Cold asphalt technology has got prominence and popularity over the hot mix asphalt technology. Effective research is going on how to improve the cold mixing technology. Due to its environmental friendliness, ease of use and affordability. When a road contractor uses cold patch asphalt repair technology rather than hot asphalt, he can ensure high safety for the workmanship. Remote and rural areas of India can really benefit from cold mix technology. In most cases of recycling asphalt pavements as well as the creation of new roads, road contractors prefer cold patch asphalt repair material over others.
The only limitation is worth mentioning that it cannot be used at ambient temperature under 10 degrees celsius. Likewise, the design of the asphalt pavement must be perfect to get the most out of the cold mix application. Many kinds of cold mixes are available depending on the needs. Slurry seal micro-surfacing is the most common cold mix application technology.
A cold asphalt mix is a combination of several elements such as aggregates, coarse aggregates, fine aggregates, filler and binder. Cold patch asphalt repair is the best to yield many benefits.
Cold asphalt is produced at ambient temperatures emulsion warmed around 60 degrees celsius. As we have seen, there are no specific machines available for cold mix design. Several additives such as cement, fly ash, chemical products, lime, fiber determine the quality of cold asphalt. Whatever the cold mix you create its mechanical properties are affected by several parameters as follows:
- Aggregate Gradation
- Level of compaction
- Curing Time
- Void Content
- Different additives like cement
Hot Mix technology, why outdated?
Hot-mix technology in road construction is a technology prevalent but the cold patch asphalt repair technique is gaining popularity over it for many reasons. Size-graded, high-quality aggregate, liquid asphalt, and cement are combined and heated in the required quantity to produce a hot mix of asphalt. In most cases, the amount and type of aggregate used vary depending on the intended use. It is a conventional method for road construction which has many advantages and many road constructors think the performance is satisfactory. A hot mix of technology procedures followed generally are:
- Heating of binder and aggregate
- Mixing
- Tack Coating
- Laying of mix and compaction process at high temperature
- Temperature generally varies between 120ºC to 165ºC temperature.
Though the hot mix performance is satisfactory it has lost importance due to its high use and has several drawbacks such as:
- Environmental degradation
- High-energy consumption
- An increase in carbon footprint
- Low output for mix production
- Low laying work in rains and cold weather
- Health and safety of workmanship
- Oxidative hardening of the binder
- Topographical & weather constraints
- Limited construction period in a year
About us
Bedrock Chem Infra LLP is a trusted provider of cold patch asphalt repair in Maharashtra that strives to provide quality bitumen-based products for road construction. We are a team of experienced engineers, chemists and skilled labourers to provide optimal road construction products of supreme quality to road constructors as well as road contractors. Being a top provider of cold patch asphalt repair in Maharashtra, we also provide micro-surfacing emulsion, bitumen emulsion and road safety signboards.
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