We are trying to see if there is a way to help our slab loading areas survive. We have waste piles that are stockpiled on slabs and loaded with large loaders with teeth. When I say large I’m talking letourneau 1350’s and bigger. The piles are very wet and often mud so just raising the bucket off the ground isn’t an option either. Smooth buckets isn’t really an option. So we have considered rails but afraid the concrete will crumble away between the rails and a tooth catch a rail. Any ideas?
How thick is concrete
How about embedding I beams in the concrete at maybe 3 ft. centres in the direction of the bucket travel and welding a grid of rebar to the beams then pouring a high strength fibre embedded concrete between the beams. I've never done it just spit balling
Consult your local r-mix plant and tell them your needs. They or their consulting engineer should be able to design a concrete jmf to suit your needs. What I have seen is you will likely need a microsilica mix with a good bit of steel fiber, be warned, it will be expensive!
So the problem we have is that the teeth are chewing up the concrete. I’m not entirely sure on thickness but probably at least a foot. We keep getting holes in it and rebar popping up and puncturing tires. At $50k per tire it isn’t good. We usually can repair the concrete in a decent time frame or cut the rebar out if it’s accessible. In one Loading area running parallel isn’t an issue but the other there is not a set way the loader goes in. The slab is angled two directions which makes it hard to load when you slide around.
Agree with repowerguy. Could try steel plates anchored into concrete with welded joints.very expensive
Is rebar still needed with that steel fiber? It would have to be very thick steel other wise I think the loader could peel it up like tinfoil. I wonder how it would last is a very corrosive environment?
What about a slipper plate that covers the bucket teeth? It could be made so it pins on.
Yes it would have to be thick with joints welded to keep plates from popping.
Pretty crazy to me to have that large a loader with teeth working on concrete. Be better to just stockpile on natural ground and teach loader hands to maintain a floor of the material they're loading. That's how it's done when handling chips/seal coat and asphalt rock. Mike
In this case the material is a clay mud and fine waste material with lots of moisture from a wet process plant and not permitted to stockpile on dirt. Other wise I agree completely about just having a good loader hand. This stuff is nasty it doesn’t even stack really at all.
I was told we have tried that in the past and it did not work well. It made the bucket to heavy and never fit well.
Figure the net present value of the regular rebuilds of the existing style pad into the future (and associated costs such as tires) vs. the upfront cost of the beefed up pad plus uncertainty factor such as if it gets torn up faster than you budgeted for. I know I am not using the right financial terms for these things but you get the gist, if you are doing work with these size tractors you probably know about NPV and such and how to value upfront vs. future costs.
And why do you need teeth And not just a cutting edge ?
It’s only job isn’t loading waste. It has to load stockpiles and dig in digfaces as a backup machine.
Does it have a hydrolic quick change on it? Could you get a 2nd bucket with a cutting edge
I don’t know that they make them that big. Bucket has a capacity of 40 tons.
A slightly lighter one that fits better?
Worked in a garage where the concrete had steel filings and iron dust mixed into the batches. Took a diamond blade or drill bit to cut it after hardened, had a dark grey color once dried and would develop a rust sheen if left wet for long periods. We ran crawlers on these floors with minimal grouser damage but when came time to replace due to age was major SOB to remove the slabs.
I’m guessing you need to contain the run-off/leached liquids of material being stockpiled. Could you have soil pad with membrane liner underneath to contain liquids? I know around here, that’s how they construct landfills and manure lagoons. Then, do as others have suggested: keep thin layer of material to run bucket over. Darryl
They sprinkle steel fillings on as it setts and trowel them in to the surface, it makes it very hard to chip.
Was there the day they poured those floors I could swear the concrete finishing company guys got up on the mixer and dumped bags of filings into the drums. At least 18 trucks got this treatment, never seen concrete as hard. Six bay shop poured three drive thru's while I was there.
Maybe on is for surface hardening only?
I think steel filings also help so the concrete doesn't explode when hot slag and stuff from welding and cutting lands on it.
Could have been fiber mesh also, works like rebar.
Steel fiber comes in bags also, they’re about 1/8” diameter with a bend on each end. Reminds you of a welding rod stub used with a twist lock rod holder.
This was back before fiber mesh became popular, late 70's. The guys that cut in our alignment pit said was the worst hardest S--t they had ever sawed. That grey color was all the way thru the slab, all 11.5 inches of the 12" slab. I still remember the bags saying IRON Filings on them. Used three bags per 8.5-9 yard load.
Steel fibre in concrete is very interesting. Had a google on it. Primarily used for crack control, one article said it is hard to recycle, that slabs with over 50lbs of steel fibre per yard cannot be jackhammered and have to be sawn through and lifted out in sections. So will likely stand up better to a large toothed bucket? Article also said that often they do away with the rebar or mesh as the steel fibres do a good job of crack management on there own. So less punctures too.
Iron filings react chemically with the concrete instead of being tensile reinforcement. They do different jobs, your redimix supplier will know more than all of us. If they don't, find a better redimix company.