Planers Help Win the Efficiency and Safety Battle

A 1-to-4 ratio doesn’t make a fair fight. But in a battle for efficiency and safety in concrete removal, one person doing the work of four always wins the war.

Armed with a Brokk machine and planer attachment, an operator on concrete wall and ceiling repair projects at dry docks, water treatment plants, bridges and in sewer pipes can quickly remove deteriorating concrete from ceilings, floors and walls. To keep up with a single Brokk machine and planer attachment, a contractor would need a four-person crew on bulky scaffolding armed with handheld tools and pneumatic bushing bits. Even then, it would not be long before the Brokk machine outlasted the workers’ stamina.

Brokk offers four planer models, the BCP 250, BCP 350, PLB 200 and PLB 300. The BCP models are ideal for removing concrete from ceilings and walls, and the PLB attachments handle grinding large surface areas, such as concrete walls at dry docks.

With a BCP planer, operators set the planer’s skis against the surface and, once the planer is activated, its grinder runs along a track to remove a 1/4- to 2-inch layer of concrete. Once the grinders finish their cycle, operators move them to the next location and repeat the process. The BCP planers are made for the Brokk 100 and 160, and the BCP 350 planers fit the Brokk 260, 400 and the diesel-powered 330D.

The PLB attachments have high maneuverability on concrete surfaces, and since they do not run on tracks, operators freely grind in wide, sweeping motions to cover large swaths. The PLB 200 planers fit the Brokk 160 and 180, and the PLB 300 planers fit the larger, Brokk 260, 330D and 400.

The attachments grind at rates up to 80 square feet per hour and delaminate smalling concrete to create a good binding surface for epoxy finishes. They are similar to open-faced grinders, but their flat grinding profiles help prevent the removal of too much concrete at a time; operators simply ratchet down the two-drum grinder in 1/16-inch increments to create a uniform, binding surface.

While the Brokk machine-planer combination increases speed and precision, a key advantage for owners and operators is safety.

When crewmembers are working on overhead surfaces with handheld bushing bits, they cannot watch their footing and the bit’s impact site at the same time. This increases the risk of falling from scaffolding. If bits are impacting an eroding concrete ceiling, workers also are in danger of large sections fracturing and falling, sometimes without warning. On the other hand, with the remote-controlled Brokk 400 machines and planer attachments, they are completely removed from the risk of falling concrete and scaffolding missteps, even as the machine grinds surfaces up to 20 feet above the ground.

Like the Brokk machines, the planers are engineered for safety and efficiency. Steel shrouds encase the planers’ two-drum grinders to catch flying concrete shrapnel and reduce dust particles. Operators can quickly replace worn carbide teeth with the wedge and hammer, which are included with every planer attachment, to minimize downtime on concrete projects. An optional vacuum also eliminates the risk of water contamination by sucking concrete debris from the shroud so material doesn’t fall into streams, canals and other bodies of water.

The planer joins other attachments in the Brokk tool arsenal, working in turns with steel buckets, hydraulic breakers and rock drills in the fight for efficiency and safety.