Concrete Mixer

construction · machines · building

Mixing the ingredients. A concrete mixer combines three things: cement powder, aggregate (which is sand and gravel), and water. When they spin together in the drum, they blend into a smooth, workable concrete that builders can pour and shape.

Built for job sites. Portable concrete mixers are small enough to bring directly to where construction is happening. This is super helpful because concrete starts to harden pretty quickly, so making it on site means workers have more time to use it before it gets too stiff.

The spinning drum. Most concrete mixers have a big revolving drum that rotates to tumble all the ingredients together. The drum's rotation keeps everything moving so nothing settles to the bottom and every part gets evenly mixed.

Mixing without machines. Before mechanical mixers, workers mixed concrete by hand, usually in a wheelbarrow with shovels. Some companies still sell special tarps designed to help people mix concrete by hand the old fashioned way.