A Batch Plant With a Steering Wheel
Every claim on this website — rapid-set that actually sets right, exact yardage, no hot loads — traces back to one machine. Here's how a volumetric mixer works, and why it beats a drum for time-critical and small-quantity concrete.
Ingredients ride separately. Concrete happens at your forms.
A drum truck carries finished concrete — mixed at a plant, aging every minute of the drive. A volumetric truck carries the recipe: bins of sand and rock, a sealed cement silo, a water tank, admixture reservoirs. At your site, a calibrated auger proportions and blends them continuously as it discharges.
That single design choice cascades into everything customers actually feel:
- No hot loads. Concrete can't cure in transit if it doesn't exist in transit.
- No 90-minute clock. The aging window that governs drum trucks starts at discharge instead.
- Exact, metered yardage. The truck stops making concrete when your forms are full.
- Mix changes on site. PSI, slump and admixtures adjust at the controls between pours.
- Honest small loads. Two yards costs two yards of material — not a drum truck's guilt trip.
Volumetric vs. drum, where it matters
| Drum ready-mix | Volumetric on-site | |
|---|---|---|
| Where mixing happens | At the plant, before the drive | At your forms |
| Freshness clock | Starts at the plant (~90-min guideline) | Starts at discharge |
| Rapid-set / high-early mixes | Racing the drive time | Full working window on site |
| Quantity | Ordered ahead; overage dumped | Metered to the ¼ yard |
| Small loads | Minimums & surcharges | Normal business |
| Mid-job spec change | Second truck from the plant | Dial it at the controls |
Drum trucks are fine machines for big, single-mix, schedule-flexible pours. For deadlines, small quantities and accelerated chemistry, the physics favor volumetric.
The fleet behind every page on this site
Rapid-set that sets right
Accelerated mixes get their entire working window at your site. Rapid-set concrete →
DOT night work
Exact panel yardage and high-early designs at the closure. Panel replacement →
Fair small loads
Half-yard to full pours at published rates. Short-load delivery →
Dispatched from the Tualatin Valley. Serving the I-5 corridor.
The fleet stages from the Tualatin Valley and works the Portland metro daily; corridor and agency jobs are dispatched case-by-case.
Outside these cities? Call — corridor jobs and DOT work are routed case-by-case.
More rapid-set resources
Frequently asked questions
What is a volumetric concrete mixer?
A truck that carries the ingredients of concrete — sand, coarse aggregate, cement, water and admixtures — in separate compartments, and blends them through a calibrated auger at the point of discharge. It's a mobile batch plant: concrete is manufactured at your site, in real time, in the quantity you need.
Is volumetric concrete as strong as plant ready-mix?
Yes — it's the same materials producing the same designed strengths; the difference is where and when mixing happens. Freshness is actually the advantage: volumetric concrete can't age in a drum, can't be retempered with water after a long ride, and every yard discharges at the same age.
What is the “90-minute rule” for ready-mix?
Industry standards for truck-mixed concrete (ASTM C94 is the reference) have long used ~90 minutes or 300 drum revolutions from batching as the discharge guideline — because concrete degrades as it ages in the drum. Volumetric mixing steps around the whole issue: the clock starts at discharge, because that's when the concrete is made.
Can you really change the mix in the middle of a job?
Yes — cement content, water, target PSI and admixture dosing are set at the control panel. Footings at 3500 PSI and a 4500 PSI slab can pour from the same truck in the same visit, and a rapid-set design can cap the day without a second delivery.
Does metered delivery really mean I only pay for what I use?
Yes. The auger's output is calibrated and metered, so the yardage on the ticket is the yardage that went in your forms. Over-ordering 'to be safe' — and paying to dump the extra — is a drum-truck problem.
The best demo is your next pour.
Call dispatch, describe the job, and watch the mix get built at your forms — to spec, to the quarter yard.
(503) 925-1002