Company type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Design, manufacture and sales concrete pumps. |
Founded | 1958 |
Founder | Karl Schlecht |
Headquarters | Aichtal, Germany |
Key people | Christoph Kaml (CEO) |
Products | Concrete Equipment |
Parent | Sany Heavy Industries |
Website |
putzmeister |
Putzmeister is a German manufacturer of concrete pumps and other equipment for pumping, distributing and placing concrete, mortar and other high-density solids, and for preparing, temporarily storing, processing and transporting these materials. The firm is headquartered at Aichtal, and is the largest in its field. [1] It also provides pumps for a wide range of different materials, for example slurries, fly ash, sewage, compost and water. [2]
Putzmeister is German for "Plaster Master" ( Putz Meister). In 2017, the company had 3,000 employees worldwide.
Putzmeister was founded by Karl Schlecht in 1958. [3] Schlecht designed a mortar machine based on his diploma thesis at the University of Stuttgart. [4]
In 1986, Putzmeister 52Z's were used in the Chernobyl nuclear accident, pumping over 300,000 m3 (390,000 cu yd) of concrete to entomb reactor number 4, setting a world record at the time for volume pumping. [5]
During the 2011 Japanese nuclear accidents at the Fukushima plant, multiple Putzmeister concrete boom pumps were flown to Japan from locations around the world. After the initial success of a M58-5 unit, [6] additional M62-6s and 70Z's were transported to Japan on-board chartered Antonov An-124s, the world's second largest cargo plane. [7] The 70Z is the world's largest boom pump, [8] able to reach over 67 metres (220 ft), and able to be controlled remotely from 2 miles (3.2 km) away. The pumps will be deployed to try to stabilise the four reactors with additional water pumping capacity.[ citation needed]
In May 2008, Putzmeister reached a world record in vertical concrete pumping (606 metres (1,988 ft)), via their specially designed concrete pumps type BSA 14000 SHP-D, in building the Burj Khalifa. [9] In 2008, Putzmeister broke its own record by pumping concrete to a height of more than 700 m at Burj Khalifa. [10]
As the largest German-Sino transaction ever, at the end of January 2012 Putzmeister was sold to the Chinese Sany Heavy Industries, the construction-equipment maker run by China's richest man Liang Wengen. [11]