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Concrete Skip Innovation – New Attachments

24th, October 2024

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Addressing the Final Lifting Operation That Places Personnel Beneath a Suspended Load

Pouring concrete using skips remains a popular method in the industry due to its efficiency, cost savings, and productivity. However, it continues to pose one major safety concern: operatives still stand directly beneath a suspended load during the pour. We recognised this risk and committed to finding a safer way to lift skips and pour wet concrete—without putting personnel in harm’s way.

Driving Innovation with Industry Leaders

Between Summer 2023 and Autumn 2024, we partnered with Tier 1 contractors Balfour Beatty and Select Plant Hire (part of Laing O’Rourke) to design, manufacture, test, and trial a new set of skip accessories. These innovations aim to:

  1. Eliminate the last lifting operation in the industry that requires a person to stand beneath a suspended load.
  2. Enable more accurate directional pouring of concrete—without placing anyone beneath the skip.

Our New Innovations

This month, we launched a range of skip attachments designed to enhance safety and productivity. You can use them individually or together to suit any site-specific application.

What inspired these industry-first upgrades?

Extended Flow Gate Handle

  • Working closely with Balfour Beatty’s onsite engineering team, our engineers collaborated with site crews to develop a longer flow gate handle. This handle maintains the same functionality as the standard version but allows operatives to control the pour while standing clear of the skip’s underside.

Hose Guide & Insert

  • Our next challenge involved controlling hoses that extend beyond the standard 3-metre discharge length. Based on site feedback, we developed the Hose Guide—a two-person attachment with hooked ends that guide the hose while keeping operatives safely out of the drop zone. Extendable handles adapt to different site setups. Where hose access is restricted, teams can use tag lines attached to the Hose Insert for precise positioning, eliminating the need to stand beneath the skip.

Bauer Connection

  • Tremie skips pose another risk when teams refit hoses improperly. If they don’t torque the hose clips correctly, the hose can detach under pressure—especially when extended beyond 3 metres. We addressed this with the Bauer Connection, a secure, quick-release attachment that connects hose lengths up to 6 metres without removing the hose clip. Its slide-on, slide-off design ensures fast, safe changes with minimal downtime.

You can explore these upgrades and purchase them with new Conquip Concrete Skips or retrofit them to your existing skips here.

Continuing Our Legacy of Innovation

We launched the Concrete Skip Without Bale Arm in 2017 in response to safety incidents involving traditional skips. By replacing the bale arm with lifting chains, we introduced a safer, two-point lifting method.

Over the past 18–24 months, many Tier 1 contractors have begun specifying against bale-arm skips. While both remain in use, the industry is clearly moving toward the safer, bale-arm-free standard. Our Concrete Skip Without Bale Arm—available in 500L to 4000L capacities—features two inverted lifting points to ensure a balanced, stable lift every time.

What’s Next?

We continue to work hand-in-hand with main contractors to evolve our industry-leading equipment. We also provide resources and technical support to ensure every product is used safely and correctly by trained professionals.

We’re committed to improving the safety of concrete pouring operations and welcome feedback from customers as they begin using these new attachments.