Two family businesses join forces for a major precast concrete plant project in the USA.

Quadra South Africa
Oct 14
6 min read

Two family businesses join forces for a major project in the USA.

The Consumers Concrete story began in 1933 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, as a sand and gravel operation. Gradually, the family business expanded throughout western, south-western and central Michigan to become the region's leading supplier of concrete products and ready-mix concrete. Now run by members of the fourth generation, Consumers Concrete designs, manufactures and markets several ranges of concrete products for construction, public works and landscaping. Production is spread over three manufacturing sites. Consumers also have 20 ready-mix concrete plants in the region. In 2024, the project to modernise the historic Kalamazoo site was launched, and management selected Quadra to supply and install the entire new production line. As for Quadra, it was in 2017 that the French family business decided to export its know-how to the American market by opening a subsidiary, Quadra USA Inc. The presence of an experienced technical and sales team and an on-site spare parts service has greatly helped it to grow by offering a local, high-quality customer service. Seven years on, the technical solution designed for Consumers reflects Quadra's knowledge of the American market, its expectations and its specific characteristics.

In addition to productivity and quality criteria, the specifications for the precast concrete plant project to modernise the Kalamazoo site stipulated that the new plant had to be adapted to the company's family format, while at the same time being able to manufacture all concrete products, i.e. several ranges of blocks, pavers, slabs and retaining walls, with a very high level of automation and robotics.

Other particularities of the request: the block machine had to be able to use the mould cavities used on the old machine, which meant designing a mould frame adapted to different product profiles.

Also, the same mould had to be able to be used for different products, which could then be palletised in different formats. This requirement necessitated the development of highly complex production cycles enabling two different products to be palletised simultaneously.

The equipment proposed and chosen to meet these multiple objectives was the obvious choice: firstly, a Q6 HP press – the first to be installed in the USA – whose technology, characteristics and performance met all the requirements, and secondly, six Kuka robots, all equipped with a pneumatic clamp designed and manufactured by Quadra.

State-of-the-art and highly productive precast concrete plant

The core component of the production unit is the Quadra 6 High Performance vibrating press. This Q6 HP press uses 1,400 x 520 x 14 mm steel pallets to manufacture high-quality blocks, slabs, pavers, retaining walls and landscaping products at high production rates. This type of machine stands out for its advantageous technical features.

The vibrating features developed by Quadra are patented and allow its block machines to stand out thanks to their uniform vibrating behaviour. The motorisation of the system is located on the side, which allows direct access to the motors, isolating them from vibration stresses and thus guaranteeing the reliability and longevity of the equipment. As a result, the distribution of the concrete and the density of the products are homogeneous.

Quadra Q6 High Performance vibrating press.

This vibration system has a decisive advantage in obtaining products of uniform density and consistency over the entire surface of the production board. It also ensures accurate dimensional characteristics of concrete products with less than 1 mm height tolerance. The press is equipped with systems allowing the board and the tamper to be mechanically referenced during the final vibration. It guarantees a finished product with a constant height corresponding to the distance between the board and the tamper. During the vibrating cycle, the pallet is held automatically in reference thanks to retractable static bars. To ensure the upper reference of the product, the tamper stays in the down position as soon as mechanical contact is made with the stops. The position of the tamper stops is remotely adjustable from the control panel, so no manual intervention is required to adjust their position during production, without interruption.

The press also benefits from one of the latest innovations developed by Quadra: a new-generation hydraulic aggregate consisting of a servo-controlled unit. A dedicated servo pump adjusts the pressure and debit to the need in the cycle for each movement. Proportional valves are then useless and are replaced by on/off valves. These parts are much more reliable, a PLC synchronising all the components, the architecture is simpler, thus reliable and less affected by the consequences of oil pollution. The measured energy saving is by 20% compared to the previous generation of equipment.

These unique technical features developed by Quadra offer innovative manufacturing conditions. The synergy between electronics, mechanics and automation makes it possible to identify and adjust the optimal manufacturing conditions for each production cycle. This mechatronic developed by Quadra allows automated control of the machine during each cycle from filling to final vibration. With its rigorous vibration characteristics, Quadra ensures a high quality of the manufactured products in terms of density, strength, weight and height in an optimal cycle time.

Handling equipment designed for higher productivity

Feeding the press with empty production boards is a priority to ensure a high level of efficiency for the production unit. This is why a robotised board buffer stock has been installed between the production area and the palletising area, with a capacity of up to 600 units. The robot manages the stock and ensures supply and storage according to priorities.

The robot manages a buffer stock of up to 600 production boards.

The press output line conveys the boards loaded with fresh products to the elevator to be stacked on 20 levels with 350 mm steps. This finger car, carrying 20 pallets, handles storage and retrieval operations. This equipment saves a large building area and allows a rational steaming solution with optimal use of the area. The curing area supplied by the German supplier Rotho can accommodate 6,240 boards. It is equipped with a ventilated and humidity-controlled system to guarantee rigorous drying and uniform curing and maturing conditions of the products.

The position of the finger car is continuously monitored by a laser, and the car is driven by servomotors for accurate platform positioning in front of the rails of the curing chamber, elevator and lowerator. Walking beam conveyors allow the production boards to be lifted and moved without friction. The handling and transfer of steel boards have been designed and implemented to avoid noise and wear.

100% automatic and customised robotic handling system

All the automation programmes have been developed to handle all the product ranges, defined according to their shape, and the associated type of palletising.

The main innovation for Quadra lies in the management of a multitude of products of different shapes, sizes and palletising formats, requiring the integration of six Kuka robots. This is a new challenge for Quadra, whose previous project in the USA already involved five robots.

The boards loaded with dry products are transferred to the product removal station, from where they are picked up and oriented by a first robot. This robot feeds the three conveyor lines that move the products either directly to the palletising station or to the two automatic splitting lines. The special feature of this robot (a KR1000-6-axis model) is that it can pick up the blocks from the side and palletise them flat. The products are successively moved onto a conveyor and picked up by a handling gripper, which groups them together and moves them to the palletising robot.

Products that have been split will continue on their way to the palletising station after being repackaged to the correct palletising format by the two central robots.

The curing area can accommodate up to 6,240 boards

A first palletising robot (another KR1000-6-axis model) rearranges the products according to the pallet stacking. Another robot supplies the many different pallet formats.

When the pallet is loaded, it is tied up and moved to the building's storage area. Depending on the range of products and the packaging, products are moved, divided, and selected in a precise, repetitive and fast way to ensure the required productivity given by the press.

Technological choices implemented with movement functions controlled by digitised axes and the use of robots allow achieving the palletising objectives of manufacturer - Consumers. This fully automatic palletising solution, supervised by a single operator, was designed to keep up with the high speed of the press. This complete line does not require any human intervention.

The first robot feeds the three conveyor lines, either to the palletising station or to the two splitting lines—robot 1 of the palletising station. — Right - The first robot feeds the three conveyor lines, either to the palletising station or to the two splitting lines. Left - Robot 1 of the palletising station.

Summary: A large-scale project

Quadra's knowledge of its customers and its understanding of their expectations and products has enabled it to offer a customised production line, adapted to the diversity of the ranges manufactured by Consumers and requiring no human intervention.

Commissioned at the end of 2024, this new production unit incorporates customised industrial solutions, combining automation, production flexibility and flow optimisation to support the site's increased capacity. At the same time, this state-of-the-art plant represents an important benchmark for the French manufacturer, demonstrating its expertise in building complete production lines.

The result of Quadra's development initiatives in the US, the solution designed for Consumers meets all the requirements of the American market.