A common method for cooling concrete is to replace part of the added water in the mix with flake ice. Due to the fact that the flake ice does not melt until it is in the mixer and the phase transition from ice to water requires a lot of energy, the temperature of the mixture decreases significantly.

In order to be able to produce this ice, an ice factory, consisting of a flake ice production unit and an ice storage facility, is set up on the construction site. From the ice storage, the ice
is transported to the weighing scale by means of a transport screw, after which the weighed ice is added to the mix. The ice factory occupies little floor area on the construction site, because the production unit and the storage unit are stacked on top of each other.

The use of flake instead of cold water has a major effect on the temperature of the concrete mix due to the large amount of heat required to change the aggregation state. In order to cool 1 m³ concrete by 1°C, only 7.5 kg of flake ice are required, instead of 33 kg of cooled water at 5°C. The temperature of the mixture can thus be reduced by as much as 12°C with flake ice.