“It’s my life,” Philippson says. “I was born into it, it’s all I know.”
Philippson is an operations manager for American Concrete Pumping, a company that sums up its mission as “serving our customers with American pride.”
“My dad started pouring walls in 1978,” said Philippson, “and in 1997 he bought his first pump and launched American. We started out with just two pumps, both 32-meter SCHWINGs.”
American’s operations have grown significantly since then.
“Today we have nineteen pumps,” said Philippson. “Most of those are SCHWINGs. We like SCHWING – they’re simple machines, easy to work on, and are nice and comfortable too. Uptime is very important to us, that’s why we rely on SCHWING pumps.”
In addition to the machines themselves, Philippson likes the experience he’s had with the SCHWING company. “Their people are very easy to work with,” he said. “Their communications are some of the best out there. They actually show up to talk with you, and to learn what you need. Other companies don’t do that.”
One current project is a new building for the Mayo Clinic of Rochester, Minnesota, conducted in partnership with Knutson Construction, a company that specializes in projects for the health care industry.
“In June of 2022,” Philippson said, “we got a call from Knutson, who we’ve worked with for 15 years. They knew we had big SCHWING pumps, including S 65 SXF and S 61 SX pumps. Using two machines, we pumped between four and five thousand yards of concrete in six months.”
Philippson stresses how beneficial the SCHWING machines were to the project. “The S 65 SXF has 210 feet of reach, so it’s ideal for pumping concrete all the way up to the fifth floor,” he said. “With the 65’s outriggers, we were able to fit the machine in tight spaces. And we knew the SCHWING ROCK valve could handle the mix we were using.”
Philippson says American just finished pumping the decks for the new facility in December, with completion of the project anticipated for August.
When asked what he does in his free time, Philippson laughed. “All my free time is used for concrete pumping,” he said. “I wasn’t kidding – it’s my life.”
