Putzmeister was founded by Karl Schlecht in 1958. Schlecht designed a mortar machine based on his diploma thesis at the
University of Stuttgart. In 1986, Putzmeister 52Z's were used in the
Chernobyl nuclear accident, pumping over of concrete to entomb reactor number 4, setting a world record at the time for volume pumping. During the
2011 Japanese nuclear accidents at the
Fukushima plant, multiple Putzmeister concrete boom pumps were flown to Japan from locations around the world. After the initial success of a M58-5 unit, additional M62-6s and 70Z's were transported to Japan on-board chartered
Antonov An-124s, the world's second largest cargo plane. The 70Z is the world's largest boom pump, able to reach over , and able to be controlled remotely from away. The pumps will be deployed to try to stabilise the four reactors with additional water pumping capacity. In May 2008, Putzmeister reached a world record in vertical concrete pumping (), via their specially designed concrete pumps type BSA 14000 SHP-D, in building the
Burj Khalifa. In 2008, Putzmeister broke its own record by pumping concrete to a height of more than 700 m at the
Burj Khalifa. As the largest German-Sino transaction ever, at the end of January 2012 Putzmeister was sold to the
Chinese Sany Heavy Industries, the construction-equipment maker run by China's richest man
Liang Wengen. == Products ==