Southern Drainage Products and Supply, Inc.
Concrete Pipe and Drainage Products

Southern Drainage Products produces Non-Reinforced and Reinforced Concrete Pipe from 15” through 48” in diameter. We have a two-year-old plant that utilizes European technology. A new automated Skako batch plant produces the zero slump concrete used to produce concrete pipe. Skako is one of the world leaders in concrete production for products plants. The skako mixer is a two-yard countercurrent mixer with a hydronix moisture probe. The countercurrent mixer acts like a mix master. There are two sets of mixing stars that move around the mixer in one direction while that stars are rotating in the opposite direction. The countercurrent action insures complete mixing of all of the ingredients in every batch of concrete. The hydronix moisture system controls the moisture of the concrete in the mixer with amazing accuracy, and hydronix probes in the aggregate silos compensates for water weight in the aggregates as they are being weighed. By producing consistent high quality concrete, we are one step closer to making an excellent pipe.

The wire produced for reinforced concrete pipe is made by an automatic cage machine bought from Zublin in Germany. This cage machine stores each cage design so that the cages are the same everyday. The rod used in the Zublin cage machine is drawn from a wire drawer machine made by DTI out of Wisconsin.

The pipe machine used to cast our pipe is from Pedershaab. Our automatic “Mastermatic” pipe machine from Pedershaab uses a rising core with a centrally located hydraulic vibrator to consolidate the concrete. Because the core rises with the level of concrete as it enters the form, the vibrator actually consolidates every inch of material of the concrete pipe. In addition to this excellent vibration technique, a compactor rotor located on the top of the rising core prepacks the mud. Through prepacking and excellent vibration, we are able to produce a pipe that exceeds the quality of traditional vibrated pipe while rivaling the appearance of a packerhead pipe! The Mastermatic pipe machine also has hydraulic cage positioners. There are four positioners slightly above the bell and four postioners slightly below the tongue. These cage positioners help to insure proper wire placement in the reinforced concrete pipe.

Because our concrete, wire, and pipe are made using proven automation, we feel that we can provide our customers with a product that is consistent and of the highest quality available in today’s market.

We do hope you will try our non-reinforced extra strength concrete pipe--identified as Class 2 Side Drain for fills not over 10 feet. This concrete pipe is approved in Georgia DOT and Florida DOT projects. The price is approximately 10% less and this pipe can be used in lieu of other materials.

After this pipe has been laid, the roundness of the pipe is the same as it was before installation. The same gasket treatment is used on the Class 2 Concrete Pipe as on the C3, C4, and C5. This concrete pipe also meets ASTM C14 specifications for non-reinforced concrete pipe.

Yours Truly,

John E. Somers