Midlands Simulation Group
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Midlands Simulation Group
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"Local company cements its future with help from the University" Hymix Ltd., based in Telford, launches its latest unique concrete transit mixer at the SED exhibition at the Rockingham Performance Park, Corby, Northamptonshire this week. Hymix has long been at the forefront of the development of new mixers for the construction industry and is constantly looking for ways to improve its products. Three years ago, the company realised the need to develop a lighter body for its mixers as a result of increasingly stringent environmental and emissions laws, and to increase load carrying capacity of the vehicles. Over the past two years, Hymix has therefore started to develop its ideas and has had a major breakthrough in the past six months, bringing massive potential cost savings to the construction industry. The research and development work has been assisted by grant aid from a programme known as a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) held jointly by Hymix and the university of Wolverhampton. Here the Design Associate Dawn Hardie, has worked closely with Lead Academic Professor Richard Hall and the MD of Hymix Nick Humpish; and, the Hymix’s lead Design Engineer John Keeler to develop new innovations in mixer design. Dawn has used the latest computer aided design software to analyse the performance of new designs prior to prototypes being built which has reduced the time to develop the new transit mixer, giving Hymix the edge over the competition. At the SED show Hymix will show two new prototypes of the new their mixer trucks, which included a weight saving of 160 and 200 kilos respectively. This represents an enormous achievement considering that their vehicles are already the lightest in their class. The weight saving on the frame has enabled Hymix to increase the size of the mixing unit, which will lead to a higher rate of productivity. This affords Hymix a distinct competitive advantage in the UK and more importantly in the more mature European markets. Until now, Hymix’ has mainly focussed its marketing activity on the UK. Europe has always been more relaxed about gross vehicle weights but is now becoming more concerned. Hymix’ future strategy is to branch out into Europe and Nick Humpish, its Managing Director, comments “ Our experience combined with the work of the University of Wolverhampton has helped us to improve our products and to get a foothold into new markets.” Nick is keen to collaborate with the University in the future and a new Knowledge Transfer Partnership scheme will be starting soon. Its aim will be to investigate the use of composites for the manufacture of the drum, which also has weight-saving potential. Professor Richard Hall commented that “this will be a most challenging R&D project as composite parts will not only need the necessary structural strength but will also have to be resistant to impact and wear within this aggressive environment”.
Computer Model of Structure of a Hymix Concrete Transit Mixer: (Results for Finite Element Analysis showing Equivalent stresses)
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