It’s in with the new for asphalt plants

A leading asphalt plant manufacturer is playing a key role in the upgrade of a major European airport, while another is said to have created one of the most modern plants in Europe. Meanwhile, a host of new plants and plant concepts have been, or are about to be, unveiled. Guy Woodford reports

246 Intrame says its ultra-mobile UM-280 asphalt plant has played a key role in the resurfacing of the runway and taxiways at Gatwick Airport in southern England – the busiest single runway airport in the world.

Around 35.5 million passengers annually fly to and from Gatwick, requiring about 58 take-offs and landings every hour. This meant that the UM-280 plant, capable of producing 280-300tonnes/hour, could only work three-and-a-half hours every night from midnight to 3.30am. It paved a total of 301,500m², including the 3.3km long runway and the taxiways, producing around 1,000tonnes of asphalt per night, with a peak of 1,250tonnes. Each night, between 125 and 175 lineal metres with 45m width were paved.

The owner of the Intrame UM-280 plant used for the Gatwick Airport project is Colas UK, the British subsidiary of the leading French company 184 Colas Group. The plant, which has a 4tonne mixer and all important units mounted on wheels, is currently being used to extend the main runway at Birmingham Airport in central England.

Intrame has also recently supplied an UM-260, with a production of 260tonnes/hour, to Dacca airport in Dacca, Bangladesh.
181 Cesan says the forthcoming 688 Bauma 2013 exhibition will see the Turkish company reaffirm its strong market position by showcasing its new KING BATCH stationary asphalt plant with 280tonnes/hour capacity.

The KING BATCH is said to be easy to transport with assembly achievable in a maximum of two days. The plant has an integrated mixer, weighing unit and air canals to the plant structure, and its maximum filter field is inside of its smallest filter area.
Plant operators can monitor the inside of the dryer from the plant’s rear, as well as from the side where the burner is placed. Other plant features are said to include easy to open control manholes, and a bunker and additive weighing unit on the mixer floor, situated apart from the plant’s weighing units for aggregate, filler and bitumen.

The full range of Çesan stationary asphalt plants cover a production capacity of 60-400tonnes/hour, while the firm’s mobile asphalt plant range have capacities of 60-300tonnes/hour.

According to Çesan, its plants operate with reduced greenhouse gas emissions and lower fuel consumption due to their self-designed dryers, said to save at least one litre of fuel with each tonne of asphalt produced.

Çesan says it is focussed on increasing international exports of its plants manufactured at the firm’s modern factory in Ankara, having achieved great success in the domestic market.

1253 Asphalt Drum Mixers (ADM) is now offering a full line of drag slat conveyors for use with either ADM’s asphalt plants or those from other manufacturers. They are available with material transport ratings up to 453.6tonnes/hour and are said to feature heavy-duty construction for providing years of reliable service.

For maximum durability the conveyors include reinforced weld-on slats, and the slat floor and sidewalls contain chrome carbide wear liners. To simplify maintenance, ADM has designed the conveyors with segmented sprockets. When servicing needs arise, easy access is said to be allowed by the stairways, handrails and maintenance platforms.

ADM offers its drag slat conveyors with either a formed-steel or an all-welded bridge construction. Another option is the choice of a single or double roller chain – both of which are made from hardened steel.

Other standard features on the drag slat conveyors include environmentally friendly blue-smoke recovery systems and full-length hinged steel casing covers.
1177 Lintec’s new Aggregate Cooling System (ACS) is described as a patented and fully containerised plant concept for the direct cooling of aggregates for concrete mixes.

Being showcased at bauma 2013, ACS is said by the German firm to work in a desert environment without the usual and costly addition of specially produced ice.

The patented ACS process is said to use pre-cooled water and a fan system to cool the fine sand and bigger aggregates. Available with new plants and through retrofitting on existing ones, the ACS system is said to ensure cost savings of more than 50% compared to the ice cooling system.

Said to be especially redesigned to allow hot and cold recycling, Lintec will also be highlighting its new CSD 1500 asphalt mixing plant at bauma 2013.

With a capacity of 120tonnes/hour, the CSD 1500 enables the integration of a hot storage silo with a 50tonne capacity. Similar to all Lintec’s CSD line plants, the aggregates enter the screen drum through the front wall.

Producing a 1.5tonne-sized batch, the hot storage silo comprises two 25tonne chambers. The plant’s horizontal skip bucket is 2tonnes with emergency discharge of 3.5tonnes. Bitumen tanks with the plant can either be containerised (vertical) or conventional (horizontal), with an agitator for Polymer Modified Bitumen (PMB) available for both.

The plant can be heated electrically or with thermal oil, with a further option being the addition of cellulose or additives.

273 Marini’s new eTOWER asphalt plants are said to complete the Italian firm’s Top Tower line-up. The existing Top Tower plants offer capacities of 280-400tonnes/hour and the eTOWER machines are designed with output of 150 and 180tonnes/hour. The units benefit from features used in the Top Tower range such as the drying/filtering tower system. This features an innovative location for the filter and under-filter hopper, above the dryer drum, which is said to help reduce energy consumption. This modular plant can be supplied in a basic version, while modules can be added as required in a similar fashion to the Top Tower models. The units are just 2.5m wide, allowing them to be shifted easily on roads in Europe as standard loads.
The design of the heating system optimises the gas circuit and, unlike conventional systems, the duct between the dryer and filter is short and insulated, which minimises energy loss. The recovery fines circuit is said to be highly efficient. The fines are collected in the under-filter hopper by gravity and then conveyed to the fines weighing hopper either directly by screw or by a fines elevator.

The bigger fines collected in the pre-separator are conveyed by gravity to the inlet of the hot elevator. Both these innovations eliminate the need for many screw conveyors and therefore result in considerable savings both in terms of power consumption and maintenance costs.

Efficiency is further improved as the energy given off by the dryer is recovered. Captured by the under-filter hopper, the energy released by the dryer drum keeps the recovered fines in a hot atmosphere. The eTOWER is also fitted with a new-generation screen designed with ergonomics and safety constantly in mind.

Access to the screen grids is said to be easy and, above all, each grid can be replaced without having to dismantle one or more of the other grids beforehand. This exclusive advantage means that these maintenance operations can be carried out in record time, without encroaching too much on operating time.

A highly important feature is that the eTOWER can use all modern recycling systems. There are two systems for introducing RAP: a recycling ring; and direct introduction in the mixer via a specific elevator. Their combined use means that recycling rates of nearly 50% can be achieved. For even higher recycling rates, the plant can be equipped with an additional parallel dryer drum for RAP.

Another important capability is warm-mix asphalt production, whether involving the injection of liquid or solid additives, foam bitumen generation or specific introduction cycles of materials. The eTOWER 2500 is fitted with the AQUABlack foam bitumen production system, so the final asphalt temperature can be cut by more than 30°C due to its patented Foaming Gun, with complete ease.

Highly versatile, the machine comes with factory-integrated electric wiring and complies with the new European safety requirements. The model presented is a storage-under-mixer design, equipped with ProfiBus technology and mounted on metal foundations for quick assembly and dismantling.
6791 Ammann’s new and, according to the Swiss firm, highly mobile Prime 140 asphalt mixing plant will also be present at bauma 2013.

Capable of producing 140tonnes/hour at 3% rH, Ammann says the plant has been made specifically for markets, such as Brazil, where high mobility is in demand.

Like all continuous asphalt mixing plants from Ammann, the Prime 140 is equipped with a continuously running two-shaft paddle mixer and T 1860 drier drum. Among a number of its special features is its controllable outlet gate, enabling the filling height and therefore the mixing time to be set depending on recipe and output. The outlet gate is also said to dramatically reduce losses during plant relocation and commissioning/decommissioning.

The Prime 140 is controlled by Ammann’s new fully automatic as1 Push system. An operator can manually control the plant using ‘Soft Push Buttons’, with corresponding ‘Wizards’ said to provide fast plant calibration. Automatic daily production figures are generated by as1 Push.

Other asphalt mixing plants being showcased by Ammann at bauma 2013 include the company’s new Easy Batch II plant, for batch asphalt production, capable of producing 140tonnes/hour at 3% rH. The model is available with the option of a reclaimed asphalt feed via an RAH 50 drum, or, alternatively, with a five-fold screening function. Another featured plant will be the energy efficient and low emission UniBatch range, delivering 80-150tonnes/hour.

Ammann will also be highlighting the Universal HRT batch asphalt mixing plant. Capable of producing 240-400tonnes/hour and Ammann as1 controlled, its parallel drum system allows for the introduction of up to 60% hot reclaimed asphalt directly into the mixer via a buffer silo.

Version 4 of the as1 control system, with new ‘supervisor view’ providing important information on current production in real-time accompanied by detailed statistics, can also be seen at bauma 2013.