO's new mixing plant: at 6.5 million euros, the project is the largest investment in the company's 96-year history.
The four cement silos and additional aggregates silos significantly increase capacity and flexibility.
The new mixing plant (at the back right of the picture) enables more efficient, flexible and sustainable production of fresh concrete for the BIRCO drainage channels directly at the historical site.
07/13/2023 |
New concrete mixing plant ensures long-term growth at BIRCO.
BIRCO GmbH is firmly rooted in the south-west of Germany and, with over 160 employees, remains an important employer in the Baden-Baden area. The specialist for rainwater management is underlining its status with the largest investment in the company's 96-year history. The new concrete mixing plant, which construction started in September 2022, now supplies fresh concrete at the production site for the high-quality drainage channels.
Thanks to the new plant, one of Europe's leading system providers in rainwater management can work even more effectively than before with recycled materials and test additional, new and sustainable concrete ingredients. "The plant is state-of-the-art, secures our core business in the long term and, together with the further modernisation measures, offers great growth potential," explains Managing Director Christian Merkel about the 6.5-million-euro investment. In addition to the approximately 400 square metre lighthouse project, further infrastructure measures are planned.
In addition to the plant components, the installed air-conditioning technology is also designed for energy efficiency and resource conservation.
The advantages at a glance:
1. Increased capacity
The heart of the mixing plant is the concrete mixer. Cement, aggregates and water are mixed here. Three of these mixers will be available, doubling the production capacity compared to the approximately 30-year-old plant. This enables efficient marketing management by meeting the specific needs of building materials traders, building contractors, consultant offices and other potential clients.
2. Formulation diversity
Each of the four cement silos has a storing capacity of 60 tonnes. Five additional aggregates silos can each store up to 80 tonnes. "This creates a significant increase in flexibility, especially since one of the plant components is a removable silo which can be divided," explains plant manager Heribert Wunsch. The large number of silos offers the manufacturer the possibility to handle the products and their compositions in a more differentiated and dosed way and thus to achieve customised results. This also allows special requests from customers to be served even better.
3. Raw material and resource preservation
The use of modern sensor technology enables automated and precise measurement of moisture content and consistency. An automation process also ensures efficient use of resources when weighing water, cement and aggregates. In addition, a special filter system is used to recycle excess cement for the next production process. "When adding water to the mix, emphasis was also placed on resource-saving technology," explains project manager Nils Hoffmann. "This means that the water used for cleaning the plant can generally be reused via our wastewater treatment plant."
4. Energy efficiency
The use of reliable air-conditioning technology ensures the safe transport of temperature-sensitive liquids. To achieve this, BIRCO relies on climate-friendly and energy-efficient heat pump technology that mainly uses ambient heat - in this case the waste heat from control rooms and aggregates chambers.
More efficient, more flexible, and more environmentally aware: with the new mixing plant, BIRCO is also setting a corporate milestone in terms of more sustainable production.