Damaged and deteriorated asphalt on the roads needs to be repaired or completely disposed in landfills. In this tough economic age, with expensive materials and tight budgets, disposal is not the best solution. However, road recycling is. Because of this, heavy-duty machines manufacturers have created many models of the road recycler, each with unique configurations and specifications. The road recycler is a cost-effective machine that crushes, mills and rips asphalt pavement and combines it with aggregate materials in order to produce a hot mix of recycled asphalt. Depending on the size of the road recycling project, different road recycler models can be used.
Reliable, durable and quality road recycler and a right recycling method can bring many benefits, including quality aggregate, environmental impact and reduced amount of virgin aggregate and liquid asphalt. There are five main methods of recycling asphalt:
- cold planing
- cold recycling
- hot recycling
- hot recycling on-place
- full-depth reclamation.
The following text will describe the characteristics of the full-depth reclamation process.
Full Depth Reclamation
The road recycler used in this process consists of a large cutting drum studded with carbide tipped teeth, capable to pulverize or rip off the asphalt, soil or the base materials as deep as 50 cm. The process of pulverization is done inside the drum cutter, which is equipped with breaker bars. The breaker bars are used to control the size of the graded materials.
The process of full-depth reclamation is very simple. The road recycler tears up the old asphalt base, while a grader machine brings the surface of the road back to its original form, making it passable for temporary traffic. Meanwhile, a truck with a water tank spreads certain amount of cement over the pulverized base, and a road recycler mixes the cement with water, and spreads it down on the roadway to a depth of 20-25 cm. The mixture is compacted by a powerful compaction machine. In the end, the new layer of hot recycled asphalt is left to cure.
The full-depth reclamation process is the ideal solution for rebuilding roads because it creates a stronger pavement by using less materials and by recycling the materials which are already there. This is why the full-depth reclamation method is preferred by many road construction companies. In addition to the positive environmental impact, the full-depth reclamation method is considered cost-effective and quick. There is no need for base material, while the profile of the road remains unchanged. The result of the full-depth reclamation is a durable roadway capable to withstand all types of traffic and weather conditions.
