Where to measure moisture in a concrete plant
Most moisture measurement discussions start at the bin, because that is where fixed sensors go. But material arrives before it reaches the bin, and the moisture it arrives with is the most variable number in the whole process.
From the stockpile to the job site
Stockpile
Where moisture varies most and where nobody has a fixed sensor. Portable readings here catch a wet delivery before it becomes a bad batch.
Bin, silo or hopper
Under the silo flap or in the bin wall. The most common inline installation on ready-mix plants — moisture measured as material exits toward the weigh belt.
Conveyor or dosing belt
Mounted above the belt or at discharge. Continuous measurement of everything passing through, suited to higher-volume aggregate handling.
Mixer
In the mixer base plate or the scraper. Measures the concrete itself rather than the aggregate feeding it. Intensive, planetary and twin-shaft mixers.
Truck and job site
Water content in fresh concrete at the truck, with a result before unloading finishes. Quality control by the producer, the lab or the customer.
The stockpile is the cheapest place to catch a problem
An inline sensor at the silo tells you what the material is doing as it leaves the bin. That is useful, and it is what corrects the batch. But by then the material is already in your plant and already in your inventory.
A portable reading at the stockpile or on the truck at delivery answers a different question: should this material be here at all. Verifying an agreed maximum moisture content on delivery, in real time and without a laboratory, is a commercial control rather than a process one.
Aggregates that are not measured in the process can also be measured quickly here and considered in the recipe — which matters for the materials that do not have a dedicated sensor on them.
Moisture changes at every stage
Sand arrives wet and variable. It gets dosed, mixed, and delivered. A reading at one point does not describe the others.
Not sure where to put the first sensor?
Tell us what problem you are chasing — inconsistent slump, cement overuse, wet deliveries, failed batches — and we will tell you which station to instrument first.
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