Pumping concrete higher, further and faster

When Duane Remus, director of technology at REED Pumps, was bitten by a black widow spider, the medication-inspired hallucinations he was having in his hospital bed helped inspire the design of what would become the A-Series “Rockmaster” Concrete Pump.

California-based REED Pumps has been building reciprocating piston pumps (which use a hopper and drive cylinder to distribute the concrete) and shotcrete machines (which use air to mix the concrete in the nozzle and propel it) since 1957. The Rockmaster A-Series originally inspired by the spider bite have been Perkins powered from the beginning.

“The power curves were good, power density was good, torque was good, and it has very good performance,” Duane explained. “Reliability. It kind of sums it all up for me with Perkins. I just want the customers to go out there and use the machine, and not have to call me up with problems.”

Today, the highest-performing model in the A-Series, the A40HP, uses a Perkins® 854 U.S. EPA Tier 4, four-cylinder engine producing 86 kW (115 hp) and 475 Nm (350 lb-ft) of torque at 2,500 rpm. The engine drives a variable displacement hydraulic pump equipped with a flow control valve that lets users adjust the pump’s output while keeping engine speed constant. The A40HP can deliver up to 31 m3 (40 yards3) per hour at pressures up to 82 bar (1,172 psi) allowing it to pump higher, further and faster than the others in the series.

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