kinda curious what types off shut off operators are using to prevent hose dribble and slop around job sites.  I seen an add for con forms air cuff.  Just looking for input from others, pros and cons, on the air cuff or whatever device they may use. Thanks for any help you may provide.

We've been using conforms air cuffs for quite a few years now. You make almost no prime pile since you can stop the flow as soon as you hear the rocks hit the tip elbows. It makes pumping into the RM trucks really easy too since you don't have to take your halo off and once you get used to it there really won't be any excess on the job site. If you can leave it on the hose when you move it makes it so you don't have to worry about dribbling on the truck.

The cons would be you still have to drain the hose, Which can be a pain in the ass with drier stuff. About once every couple years a piece of the inner tube folds over and covers the air hole and the cuff gets stuck on the hose, It's not hard to fix but it's not fun to deal with on a jobsite. If you do shut it off on your prime the wet mud comes out pretty fast when you take it off. They don't work very good with pea gravel.

Has anyone used the inline shut offs and the hose shut offs? We don't have any in line ones and the hose ones are too big to leave on the hose all the time on certain booms. Are the in line ones a lot smaller outter diameter?

The Conforms air cuff which compresses your tip hose is nice as it wont damage your hose. You cannot fold up with it on when you travel though. Conforms also makes an inline aircuff. It connects into your tip pipeline and works the same way to shut off the flow of concrete by inflating a bladder inside the pipeline. Both are used for your pump only. If you want something in your placing line, Conforms makes a manual shut off with seals on both sides of the valve. The seals will help you not lose grout when you close it and help prevent rock pockets. It wont handle a huge amount of pressure (like being at the bottom of a 400+ ft rise) but most people dont do that with them. I recommend the dual seal valves so that you don't have to think about which way is the best to seal only one side. I would get the dual seal valve and not think about it. We have way too many other things to worry about.     

I lost two jobs, today and tomorrow at a school where they wanted me to poke through the roof beams sever times. It would be nice to have something to stop the mud. i would want to leave it on my reducing hose and also not be a pain every time i take the hose off to suck a ball. Now i just fold and belt the tip which usually gets the job done. But most times i just do a controlled drip : ). Any one ever make one?

At World of Concrete, Conforms had a boom shut off valve they showed off. This valve would be put into the pipeline at the end of the tip and has a hard metal plate that shuts off the flow of concrete. It needs to be integrated into the pump electronics so it has a chance to open up with out the pump pushing concrete against the plate. This product is in developement and is not available yet. This valve will not need to be removed from them boom and will be completely rebuildable. I am sure Conforms will let everyone know when this valve is available and will post it on this site as well.