Asphalt mix plant is significant in contemporary road construction in terms of producing top-notch asphalt that guarantees strength, durability, and smooth surfaces. A good asphalt mix plant is performance and reliability determine a better pavement, whether it is a national highway or it is a city street. But how do these powerful machines work exactly?
What is an Asphalt Mix Plant?
An asphalt mix plant is a device that properly blends aggregates (sand, gravel, and crushed stone), binder (bitumen), and fillers to form hot mix asphalt (HMA). Road works and repairs depend on these plants.
Types of Asphalt Mix Plant
Batch Mix Plants- Asphalt is created in batches.
Drum Mix Plants -used to make asphalt on a continuous basis.
Being a trusted manufacturer of asphalt plants, the process lies in their effectiveness, regularity, and regard for the environment.
Features of Asphalt Mix Plant
- Cold Aggregate Feeder Bins
- Conveyor Belts
- Drying Drum-Marc Burner
- Dust Collection System
- In batch plants Hot Elevator Data (in batch plants)
- Screening Unit (in plants in batch)
- Mixing Unit (Pugmill or Drum mixer)
- Storages of Bitumen and Filler
- PLC/SCADA-based Control Panel
- Voluntary Silos of Storage
Asphalt mix plant is the backbone of roads in modern construction, which is used today to turn raw materials into long-lasting surfaces that are used in everyday life. These plants have all the appropriate engineering work, automatic controls, with the mastery of leading asphalt plant manufacturers to ensure quality supplies and even consistency in quality to make their roads safe and sustainable over time.
Working Principle Of Asphalt Mix Plant ( Step By Step)
1. Aggregate Feeding
It starts by feeding cold aggregates in cold feed bins. These containers are separated depending on the sizes in which the aggregate is in. Vibrating feeder controls the rate at which aggregates are fed into the collecting conveyor belt to provide constant feeding.
2. Drying and heating
The aggregates collected are passed back through the rotary drying drum via the help of a conveyor system. Within the drum, the burning system (diesel, LDO or gas-fired) is used to heat aggregates in order to get rid of moisture. The drum turns so as to distribute heat uniformly.
3. Dust Collection
A multi-stage pollution control system catches the small particles and dust that is produced when it is being heated and it often consists of:
Main dust collector (cyclone)
Secondary Filter bag house
This assists in maintaining the environmental standard and makes the operation cleaner.
4. Storage and Scrutiny of Hot Aggregates
Hot aggregates are conveyed to the unit of vibrating screen, where they are segregated into various sizes. Such screened aggregates place in the hot bins above the mixing unit.
5. Weighing and Batching
The required amount of aggregates is discharged by each hot bin into a weigh hopper. At the same time, bitumen is weighed and heating it in a bitumen tank. In a separate filler unit mineral filler should also be weighed when needed.
6. Mixing Process
All the ingredients, which are hot aggregates, bitsumen, and filler, are transferred to the twin shaf or paddle types mixer (batch plants) or continue to feed the mixer drum (drum mix plants). The materials are thoroughly mixed to be in a homogeneous asphalt mix.
Batch Mix Plants: Batch mixing is perfect in projects that require a mixed design.
Drum Mix Plants find a continuous process and is more suitable for producing high volumes.
7. Loading and Storage
The end product, asphalt mix is emptied to a storage silo or is loaded directly on tipper trucks. It is then taken to the site of paving under the best temperature.
8. PLC/SCADA Control System
Recent Asphalt plants come with a sophisticated PLC or SCADA control panel that it can be operated in an automatic or routine way. Parameters can be real-time monitored and adapted by the operators to ensure quality and efficiency.
