APro November 2013

november 2013

Convey Materials with Safe Innovations

Lobby QC oemsTension Wash Screens

Luck Loads by remoteSwift Sizes rAS at 3/8 minus

Stay Safe:Untangle Trucks

ALTernATive DeLivery?

Asphalt’s still smooth with these windrow tips

22

16

13

48

contents

on the CoverAsphalt paving turns out smooth and successful whether you use traditional methods or alternative delivery methods such as windrow paving. Check out best practices for building a good windrow and picking it up properly on page 24. Photo courtesy of John Ball of Top Quality Paving, Manchester, N.H.

NOVEMBER 2013

Convey Materials with Safe Innovations

Lobby QC OEMsTension Wash Screens

Luck Loads by RemoteSwift Sizes RAS at 3/8 Minus

Stay Safe:Untangle Trucks

ALTERNATIVE DELIVERY?

Asphalt’s still smooth with these windrow tips

DepArtmentsLetter from the editor5 The Lizard mixture

Around the Globe6

Safety Spotlight8 Stay Safe by Haul TrucksBy John Ball, Translated by EZ Street® Company

Project management13 Sundre moves material FasterBy Gary Pederson

Producer Profile16 Luck makes Loading SaferLuck Stone encourages innovation90 years into the businessBy AsphaltPro Staff

equipment Gallery58 Protect Crushers Downstream

Here’s How it Works62 Process Heating’s internal Pipe Tracing

resource Directory65

Last Cut66 nUmby—not Under my backyardBy Sandy Lender

ArtiCles22 Don’t break for Short HaulsBy AsphaltPro Staff

24 Deliver mix for Smooth FinishBy Corey L. Pelletier

32 move rAS materialMissouri producer shares the fine points of running recycled shinglesBy Daniel C. Brown

39 Control your Plant mixBy Dr. Michael Heitzman and Clarence Richard

48 Avoid Tangling Up Truck SafetyBy AsphaltPro Staff

50 virginia Paving’s 2013 CauseBy John Ball

52 Select Correct Tax-Deductible Pension PlanBy William H. Black, Jr.

53 Construction expert Grows into Surety ownerBy Barbara Krause

54 That’s a Good ideaMake Hopper AdjustmentsBy John Ball

24

The Lizard Mixtureburied within last month’s editorial col-umn, i confessed to keeping stray liz-ards hydrated in my Southwest Flor-ida home. imagine my surprise when i realized those little reptiles fit into this month’s information as well—albeit tan-gentially. Upon my return from the As-phalt Contractors Association of Florida (ACAF) annual conference in Orlando in september, i knew i would include in this hauling and conveying issue a how-to ar-ticle with Corey pelletier, the director of Asphalt technologies, inc., in lake City, Fla. At the conference, pelletier had given a presentation about alternative delivery methods for asphalt paving—specifically windrow paving.

let me admit my bias right now: it has, for almost two decades, made no sense to me why a team would throw mix on the ground before putting it in the hopper. i didn’t understand why a state agency like Oregon DOt would specify a contractor had to do this for a project. (Check out the “mill, Fill logis-tics” article on page 34 of the October issue to see how Oregon mainline pav-ing successfully used windrow paving on the two-weekend project on i-84 near portland.)

Of course my former way of thinking was an oversimplification of what wind-row paving is and i listened to pelletier’s presentation, taking notes without any words like “zany” mixed in. (His article is on page 24.) He offered valuable tips on how to prevent material segregation and temperature segregation, which were the main reasons i had looked askance at the practice. true success de-pends on the dump man’s skill and timing of the trucks.

John Ball, the proprietor of top Quality paving in manchester, n.H., has shared the importance of timing the arrival—and departure—of haul trucks with readers more than once in our pages. pelletier echoed its importance. let me reiterate it here. After all, that’s the theme of this month’s edition.

When you’re hauling and conveying asphalt mix ready to charge a hopper, you’re working with a perishable product. it has an expiration time. the binder in that mix? it’s aging. the mix itself? it’s cooling. the aggregates? they’re ab-sorbing AC. You’ve got to get those tons on the ground. But they must get on the ground in an organized manner.

Here’s where my line of thinking got a little carried away, and i hope you’ll read this with the understanding that the gecko population in this part of Flori-da throws itself in front of regular traffic on a regular basis. if you build a wind-row of 300 or 400 feet in front of your mtD or mtV, how do you keep lizards or rodents from running into the mound and cooking? Do we humans rely on the noise and vibration of the paving train and truck traffic to keep such crit-ters away? Or does said noise and vibration shake them out of rural grasses and onto the roadway for non-fractionated inclusion in our mixes? surely we don’t have to include lizard guts in the moisture content of mix designs!

stay safe

sandy lender

november 2013 • Vol. 7 no. 2editor's note

2001 Corporate PlaceColumbia, MO 65202

573-499-1830 • 573-499-1831www.theasphaltpro.com

GROuP PuBLiSHERChris Harrison

PuBLiSHERSally Shoemaker

[email protected](573) 499-1830 x1008

EDiTOR

Sandy [email protected]

(239) 272-8613

ART DiRECTORKristin Branscom

OPERATiOnS/CiRCuLATiOn MAnAGERCindy Sheridan

BuSinESS MAnAGERRenea Sapp

AsphaltPro is published 10 times per year: January, February, March, April, May, June/July,

August/September, October, november and December by The Business Times Company, 2001

Corporate Place, Columbia, MO 65202

Writers expressing views in AsphaltPro Magazine or on the AsphaltPro website are professionals

with sound, professional advice. Views expressed herein are not necessarily the same as the views of AsphaltPro or Business Times Company staff, thus producers/contractors are still encouraged to use best practices when implementing new advice.

SuBSCRiPTiOn POLiCy: individual subscriptions are available without charge in the united Sates,

Canada and Mexico to qualified individuals.

One year subscription to non-qualifying individuals: united States $90, Canada and

Mexico $125.00. For the international digital edition, visit theasphaltpro.com/subscribe-2.

Single copies available $17 each.

many thanks to the lane Corporation for this excellent marketing idea. Photo courtesy of John Ball.

www.TheasphaLTpro.coM | asphaLT pro 5

Industry News and Happenings from Around the WorldIreLandOldcastle, inc., a subsidiary of CrH plc head-quartered in Dublin, ireland, has another feath-er in its cap. its president and COO, Doug Black has been elected 2013-14 chairman of the American road & transportation Builders Association (ArtBA).

UnITed sTaTes• the American General Contractors reported

in late september that construction employ-ment expanded in 194 metro areas—out of 339 surveyed—between August 2012 and August 2013; declined in 88 of the areas during that time; and remained the same in 57 of the areas. Construction employment reached peak levels for August in 19 of the 339 areas surveyed. the association’s CeO stephen sandherr stated, “it will take a lot more growth before significantly more met-ro areas get back to peak employment lev-els in construction.”

• For up-to-the-minute info and updates that impact the asphalt industry, follow http://twitter.com/Asphaltpro.

caLIfornIaCummins Cal pacific llC and Cummins West inc. out of irvine, Calif., merged into a single entity sept. 28. the new Cummins pacific will serve California and Hawaii as the exclusive distributor for Cummins inc., combining 12 existing service centers under the new name. Cummins employs approximately 46,000 peo-ple worldwide and serves customers in ap-proximately 190 countries and territories. the company earned $1.65 billion on sales of $17.3 billion during 2012.

coLoradoHave you registered for the 40th rocky moun-tain Asphalt Conference and exhibition show to be held Feb. 19 through 21, 2014 in Den-ver? same perfect location with continuing education units available in addition to the cool prizes on the tradeshow floor. Visit www.rmaces.org for information. Online registra-tion began Oct. 1.

fLorIdaAt the recent Asphalt Contractors Associa-tion of Florida (ACAF) annual conference, lane Construction won the 2013 statewide Winner for an urban resurfacing project for its excel-lent completion of sr 530 (Us192) where it placed 18,373 tons on 7.877 lane miles. the

2013 statewide Winner for a rural resurfacing project was ApAC-southeast, inc., for its suc-cessful completion of sr 235 where it placed 35,896 tons on 24.8 lane miles. Additional winners of smooth, gorgeous asphalt pave-ments in the state of Florida can be seen at www.acaf.org.

GeorGIathe state road and tollway Authority, along with the Georgia state Financing and invest-ment Commission, has approved a $599 mil-lion contract to build toll lanes on interstates 75 and 575. the job is part of the $840 million northwest Corridor project outside Atlanta. Source: American General Contractors

Idahoto become a Certified Binder technician, a candidate must have work experience with the testing of asphalt binders for compliance with the pG spec (AAsHtO m320); either 6 months experience or 60 days working under an nBtC certified tech; and a completed ap-plication form and approval for the certifica-tion class. Get the nBtC Certification Applica-tion at www.asphaltinstitute.org to begin the registration process for the Dec. 3 through 5 program at the idaho DOt Operations Annex in Boise, or the Jan. 14 through 16, 2014, pro-gram at the Asphalt institute headquarters in lexington, Ky.

MaryLandthe national Asphalt pavement Association (nApA) will include ground tire rubber/crumb rubber use in mixes in future recycle surveys, so start keeping track of your Gtr use now to make your reporting easier later.

MassachUseTTsmassDOt broke ground on a $197.35 million project in mid-september. the route 79/i-195 project is mostly bridge reconstruction work as the contractor replaces eight bridges, but in-cludes overpass spans and interstate work.

MIchIGanAccording to mlive.com, the michigan Depart-ment of transportation “is spending about $1 million to install Wi-Fi by January” on three Amtrak routes in the state. the online news source lists those lines as the Blue Water, the pere marquette and the Wolverine. it appears the state will have $25.2 million in funding in FY2014 for Amtrak for the “record-setting

793,000 people” in michigan who traveled it last year. that means mDOt is spending $31.78 per person—not including Wi-Fi—on Amtrak items.

new JerseyBagela will display its pavement recyclers at the nJpA league of municipalities Conference in Atlantic City, n.J., nov. 19 through 21.

ohIo• the Opportunity Corridor is a good phrase

to listen for in Ohio. As of early september, almost $1 billion in road work is on the table thanks to the Ohio turnpike and infrastruc-ture Commission. projects tangentially relat-ed to the turnpike now qualify for toll funds and can help relieve congestion in the future for Ohio drivers.

• eagle Crusher Co., Galion, Ohio, has added eric James Von stein to its staff as a parts sales manager. reach him at (614) 827-9721.

soUTh dakoTa• Jeff may has been promoted to president of

Kolberg-pioneer, inc., Yankton, s.D. (Kpi-JCi and Astec mobile screens).

• the Kpi training center in Yankton will be host to the troubleshooting and resolv-ing situations three-day workshop Dec. 10 through 12. early bird registration ends nov. 22 at www.kpijci.com. Call terry at (605) 668-2545 for more information.

TennesseeAstec, inc., in Chattanooga, offers four sessions of Advanced Customer schools Jan. 6 through 9 or Jan. 13 through 16 for level 1 classes; and Jan. 27 through 30 or Feb. 3 through 6 for new level ii classes. registration is open now at (423) 867-4210.

washInGTonAt press time, House energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (r-mich.) and representative Gene Green (D-texas) had their bipartisan draft bill for speeding up the permitting process for cross-border oil pipelines in front of a committee panel. the legislation makes significant changes: it puts the Commerce Department in charge of the permitting process instead of the state Department; it sets a 120-day time limit on reviews of applications; it waives detailed national environmental policy Act reviews. Source: thehill.com

around the globe

6 noveMber 2013

safety spotlight

Stay Safe by Haul Trucksby John baLL, TransLaTed by eZ sTreeT® coMpany

everyone’s safety is everyone’s responsibility. Your boss may be in charge of setting the rules and giving you a

handbook, but every worker from the lab tech at the plant to the finish roller operator is an integral part of the com-pany’s safety culture. that means we all look out for our-selves and we all look out for each other.

if you see something that looks unsafe out on the job, speak up and get it corrected before there’s an accident or injury. You don’t have to be the foreman to notice some-thing’s wrong; you don’t have to be the superintendent to make a correction that saves someone’s life. You just have to be observant and careful.

la seguridad de todos es responsabilidad de todos. su jefe puede ser el encargado de establecer las normas y

que le da un manual, sino a todos los trabajadores de la técnica de laboratorio en la planta para el operador ro-dillo acabado es una parte integral de la cultura de seguri-dad de la compañía. eso significa que todos miramos por nosotros mismos y todos nos miramos el uno al otro.

si ve algo que parece peligroso salir en el trabajo, hablar y corregirlo antes de que haya un accidente o lesión. Usted no tiene que ser el capataz a notar algo mal, usted no tiene que ser el superintendente para hacer una corrección que salva la vida de alguien. sólo tienes que estar atento y cui-dadoso.

John Ball is the proprietor of Top Quality Paving, Man-chester, N.H. For more information, contact him at (603) 493-1458.

8 noveMber 2013

leFt AnD riGHt: Haul trucks present a clear and present danger at the as-phalt plant and in the work zone. stay out of the driver’s blind spot. never hang off the side of the haul truck to chat with the driver. Don’t hitch a ride on the side of the haul truck and don’t turn your back to oncoming traffic.

los camiones de acarreo representan un peligro claro y presente en la plan-ta de asfalto y en la zona de trabajo. no te metas en el punto ciego del con-ductor. nunca cuelgue del lado del camión de trans-porte de charlar con el conductor. no haga auto-stop en el lado del camión de transporte y no dar la espalda al tráfico.


safety spotlight

never step in front of the hopper of the material transfer vehicle to clean it. the machine may not be locked out and tagged out. Haul truck drivers may not know that the machine is idle. With con-struction noise and the confusion of multiple vehicles in the work zone, it is easy for a worker to not notice a backing haul truck com-ing his way. Clean out machines at the end of the shift and out of the paving zone.

nunca se pare en frente de la tolva del vehículo de transferen-cia de material para limpiarlo. la máquina no puede ser bloqueado y puesto out. Camioneros Haul puede no saber que el equipo está inactivo. Con el ruido de la construcción y de la confusión de varios vehículos en la zona de tra-bajo, es fácil que un trabajador se da cuenta de un lance camión res-paldo que viene su camino. limp-ie máquinas al final de la jornada y de la zona de pavimentación.

How many problems can you spot in this picture? the most obvious should be the position of the dump man. never place yourself between the paver and a back-ing vehicle. the truck driver cannot see you there and you cannot depend on clear communication between the paver operator and truck driver to keep you safe. stay out of this zone. Also notice the ground workers distracting the truck driver in this staged image. that’s the last thing we need out on the job.

¿Cuántos problemas se puede obser-var en esta imagen? la más obvia debe ser la posición del hombre volcado. nun-ca se coloque entre el pavimento y un ve-hículo de apoyo. el conductor del camión no se puede ver allí y usted no puede de-pender de una comunicación clara entre el maquinista y el conductor del camión para mantenerse a salvo. manténgase fuera de esta zona. Observe también los trabajadores de tierra que distraen al conductor del camión en este protago-nizaron imagen. esa es la última cosa que necesitamos a cabo en el trabajo.

10 noveMber 2013

never let your leg or arm get under a moving vehicle. i had to give a safety talk to a team that had lost a crew member to a disability when his foot got caught in a storm drain un-derneath the paver. the machine continued to move for-ward as the dump man fell and struggled beneath it. the paver operator stopped and drove backward, mangling and removing the worker’s lower leg. it was a terrible ac-cident that left everyone shook up and that worker’s life changed forever. make sure you and your co-workers keep legs and arms out from under equipment that’s turned on and never put yourself in front of the paver.

nunca deje que su pierna o brazo meterse debajo de un vehículo en marcha. tuve que dar una charla de seguridad a un equipo que había perdido a un miembro de la tripu-lación de una discapacidad cuando su pie quedó atrapado en una alcantarilla por debajo de la pavimentadora. la má-quina siguió adelante como el hombre volcado cayó y se esforzó por debajo de él. el mando del conductor se de-tuvo y se dirigió hacia atrás, destrozando y eliminando in-ferior de la pierna del trabajador. Fue un terrible accidente que dejó a todos sacudió y la vida de ese trabajador cam-bió para siempre. Asegúrese de que usted y sus compañe-ros de trabajo mantener las piernas y los brazos de debajo de equipos que está encendido y que nunca se pone en frente de la pavimentadora.

producer profile

luck stone, the oldest division of luck Companies based in rich-

mond, Va., is launching some new ini-tiatives and innovations to build on a customer-inspired foundation that is 90 years in the making. the most recent is a remote-controlled loader that takes the operator out of potentially danger-ous situations.

now in its third generation of leader-ship by the luck family, the company is the largest family-owned and operated producer of crushed stone, sand and gravel in the United states. Founded in 1923, luck stone takes pride in its nine-decade legacy of delivering qual-ity products with exceptional customer service. today’s competitive business landscape demands that companies

continually evolve and innovate, a chal-lenge that luck stone both welcomes and embraces.

“the company takes pride in its rep-utation as a collaborative partner that unearths innovative solutions to help our customers be more successful,” Bob Grauer said. He’s the president of luck stone.

According to Grauer, innovation can be defined as developing something completely new or just changing the experience that someone has with the business. to illustrate the former, luck stone collaborated with several part-ners, including experts from mit, to develop a remote control loader to extract stone from the company’s Bull run plant in Chantilly, Va.

luck stone is the first company in the crushed stone and aggregate industry to have an unmanned pit loader, which allows the company increased access to product reserves from deep within the quarry. “this tool gives us options that we’ve never had before and allows us to optimize resources at our plants while creating a more sustainable envi-ronment,” Grauer said.

He shared with AsphaltPro, “it's been a long held assumption that a car needs a driver and a loader needs an operator. At luck stone, safety is at the forefront and something we value; we believe we are most successful when we have a pit team lead by our quar-terback, the pit loader operator. How-ever, we can always find new innovative

Luck Makes Loading Safer

by AsphAltpro sTaff

Luck Stone encourages innovation 90 years into the business

remote Control loader operators wear plenty of personal protective equipment and locate themselves within sight of the working machine, but away from harm.

12 noveMber 2013

equipment maintenance

producer profile

ways to address challenges. some-times we encounter situations where we would like options. the remote loader is one such option. it allows us to do work in a different way while optimizing the safety of our associ-ates. think about cell phones or pay-at-the-pump gas stations.

“We decided to develop the remote capability verses fixed or mobile con-veyors because it gave us more flex-ibility. With a remote control machine we can be effective in more environ-ments. the use of a remote control loader at luck stone is currently a lim-ited application. We see this growing in the future and some day autonomous machines will be commonplace in the aggregates industry.”

that future has started as the com-pany has already reached out to its subcontractors and to share efficien-cies and safeties. in another innovative move, luck stone harnessed the power of Gis technology to improve efficien-cy for daily load management with its subcontractor haulers. the company leveraged the expertise of its internal technology pros to design an app that can track vehicle locations, give direc-tions for deliveries and place stone or-ders, among other features. luck stone distributed ipads with the Hauler App

to approximately 250 haulers in Virginia and north Carolina, a leap of faith that the company was willing to take.

“the haulers absolutely love it!” Grauer stated. “it helps them make money by managing their businesses more effectively and that’s good for everyone.”

luck stone’s desire to be the model of a customer-inspired business is more than a vision statement. For example, the company has brought customers in to ask what needs to be improved for luck stone to be more effective or ef-ficient. the company also generates an annual survey to rate its performance on how well luck stone listens and re-sponds to feedback. “Our rating im-proved from 74 percent to 84 percent in one year as a result of really listen-ing to what our customers say that we could be doing better,” Grauer said.

As a visual symbol of the new initia-tives at luck stone, the company has unveiled a new logo and brand identity that has rolled out this summer on ve-hicles and signage at the 23 plant loca-tions in Virginia and north Carolina.

“Our new logo aligns better with the iconic cloverleaf in the luck Com-panies brand and also includes the dy-namic corporate tagline, igniting Hu-man potential, which infuses the brand

with lots of energy and a message that everyone can aspire to personal excel-lence and help others do the same,” sally eddowes said. she’s the director of marketing for luck stone.

Grauer illustrated this concept by sharing a story about a luck stone plant manager who gathered a team of hourly associates to help interview and select a new mechanic for the plant. several weeks later, Grauer visited the plant and heard some insightful re-marks when he inquired about that hir-ing process.

“the associates felt invested in mak-ing sure that the mechanic was success-ful because they had played a key role in hiring him,” Grauer said. “the me-chanic wanted to do his best so that he wouldn’t let the team down. We’re very proud that 88 percent of our associates are engaged in our business, according to a Hay Group study that measures the drivers for success in a company.”

the bottom-line for luck stone is that there’s much more to running a successful business for another 90 years than solely the bottom line. “We believe in doing good to do well,” Grauer concluded. “if we can help our customers become more successful at what they do, then it’s a win-win for everyone.”

ABOVe: luck stone president Bob Grauer told AsphaltPro, “We decided to de-velop the remote capability verses fixed or mobile conveyors because it gave us more flexibility. With a remote control machine we can be effective in more environments.”leFt: the new luck stone logo and company slogan is embla-zoned on the work trucks.

14 noveMber 2013

project maintenance

sundre Contracting Co., located in sundre, Alberta, Canada, has

been family owned and operated since 1978. it produces more than 30 different product sizes—from 1/16-inch (1.6-mm) fine sand to 12-inch (305-mm) screened rock and every-thing in between. Whether its cus-tomer is an Alberta road builder, as-phalt plant or any of a number of golf courses in Alberta, British Columbia and saskatchewan, its products must

meet tight specs or be rejected. re-jection is a worry because clay ma-terial and a rainy climate set them up for severe screen media blinding and pegging. After exploring several screen media options, the operation found one that helped eliminate the production-crippling effects of these conditions, ultimately saving them thousands of dollars. Here’s how sundre managed a road project in the challenging climate.

Sundre Moves Material Fasterby Gary pederson

Sundre increaSed production by 100

percent on rainy dayS becauSe the operation

no longer needed to Shut down.

16 noveMber 2013

sundre Contracting screens more than 35 different products,

moving and conveying material across six screen decks

Using two 6-foot by 20-foot (2-m by 6-m) elrUs screen decks equipped with conventional woven wire screen media, the operation needed to screen the 3/4-inch (20-mm) minus aggregate from the cus-tomer’s highly clay-contaminated pit. With the addition of rain every sec-ond day, the operation was losing quality as screen media throughput was being compromised. in addition, production time was reduced due to

the need to shut down frequently and clean the screens.

“the wet, sticky nature of the material was causing severe blind-ing and pegging…on our first screen deck,” Jason Harder, man-ager of operations at sundre Con-tracting, stated. “in order to meet customer material spec, we need-ed to dry the material, which took time away from producing new, profitable material.”

it was impossible to effectively screen while it was raining because it only added to the stickiness of the material, so Harder knew they need-ed another solution. the operation tried a variety of woven wire and self-cleaning screen media options, but all were experiencing severe blind-ing and pegging. At the recommen-dation of matt Armstrong, dealer representative at elrUs Aggregate systems, Harder installed major Wire

sundre uses Flex-mat 3 series D tensioned screen media on the top deck of its wash plant. When screening its coarser products, such as 3/4-inch (20-mm) minus aggregate material, the operation previously used the wash plant to screen off the sand that was causing blinding and pegging issues in the dry screening process. this required a large volume of water use. the vibrating wire technology has virtually eliminated this blinding and pegging problem, which means most of the sand doesn’t need to be sent through the wash plant. this has helped sundre reduce its annual water use.

project maintenance

7/8-inch (22-mm) Flex-mat® 3 series D tensioned screen media.

“the operation went from not be-ing able to produce at all in margin-ally rainy weather to being able to operate through heavy downpours,” Armstrong said.

sundre increased production by 100 percent on rainy days because the operation no longer needed to shut down to clean the screens. Us-ing Flex-mat 3 tensioned screen me-dia, sundre screens between 250 and 300 tons per hour (tpH), depending on the product it’s making. that’s a savings of nearly 2,000 to 2,400 tons per day that the operation would be losing to rain delays. Harder estimat-ed that using the new screens during that particularly rainy month saved the operation at least 100 hours of production time previously lost due to the need to shut down and clean the screens.

Gary Pederson is the Vice Presi-dent of Sales for Major Wire Indus-tries Limited in Candiac, Quebec, Canada. For more information, con-tact him at (450) 659-7681 or [email protected].

GeT TenSe WHen yoU inSTALL Wirethe team at sundre Contracting noted that no matter what brand of screen media you choose, it must be installed properly so it doesn’t slow down an operation and hurt product quality, production or profit.

“matt Armstrong came out to our plant the first time we ordered Flex-mat 3,” sundre’s Jason Harder said. “He helped us install the new screen media correctly so we could get the best results possible, and showed our team how to do the same, so when our next order arrived we would know what to do.”

the two most common types of tensioned screen media are Flex-mat-type and woven wire. Here are some installation tips Armstrong recommends for each:For FLex-mAT TyPe Prior To THe inSTALLATion• Check for proper tensioning system and correct installation of tension bar• ensure that crown bar is fully engaged in “U” channel rubber and is consistent

in height• ensure clamp rails are not worn thin, bent or deformed• ensure clamp rails are the same length as the screen media• in bolt-type tensioning systems:o Check the rail design and height of bolt holeso Check for missing bolts (replace if broken or missing)• Clean the rail and hook edge thoroughly• Check for cracks, broken welds and loose bolts on screen box or deck (fix if

necessary)For FLex-mAT TyPe DUrinG THe inSTALLATion• ensure clamp rails are not overlapping multiple panels, but fit each panel• side-tension systems: ensure there is a .750 inch space between the wall and

the outside of the hooks• Align polyurethane strips perfectly on all crown bar supports, making sure they

lie flat on the bars when tightened• if equipped with overlaps, place overlaps on top of preceding screen media

starting at the discharge end• stretch Flex-mat-type screen media “tight as a drum”• Do not over-tighten when using an impact wrench on wire diameters less than

.148 inches• Check tension: the heavy end of a screwdriver or hammer should bounce easily

on the screen media For Woven Wire Prior To THe inSTALLATion• look for significant damage to crown bars and screen decks• inspect the crown bar rubber for damage and wear (replace if necessary)• ensure the crown bar rubber is the same type and height and covers all of the

crown rails• make sure side clamp rails are not worn thin, bent or have curves or “dimples”

where the clamp rail bolts come through• ensure the side clamp rails equal the length of the screen media or they will

cause uneven tensioning• Check crown bar height by doing the string test• remove all material build-up from the hook ledge on the pan side of the screen

box and/or the crown bar rubberFor Woven Wire DUrinG THe inSTALLATion• make sure the screen media has the correct outside and inside hook width for

the deck• ensure that the ends of the screen media panels fit together tightly to prevent

the passing of oversize material• make sure the lengths of all screen media “tail ends” don’t exceed more than

50% of the opening size where they meet• side-tension screen boxes: position the screen media so clearance from the

pan side to the hook is even on both sides • tension your screen media by tightening the bolts intermittently from both

sides • Once installed, make sure all screen media is seated properly on all crown bar

tops and the side clamp rails match the length of the screen media

When sundre personnel changed the screen media, the blinding issues from the material’s high moisture content went away.

18 noveMber 2013

if you haul asphalt from point A to point B and then return to point A for another load, the last thing you need inter-

rupting the flow of the perishable product is a 30-minute gov-ernment-mandated break. the Federal motor Carrier safety Administration (FmCsA) published a final rule Dec. 27, 2011, amending its hours-of-service (HOs) regulations for drivers of property-carrying commercial motor vehicles. One of the regs required drivers to take a rest break of 30 minutes ev-ery eight hours of driving. imagine sitting at a rest area while fresh millings harden to a solid mass in the hot bed of your truck because you must obey a command meant for over-the-road truck drivers.

According to the FmCsA, that’s no longer a worry. As of Aug. 2, 2013, “the U.s. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued its ruling on the Hours of service liti-gation brought by the American trucking Associations and public Citizen. the Court upheld the 2011 Hours of service regulations in all aspects except for the 30-minute break pro-vision as it applies to short haul drivers.” By the time this is-sue goes to press, the decision officially will have taken effect, but FmCsA announced that it immediately ceased enforce-ment of the 30-minute rest break provision of the HOs rule

against short-haul operations with the Aug. 2 decision. Here’s the official language from FmCsA:

effective August 2, 2013, FmCsA will no longer en-force 49 CFr 395.3(a)(3)(ii) against any driver that qualifies for either of the “short haul operations” exceptions outlined in 49 CFr 395.1(e)(1) or (2). the Agency requests that state and local enforcement agencies also refrain from enforcing the 30-minute rest break against these drivers. specifically, the fol-lowing drivers would not be subject to the 30-minute break requirement:• All drivers (CDl and non-CDl) that operate within 100 air-miles of their normal work reporting location and satisfy the time limitations and recordkeeping requirements of 395.1(e)(1).• non-CDl drivers that operate within a 150 air-mile radius of the location where the driver reports for duty and satisfy the time limitations and recordkeep-ing requirements of 395.1(e)(2).

FmCsA will also be initiating a rulemaking to in-clude text in the HOs regulations noting that the 30-minute break provisions do not apply to short haul drivers.

don’t break for Short haulS

by AsphAltpro sTaff

the paving crew sees all assortments of haul trucks. Generally, the more tires or axles the truck has, the more asphalt it can haul. this truck can prob-ably haul 26 tons legally. notice that the dump man and driver are charging a 10-foot-wide hopper with an 8-foot-wide truck bed. that’s a great job. Photo courtesy of John Ball, proprietor of Top Quality Paving, Manchester, N.H.

22 noveMber 2013

24 noveMber 2013

Deliver Mix for SMooth finiSh

not all material transfer devices (mtDs) work in the exact same manner. Windrow elevators are an intermediate paver feeding

device that are usually not self-propelled and don’t carry surge capac-ity although they are used to improve mat quality and production as their cousins the material transfer vehicles (mtVs) are designed to do.

by corey L. peLLeTIer

On this secondary highway a Cedarapids pickup machine feeds the hopper of this Volvo 5170 rubber tired paver. each 10-foot section of the old Blaw Knox ski has four duck feet under it. notice there’s a tow arm at the front,

one at the back, and a wand laying on the averaging ski so the device moves gracefully down the road like a caterpillar, adjusting the system to take out any bumps. the graceful movement is made possible by a well-timed crew from Hardrives working together to create a good windrow in front of the

transfer device and a good mat behind the screed at about 15 feet per minute. Photos courtesy of John Ball of Top Quality Paving, Manchester, N.H.


Windrow elevators provide what i would consider a significant advan-tage over the method of charging the hopper directly from the back of the haul truck—the “direct truck dump” method. By using a windrow elevator to pick up asphalt mix from the windrow and feed it into the pav-er hopper, you can match the paving

width and depth in such a way that you ensure the paver doesn’t run out of mix or become overloaded.

Because the elevator doesn’t have a method of regulating material flow, this means you must place the cor-rect amount of mix in the windrow. that makes your dump man vital to the success of your operation.

WinDroW ADvAnTAGeSYour paving crew can see daily pro-duction increases of 30 to 40 percent over the direct truck dump method if you go with a windrow elevator method of charging the hopper. You can also improve your mat quality due to continuous paving and taking the risk of the haul truck bumping the

the dump man controls a lever to open the bottom dump truck’s discharge gates and walks alongside the truck as it drives forward, creating the elongated pile in front of the mtD and paver.

leFt: the Hardrives team doesn’t have a hopper insert for the paver, so they’ve taken an old conveyor belt off the plant and folded it in half. they’ve attached it so that it blocks the opening on the front of the paver. A cable supports it across the front of it and that cable is held by a hook. riGHt: the red hook you see here offers a quick release for the cable in the event that the crew needs to get the front off the hopper.

26 noveMber 2013

paver out of your day. We all know that the tap of the truck if it backs too far into the paver can result in some material segregation. You can eliminate that from the equation with some type of mtD or mtV.

i like the windrow elevator be-cause it lowers some costs. it offers a lower capital outlay than an mtV and doesn’t require an operator on the job. it is also a lighter equipment weight thus has lower haul costs. Of course, you’re giving up the remix feature and heating feature with the

ABOVe: the Weiler asphalt material trans-fer device (mtD) shown here gives an ex-ample of a safety issue paving crews should keep an eye on. this is the front receptacle where the trucks back in. You can see the two pins that slide in and out to allow the locks to drop down in place. in this image, the locks aren’t down.

Also in this image, notice that the metal wheels used for driving the conveyor down the road are protected by a metal triangle safety guard. this is an excellent safety fea-ture to add to your mtD if it doesn’t come standard.

leFt: Don’t use a skid steer to manipulate the windrow; you could cause material and temperature segrega-tion. Only use the wheel or skid steer loader to get the windrow started at the be-ginning of the paving day. this is an excellent example of a windrow the Hardrives crew has created with well-timed trucks delivering ma-terial in a reliable, timely manner.

leFt: the material transfer device (mtD) has no trans-portation engine; the pav-er pushes it. in this image you can see the front end of the paver with the push-bar where the mtD de-vice meets the paver. the two pieces of equipment connect at this point. they need to act like one piece of equipment as they move down the road together.

28 noveMber 2013

Dillman builds tough equipment.Equipment that performs reliably for years. Equipment you can count on to produce high quality asphalt mix. Full plants. Single components. Individual parts.

Dillman gets the job done

VISIT US AT

Booth 50327

NOV AP DILLMAN.indd 1 10/11/13 2:28 PM

mtD and there are some keys to its effective use.

bUiLD THe PerFeCT WinDroWthe most obvious key to the effec-tive use of the windrow elevator is the windrow. if the windrow isn’t right, the elevator can’t fix it.

You must use belly-dump trailers and the truck dump man is the se-cret to your success. He must create consistent windrow volume. He must work with the plant to ensure truck timing is right on target. the mix that the plant produces should be one that’s not overly prone to seg-regation.

truck arrival rate must be consis-tent. You want the end of each load to be overlapped with the beginning of the next load. the mat width and depth must remain consistent, which means keeping the paver hopper filled to at least 50 percent capacity at all times.

make sure tack doesn’t pick up too much on the wheels and cause them to skip when turning; this will cause a bump in the smooth mat you’re trying to create. in this image, you can see the scraper that’s attached above the wheel to help scrape off asphalt, tack or what-have-you. it’s commonplace to use a release agent such as the biodegradable solvents offered by rushing en-terprises on the wheels to prevent pickup and clogs.

Dillman builds tough equipment.Equipment that performs reliably for years. Equipment you can count on to produce high quality asphalt mix. Full plants. Single components. Individual parts.

Dillman gets the job done

VISIT US AT

Booth 50327

NOV AP DILLMAN.indd 1 10/11/13 2:28 PM

the dump man will want to wait un-til there is a windrow of at least 300 feet before letting the paver move forward. it pushes the mtD, which picks up material and feeds it to the hopper without remixing.

the windrow must be picked up cleanly. if you have a skid steer on the job to correct the size of the windrow, you’re probably causing segregation of temperature and material, especial-ly in colder weather. speaking of ambi-ent conditions, the windrow can main-tain its temperature fairly well. We have records of material in the wind-row at 317 degrees F, going up the el-evator at 309 degrees, at the head of material at 301 degrees, and then be-hind the screed at 297 degrees.

Once material is in the paver hop-per, paving and compaction contin-ues with best practices.

Corey L. Pelletier is the director of Asphalt Technologies, Inc. For more information, contact him at [email protected] or (386) 752-4921.

WinDroW-bUiLDinG 101if the windrow isn’t right, the material transfer device (mtD) can’t make it so. the dump man is key to the operation when windrow paving. let’s look at how to make him the key to your success.

First, begin with a reasonable mix design. if the specified mix is prone to segregation, work toward excellent loadout practices to minimize material segregation in your belly-dumps. then work toward excellent timing between the dump man and the plant.

As a rule, time the trucks for consistent truck arrival at the paving site.step 1. Use the wheel loader

to put enough material on the ground in front of the train to charge the hopper with the windrow elevator.

step 2. Back the truck up as far as possible and begin the dump. there will be a gap for the length of the wheel/body of the truck. this is the only time of the day/shift when you’ll allow any gap in the windrow.

step 3. Bring in another belly dump and overlap the end of the last dump to begin discharging the load.

step 4. Once you have at least 300 feet of windrow formed in front of the mtD and the hopper is charged, begin the day’s paving as you would with any other form of paving.

Move RAS MaterialMissouri producer shares the fine points of running recycled shinglesby danIeL c. brown

32 noveMber 2013

Unlike many asphalt producers who run recycled asphalt shingles

(rAs), swift Construction Co. of Joplin, mo., doesn’t hire shingle-grinding ser-vices. the company owns two shingle grinders.

randy swift, president of the compa-ny, says running shingles is more cost effective that way. One grinder stays in a recycle yard for swift’s own purpos-es in Joplin, and the other one travels around Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kan-sas, grinding for other customers.

swift has been using rAs in its mix-es for several years now, and was one of the first contractors in missouri to do so. the company produces ap-proximately 140,000 tons of asphalt per year, and uses both manufactured waste shingles and tear-off shingles from old roofs.

two paving crews work mainly in Oklahoma and missouri, with some work in Kansas. “in missouri, we main-ly do commercial work, city and coun-ty projects, parking lots, that sort of thing,” swift said. “We do some work for the missouri DOt, but not a lot. We do mainly commercial work in Kansas. Oklahoma is our big DOt customer.”

swift runs rAs in most asphalt sold in missouri, but the Oklahoma DOt does not allow it yet. it’s becoming more and more common, swift said, to produce warm-mix asphalt (WmA) with both rAs and recycled asphalt pave-ment (rAp) in the mix. swift has two asphalt plants, one of which is a 300-tpH stationary plant. that plant can in-ject a small amount of water into the liquid asphalt to produce foamed as-phalt and WmA.

“we felt like the mix waS not going to be a

really hard mix. if it had been tear-off ShingleS in that caSe, we would

have tried to go to a Softer grade of ac.”the peterson pacific 4700B shingle grinder pulverizes shingles so 96 to 97 percent

of the material passes the 3/8-inch screen. All photos courtesy of Peterson Pacific.


“if we’re running shingles, rAp and the foaming attachment, we bring the temperatures back up to produce mix at about 300 degrees instead of dropping the temperature down,” swift said. “We get a bet-ter, more workable mix that way. if you’re just running rAp, you can drop the temperature down.”

After putting about 3,000 hours on a smaller shingle grinder, swift bought his first peterson pacific 4700B shingle grinder in 2007, and uses it to this day. swift said it’s a ruggedly built piece of equipment. “We get more uptime, more factory support and more production.”

swift’s second grinder is also a pe-terson pacific 4700B, and both grind-ers are used for shingles only (no wood). “We can surge the new pe-terson, and run it up to over 100 tons per hour, but we cruise it at about 65 to 70 tons per hour,” swift said.

the contractor has worked with peterson pacific to change the top of the grinding chamber to a two-piece

bolt-in top. that assembly makes it faster and less costly to remove the top and weld in a new wear liner for the grinding chamber. Before, replac-ing a wear liner took two or three days and required a crane, swift said.

Another change in the 4700B has also improved its performance. the peterson pacific shingle grinder starts tearing shingles apart on a main an-vil. next, a rotor impacts the shingles against four grates. “the grate i’m talking about is the one closest to the anvil,” swift said. “peterson put four bars across it, which essentially gave it a little more area to cut on, instead of just the main anvil. And then we had holes put in the bars—one-inch holes because you want to cut the shingles and get the product out of the grind-ing chamber because of wear and pro-duction. And it does that really well.”

that was about two years ago. now, the product from the grinder is finer, which is more desirable be-cause it’s easier for the asphalt plant to melt smaller particles and capture

all of the binder in the rAs with the smaller product.

“Originally when we started grind-ing shingles, everybody wanted half-inch minus shingles,” swift said. “now they want 3/8-inch minus shingles. so we had to rent trommel screens, and screen the product.

“By going to this other grate, and putting the one-inch holes in the grate, we’ve got that product down to where 96 or 97 percent passes the 3/8 without a screen.”

it’S eaSier for the aSphalt plant to melt Smaller particleS and

capture all of the binder in the raS with the Smaller product.

swift reduces tons of shingles to tons of usable product.

34 noveMber 2013

swift’s larger asphalt plant has an en-try system for rAs and rAp that is an outer chamber. recycled material mix-es with hot aggregate and heat up in that area, and then they come up into the mixing chamber behind the burn-er. the smaller plant is a counter-flow plant, so shingles enter the drum be-hind the burner and mix with the ag-gregate and liquid binder. the larger asphalt plant can recycle more mate-rial than the smaller one.

swift said he has produced mix with as high as 10 percent shingles in the larger plant, but normal operations call for 4 to 6 percent. A 5 percent addi-tion of shingles by weight normally re-places 1 percent binder in the mix.

mix design with rAs can be an elaborate process. “You design a mix based on a certain percentage of [AC],” swift said. “You try it at three different AC levels to come up with the right air voids, volumetrics and test data. Once you come up with the mix that meets all the requirements, then you start adding shingles and taking out virgin binder, and again, trial-by-error, you will come up to 1 percent binder replacement with shingles, as a

rule of thumb. if a mix has 5.0 percent virgin AC, then you add 5 percent shin-gles, and you go to 4 percent AC, the effective binder from the shingles will put you back at 5.0 percent.”

What’s more, shingles have a high quality of fine aggregate in them. swift said you delete some kind of small virgin aggregate that is re-placed by the rAs aggregate. “it’s

kind of a tedious process to get it right, but when you do get it right, they work. You can’t tell that the shin-gles are in the mix. it works great. We think the shingle mix is a tough-er mix,” swift said. “We don’t see the rutting, especially with manufac-tured waste shingles. that’s because the binder is not aged, as it would be from shingles in a 20-year-old roof.”

the manufactured waste shingles offer a softer binder than tear-off shingles offer because the asphalt cement hasn’t had time to age. this is one more reason why producers will need to know the source of rAs product.

SWiFT’S rAS TiPS1. start slow—swift advised producers who are new to recycled

asphalt shingle (rAs) mixes not to start with a high rAs content in the asphalt mix; ease your way into the concept

2. Get the right equipment—if you decide to grind your own shingles, seek out the grinder that’s right for your operation; get dedicated rAs bins that have plenty of slope in the walls to prevent bridging of the material

3. maintain the rAs Bin—make the time to clean out the rAs bin every night

4. Feed in Order—Keep the rAs from sticking to the weigh belt by feeding rAp first; the rAs feeds afterward so it goes on top of the rAp on the belt

5. Keep it Dry—You’ve all heard the warnings about keeping rAs dry because it will hold moisture like nothing you’ve seen before

6. read the quality control article starting on page 39 for weighing and measuring tips

36 noveMber 2013

tear-off shingles contain a stiffer binder than manufactured waste shin-gles, so the producer often has to com-pensate for that. “if you’re trying to run a pretty good percentage of tear-off shingles, like 5 or 6 percent, then many times you’ll have to drop to a softer grade of virgin asphalt in order to get to the final pG grade of whoever is specifying the mix,” swift said. “if it’s a pG64-22 asphalt being specified, and say you can run 6 percent hard tear-off shingles, you might end up with a hard-er overall mix than they’re specifying. so you can go to some additives, or to a softer grade of virgin asphalt, to get back to that pG64-22.”

swift said he almost always runs rAp and rAs in the same mix. He has produced a mix with as high as 29 per-cent rAp and 5 percent shingles, but the typical mix contains 12 to 15 per-cent rAp and 5 percent shingles. the 29 percent rAp mix was for a large commercial job.

“in that particular instance, the rAp had a harder AC and we were running manufactured waste shingles,” swift recalled. “We felt like the mix was not going to be a really hard mix. if it had been tear-off shingles in that case, we would have tried to go to a softer grade of AC.”

We asked swift what advice he would offer to a producer who has

never run shingles. He advised against trying to run too high of a shingle con-tent initially.

“Work your way into it and have the right recycle equipment, the right shingle bins,” he said. “We’ve worked with manufacturers to steepen the sides of the bins because the shingles tend to stick to the sides of the bins, especially in hot summer weather. We have taken the bins to 70 percent slopes on the inside of them. that di-minishes the capacity of the feeder bin, but you’re only running 5 percent of that product so you don’t need a great big capacity.

“Clean out that rAs bin every night,” swift advised. “never leave shingles in a bin overnight. And we generally try to put the rAp on the belt first and the shingles go down on top of the rAp. that helps keep the shingles from sticking to the belt and then it goes through a screen, which takes off any oversize chunks in either the rAp or the shingles. then it goes to a weigh belt, but by that time the recycled material is mixed, because it went through a screen. that way we don’t have any sticking problems on the weigh belt.” that screen has 2-inch holes in swift’s operation.

the new breaker grate peterson installed on the 4700B offers swift a finer grind of recycled asphalt shingle than they previously wanted. now that producers have discovered the ben-efits of a 3/8 minus product, swift and peter-son have adapted to provide it.


Control Your Plant Mix

by dr. MIchaeL heITZMan and cLarence rIchard

if you read Dr. ray Brown’s september article “Asphalt mix testing for laymen,” you probably took away good

points on what to adjust at the plant to fix problems your quality control (QC) technicians might find during mix testing. When Brown indicates that factors such as the QC testing and paving procedures are good and you’re still experiencing variability in your mix, then you may have an issue with gradation or the measured asphalt content at the plant. this is highlighted in tip #3 in his article.

the problem can lie with control of minus 200s or as-phalt content. many factors at the plant can cause air void and asphalt content variation. many of these factors are controlled by the equipment and procedures using today’s technology, but some of these factors aren’t being ad-dressed with current technology for one reason or another.

Considering the time and money that we expend on this issue, are we really winning this war or just some of the battles? For the money spent on quality, are we get-ting our best bang for the buck? Are we getting our best return on investment?

As an industry, we spend copious resources on mix de-signs, lab equipment to test the designs, and field equip-ment to test the performance on the road, but are we spending enough on the resources for the instruments and controls at the plant? the plant processes many ma-terials and some of these are not accounted for as well as they could be. Consequently, the processes may be im-perfect, leaving us to chase ghosts that affect the voids and asphalt cement (AC) content of mixes.

We look at the numbers and charts from the lab and try to guess what we should change at the control panel. We have to decrease material variability where we can; controls Oems and plant Oems play a vital role in the op-timization of excellent production.

if we’re going to raise our expectations as an indus-try, it will take more money and effort than we spend to-day. the cost of the ton-of-mix produced may rise, but

the risk of penalty to the contractor will drop. the ben-efit that the agency and road user will realize is extended pavement performance. the mix producer may not make as much mix, but he will make more money for what he does produce. it’s a good tradeoff and is another “green thing” the asphalt industry can do. plant operation is a high tech job involving high tech equipment controlling a com-plex process.

the future of asphalt plant controls will have to make working with the baghouse as a material feeder, work-ing with recycled asphalt shingles (rAs) and working with varying moisture contents a more reliable environment. Oems will have to modify controls to assist. What does the change in minus 200s and AC content do to mix qual-ity? Four particular problems at the conventional drum plant exist and can be resolved if we address them suf-ficiently. let’s look at moisture, dust, rAs and training.

moiSTUre AFFeCTS ASPHALT ConTenTContinuous accounting and compensation for moisture in the aggregates isn’t happening. past and current technol-ogies are predominantly focused on measuring moisture of the blended aggregate traveling at high speed across the weigh belt. the focus needs to shift to measuring

tiP #3 From SePTember QC ArTiCLe: if your voids are low it is very likely caused by increased asphalt content or increased percentage passing the no. 200 sieve. this can be determined by looking at the gradation and the measured asphalt content.

38 noveMber 2013

moisture in the cold feed bins. While there are some mois-ture sensors for aggregate bins, those aren’t being widely marketed. the moisture sensors positioned on the weigh belt to monitor the blended aggregate are not “as” use-ful due to the degree of blending and the speed of the belt. it takes a commitment on the part of the plant owner and the blending control manufacturers to redesign their controls to accept this information to compensate for weight of the moisture being accounted for by the scales.

sensing for moisture at the bin for sand and rAs con-tinuously not only may be labor-saving for QC when do-ing daily oven tests, but the continuous moisture mea-surement would reduce variability of asphalt content and void control. An unknown still exists. Currently, plant op-erators need a definitive answer from their blending con-trol manufacturer on how much the hardware-software would cost and when it would be available. the industry will have to lobby controls manufacturers to accept this information and control accordingly.

the general rule for materials is if it’s dry, keep it dry; if it’s wet, drain the water away. When the material is dry, production goes up, energy costs go down and mix qual-ity is easier to control. Although rAs is typically intro-duced in small percentages, its contribution to asphalt content is significant. Continuously accounting for mois-ture in what is being weighed is important. sand has a lot of surface area that can hold moisture and is one of the main ingredients in most mixes. most of the moisture in the aggregate comes from sand and this moisture should be continuously accounted for in the blending control. You have to ask yourself, why is it important to calibrate the belt scale to a 0.5 percent when the moisture may be changing from 2 to 8 percent? there are two problems that need to be fixed.1. the moisture must be continuously measured.2. the controls manufacturers need to update their con-

trols so that variation in moisture is accounted for and the asphalt rate is adjusted during production.

DUST AFFeCTS voiDSinstead of wasting all or some of our fines, baghouses have allowed the industry to return the fines to the mix. the other feed bin, the baghouse is often overlooked as a feeder. Unless you reject all of your baghouse dust, it’s a material feeder. But it’s a poor feeder. if your standard cold feed system operated like your baghouse dust feed-er system, you’d shut that system down until it was fixed. the baghouse was originally designed to satisfy environ-mental worries—it captures dust. Use as a material feeder is still developing.

the pictures herein are from a video clip. most mineral dust augers feeding the mix plant are sealed tight; the au-ger situation here showed us the variability of pulses from the baghouse that we would otherwise not see without a continuous weigh scale. if your QC technician is taking a mix sample from the back of the truck, is he doing it when the dust surged back into the mixing drum or when there was a sag in the delivery? if we don’t know when sags and

surges happen, yet QC people keep sampling, we’ll keep the QC techs chasing variables. if we control and measure the flow rate, the mix quality will improve.

We wouldn’t allow a sand cold feed bin to deliver 250 tph of sand one minute and 150 tph the next minute. the bag-house is a mineral dust feed system without control. the bag-house feeder bin is delivering too much dust at one time and too little at other times. this happens because of pulses.

A typical pulse-jet baghouse has about 64 rows of 10 to 15 bags that pulse three rows at a time on a timer. the dust that falls to the bottom of the baghouse gets augered out in surges, thus the fines returning to the drum move in surges. A reverse air baghouse has fewer compartments; therefore, the sags and surges are more extreme. the controls often park the auger in an offline condition until the baghouse pressure drop increases suf-ficiently. the design is all about pollution control; if no surge control was added, complying with Brown’s tip #3 isn’t possible.

ProTeCT yoUr inveSTmenTWhen your recycled asphalt shingles (rAs) are processed, the material is probably at the driest it will be during mix production. this condition will be the most beneficial to you for several reasons, including good flow of material. Here are some steps to help keep material as dry as possible.1. pay for only the material you are contracting

to buy. Water isn’t one of them. Your contract should read that material shall be kept from exposure to rain and snow or any other source of water. remember: when it’s dry, keep it dry.

2. every percent of moisture added to the asphalt mixing process costs about 13 percent more in fuel use. Although rAs may be only 5 percent of total mix, if 20 percent of it is wet, rAs then adds 1 percent moisture to the total mix.

3. Wet materials added to the process reduce plant production maximum capacities by the same factors.

4. We each need to be doing our part to reduce CO2 emissions whenever we can.

5. rAs will vary in moisture content depending upon whether or not the material was taken from the bottom of the pile or the top. When your material is consistently dry, the weighing device is accounting only for material, not varying amounts of wet rAs.

6. today’s blending controls don’t adequately balance the rAs and rAp moistures and AC. Keeping the rAs moisture consistent provides one more known variable that the blending control doesn’t have to deal with


As reported in the January 2012 AsphaltPro’s Keep Baghouse surges from Disrupting mix Quality, David Fife, the QC manager for elam Construction, spelled out his experience with the surges and sags in detail.

“there are many aspects as to how dust effects mix designs,” Fife began. “i can remember standing next to a hot plant several years ago with a Colorado Department of transportation (CDOt) inspector try-ing to figure out why the properties of the mix were fluctuating. i hadn’t been making changes in the percent-age of materials at the hot plant, and we religiously had run crusher con-trol on the aggregates as they had

been manufactured. i told the inspector that i was chas-ing ghosts. every time i had my fingers on the problem it would disappear and show up again on the other side of the specification.

“At that time i had a pretty good idea this problem was based on dust but i couldn’t put my finger on exactly why it was appearing then disappearing without changes at the plant,” Fife continued. “i had run enough grada-tions on the stockpiles to know the crushing or inconsis-tent materials didn’t create the problem. Over the next several years, through trial and error i found it wasn’t a ghost; it was fluctuation in the dust being returned to the mix via the baghouse.

“to sum up the problem, a dust feeder that is allowing the dust to be returned into the mix in sags and surges is creating a mix that doesn’t have a constant demand for oil. in other words, when excessive dust is being pumped into the mix, the voids in mineral aggregate (VmA) is gen-erally decreased, creating less room in the mix for oil. When the dust is being starved in the mix, the VmA gen-erally is increased creating a mix with more room for oil. With the VmA floating around, a mix with a varying de-mand for oil is being created.

“the hot plant has no way to track the problem, and continues to add consistent oil. With the percent oil stay-ing the same and a changing VmA, the voids fluctuate with the changing VmA. As a result to the fluctuation in the mix’s voids, the crews in the field are continually adjusting the roller patterns to achieve the required density. After all, density is just a measurement of in-place voids. this prob-lem is often magnified by volumetric tests being produced by the testing department, and adjustments to the mix be-ing made based on sags or surges in the baghouse.

“As all of us in the asphalt industry have experienced, the key to producing quality asphalt mixes is to be able to find the right combinations of materials, and consis-tently produce at these combinations. the search for consistency is more easily created in the lab than pro-duced in the field. We have many obstacles to overcome when attempting to recreate every ton exactly as the prescribed mix design calls for. A system that supplies a continuous flow of dust to the mix helps overcome one of these obstacles.”

elam Construction invested in a dust scale control sys-tem. today, Joe Wancura, who is the plant manager for elam in Durango, Colo., comments on the experienc-es he has with the new instruments and controls. “since we installed the dust scale on our plant, we have had very little need to adjust the AC. it has helped in a big way on the voids keeping them in the tolerances that the state jobs require. After we get the test results in i have seen a lot less changes in the mix designs that we use. All in all the system has made life a lot easier for all of our people.”

if your Standard cold feed SyStem operated

like your baghouSe duSt feeder SyStem,

you’d Shut that SyStem down until it waS fixed.

since the team at elam Construction has installed the dust scale on the plant, they’ve had fewer issues with AC variability. they’re able to monitor and control the rate at which they feed fines to the drum, which means they can keep a steady supply of AC going as well. that makes for an easier control of quality.

40 noveMber 2013

reCyCLeD ASPHALT SHinGLeSthis relatively newcomer to the industry offers benefits to the environment and the producer. rAs is typically added to the existing rAp bin systems and controlled by blend-ing controls and belt scales. Companies such as Argo and Gencor build bins specifically for rAs. Overall, we don’t give enough attention to performance of the system with such an ingredient with so much asphalt and fines. Cold feed bins do an adequate job by volumetrically propor-tioning aggregates and rAp. rAs characteristics are dif-ferent. rAs, in its processed ground state, is almost like pillow stuffing. if you fill a bucket full of it, step on top of it, your foot sinks down a couple of inches. You have just compressed the rAs. it’s now denser. that compression doesn’t happen with rAp or aggregate. When volumetri-cally controlling rAs, you have to continually ask yourself, “is compressed rAs passing through the volumetric feed-er or pillow case stuffing?”rAS control problems include the following:A) testing through a volumetric feeder shows that the

rAs density increases by 30 percent.B) in cases where the rAs may go over a belt scale, the

scales aren’t accurate enough to weigh a few tons per hour of an ingredient as fluffy as rAs.

C) When rAs is sharing the belt scale with rAp and the belt scale changes in tons per hour, you need to know what changed the rAp or rAs. You need to figure what to adjust the AC rate to. Ask the blending control manufacturer what to do. At this time, the systems as-sume; the systems can’t assume the right answer and be right all the time.Unless you have a device weighing your rAs and the

blending control is compensating for the rAp and the rAs individually, you can’t control your AC content. there are two problems to fix:1) the rAs needs to be weighed accurately by the bins

on load cells or a rAs feeder scale.2) Controls Oems need to update their controls so that

the flow of rAs is independently accounted for and the AC flow rate changed accordingly.A fix to the problem of existing blending control sys-

tems not accepting a rAs feeder scale input is available with no hardware-software changes to the plant com-puter. the rAs scale converts the rate output signal to a tach-like signal. the computer no longer assumes the actual weight because the rate is coming from a scale. the plant computer no longer controls the feeder speed based on what the rAs scale reports to it. problems A and B from the list above are resolved. As long as neither bin bridges or runs empty, problem C isn’t an issue.

the rs feeder scale will indicate a problem with bridg-ing. if the rAp belt scale or rAs scale deviates significant-ly, the problem should be fixed immediately or the op-erator should initiate a hot stop. Before adding the rAs feeder scale, a partially bridged rAs bin wouldn’t indicate a significant deviation on the rAp scale; therefore, the op-erator isn’t alarmed and the system corrects the AC pump for a few tph of missing rAp and/or rAs. Was it corrected

for 5 percent missing rAp or 18 percent rAs or some-thing in between?

the asphalt content was improved with the bin on load cells or with a feeder scale. room for improvement still exists. producers can lobby plant controls Oems for the necessary software upgrades.

mark sweeting is the plant/quality control manager for Wolf paving Company, inc., in Oconomowoc, Wis. His group invested in the rAs scale to improve asphalt con-tent. sweeting’s experience before acquiring a rAs scale was that of the AC content constantly changing. He de-scribed it this way:

“sometimes it’s as though you were on a roller coaster. You would make an adjustment, obtain and run a sample, and everything was good. All of the worry went away un-til you obtained the next sample and you had the same issues. it can go either high or low. You just can’t chase it in a manner in which you can corral it. With AC contents

tOp: this screen capture from the video shows the surge of dust. the baghouse has pulsed and material is being returned to the drum in a surge or influx of fines. imagine what this does to the mix design. BOttOm: this screen capture from a video shows a “sag” or lack of surge in dust return from the baghouse.


varying as much as they were, it was apparent that we had to do some-thing—either mount the rAs bin on load cells or install a rAs scale.” sweeting said they went with the rAs scale and modified their blend-ing computer to accept the inputs from the rAs scale. “the AC con-tents now stay exactly where we have them in the blending computer; therefore, the volumetrics of the material remain very consistent.”

As mentioned previously, the control of the baghouse fines is an area of concern. “prior to the installation of a dust silo and metering system, our volumetrics would vary a great deal,” sweeting explained. “it doesn’t matter what the lab determines through the mix design process what the 200s should be if you can’t control them due to the crushing process and/or degradation. We installed a dust silo and me-tering system not because our material was always dirty but because we would get influxes of excess 200s or not be producing enough. With the metering system we are able to put in only what we want in the mix and remain very consistent with it. We also use the metering system to adjust our volumetrics of the mix.

“For instance if we were to all of sudden come across a gradation change that opened up the VmA and ultimately the air voids, we are then able to add a little additional 200s to the mix to close up the

When it’s time to make multiple mixes for the nCAt test track, Dr. mike Heitzman visits with the quality control technicians who make the differ-ence between a good day and a not-so-good day. Here he consults with the QC team of east Alabama paving, which won the competitive bid to build the track the first three times it was let. nCAt’s Buzz powell shared with the audience at the recent Asphalt Contractors Association of Flor-ida’s annual conference that the nCAt team works closely with the con-tractor who wins the bid. He shared that the contractor goes in knowing that QC is enhanced for the track test sections.

“We get to test-drive these plants in a leading-edge kind of way,” powell said. “We can waste dust as we need to waste dust at the plant.” But for nCAt researchers, wasted product is a very expensive proposi-tion due to the nature of the testing. they’re bringing in materials from all sectors of the country, which means paying premium costs to get spe-cific products to the plant for mix designing, testing, production and placement. “Waste for us is extremely expensive,” powell told the au-dience. “We work really hard to reduce waste and get every bit out on the track.”

if your operation is similar to nCAt’s in that you can’t afford to waste material, are you taking all the precautions you can to measure and me-ter your materials into the final product properly? Do you know what’s in your mix?

42 noveMber 2013

VmA. You can also remove some of the 200s if needed in the case of too low of VmA. in the past, without the metering system, the only thing you can do really quickly is adjust the AC content targeting your air voids, but that does nothing for your VmA.

“the subject of a moisture meter is also an interesting one in that if the blending computer could read and adjust the moisture content of the aggregates, not only would it free up your QC personnel it would always be accurate. We determine moisture contents in the lab every day but that does minimal to insure the accuracy of your AC content as the moisture changes in every pile every time you take a bucket full out of the pile. i agree that technology needs to improve in order to provide accurate and reliable moisture meters and the folks providing the blending computers need to take a hard look at incorporating this into their systems if we are to continue to improve our mixes to the extent that we are expected to.”

TrAininGplant operation and maintenance training for plant operators and QC managers affects the process. it is the QC manager’s job to have a stake in mix quality. QC managers should know how the mix pro-cess, operating procedures and the equipment affect mix quality. leaving this solely to the plant operator is taking the control out of quality control.

plant operators should be trained to read and understand their instruments. they can’t be expected to understand a process just because they were taught to push buttons. Operating a plant can be just as complex as piloting a plane and landing it safely in the fog. You have to trust your instruments and compare one against the other. pilots usually have a full set of operating instruments. plant operators are often asked to perform as well as pilots without train-ing and knowing from one minute to the next what moisture, dust and rAs rates are.

Considering today’s technology and the cost of poor mix qual-ity, should we be satisfied doing what we are doing? many asphalt production plants produce a consistent, quality mix. they operate with uniform materials in a dry environment using properly oper-ated and maintained equipment and well-trained staff. Other plants have some problems because one or more of the four components discussed in this article increase mix variability. For decades we have used low frequency, post-production QC testing to measure the pro-duction variability. the results are not timely and rarely identify the sources of the variation. there are technologies that can be placed on the plant to provide better continuous process control and ad-dress the variation. For some plant operators, the rOi for better pro-cess control could easily out-weigh the cost of frequent forced plant shut-downs due to spec non-compliance.

When Dr. Brown points to problems at the plant, some of the in-struments and procedures exist and some are hitting the drawing board. the industry should soon reach a consensus on what to con-tinuously strive for to be as good as we can be.

For more information on blending controls, please visit with any of the automation and controls OEMs, as well as asphalt plant man-ufacturers and suppliers that advertise in this magazine. For more information on the concepts discussed in this article, you can reach Clarence Richard at (952) 939-6000 or [email protected]. To reach Mike Heitzman at NCAT, call (334) 844-7309 or [email protected]. To reach Mark Sweeting at Wolf Paving Company, call (262) 269-8473 or [email protected].


In the Middleof Nowhere,Or in the Middle of Everything.

Only Astec has the patented Double Barrel Green® System.

Astec can configure a plant to fit your site, whether that site is in the middle of nowhere or in the middle of a major metropolitan area.

And every Astec plant, no matter where it is located, is also backed by the Astec Service and Parts departments available 24/7 anywhere.

Astec is the right choice.

VISIT US AT

Booth 50327

NOV AP NOWHERE HA.indd 2-3 10/11/13 3:02 PM

In the Middleof Nowhere,Or in the Middle of Everything.

Only Astec has the patented Double Barrel Green® System.

Astec can configure a plant to fit your site, whether that site is in the middle of nowhere or in the middle of a major metropolitan area.

And every Astec plant, no matter where it is located, is also backed by the Astec Service and Parts departments available 24/7 anywhere.

Astec is the right choice.

VISIT US AT

Booth 50327

NOV AP NOWHERE HA.indd 2-3 10/11/13 3:02 PM

by AsphAltpro sTaff

AvoiD tAngling Up trUck SAfety

46 noveMber 2013

Conditions were perfect for pav-ing when a haul truck driver

made a dangerous mistake on the job. luckily, no one was injured by his absentmindedness; readers can take away a lesson from the mishap.

top Quality paving’s John Ball reports that at about 2 p.m. on a

bright, sunny september day, an ex-perienced haul truck driver arrived at the paving site as he had done the day before. the driver dumped the truck, lowered the body and pulled ahead to the point the team had designated for cleaning. there, he raised the body to clean out his bed.

He cleaned off the tailgate and low-ered the body down again. He rep-resented the last truck in the round and the members of the paving crew turned their attention fully to the mat before them. that’s when things went wrong.

As the driver pulled away from the cleaning area to head back to the plant, the truck body began to rise again.

the subcontracted driver moved along the road with the bed ris-ing up, catching on overhead wires and pulling them down. the tangled wires came down, interrupting ser-vice for neighboring homeowners, causing delay and fees and fines for the contractor, and—most impor-tantly—threatening the safety of the driver and everyone nearby.

“He shut us down for the rest of the day,” Ball reported.

the good news is that neither the driver nor anyone else in the vicini-ty was hurt in the accident. the bad news is the contractor was delayed by a senseless accident. the team waited for the cable company, the telephone company and the electric company to send workers to the site to repair the downed wires. they re-sumed paving the next day and com-pleted a smooth asphalt mat.

Photos courtesy of John Ball, pro-prietor of Top Quality Paving, Man-chester, N.H.


if you work in the norfolk, Va., area, you’ll see a colorful and creative haul truck on the job for

lane Construction’s Virginia paving. the Virgin-ia paving team pulls out all the stops each year to decorate one of its haul trucks for charity. For the 2013 season, the charity of choice is the Au-tism society, whose motto is “improving the lives of All Affected by Autism.” this is near and dear to the Virginia paving family because one of their manager’s sons copes with the symptoms of au-tism. i thought that was a wonderful tribute.

the team chose the colorful puzzle motif be-cause the disease is like a puzzle. Younger children relate to the puzzle idea as well.

the company participates in fundraising events throughout the year and displays this truck at schools. members of the company participated in the Autism Awareness 5K run/Family Fun Walk in march, of which Virginia paving was a sponsor. the team takes this truck wherever they’re asked to take it for display and education.

For more information about the Autism Society where Virginia Paving is headquartered, visit www.tidewaterasa.org.

Virginia Paving’s 2013 Cause

ABOVe tOp: the Virginia paving crew selected to decorate a haul truck to assist in raising funds for autism awareness for the 2013 season. inset: You can see the puzzle motif very well in the door. the puzzle not only resonates well with young-er kids, it also parallels the puzzling nature of the disease. ABOVe: the decorat-ed haul truck is used in the field when it’s not at a requested site for display.

by John baLL

48 noveMber 2013

When the days of plowing back profits for growth are in the past, the plant and

equipment is either paid for or being amor-tized, the biggest concern becomes taxes. let’s look at solutions to minimize the tax bite.

For most closely-held businesses and pro-fessional practices the answer is a tax-de-ductible qualified plan. it’s called qualified because the contribution “qualifies” for an income tax deduction. in other words, some form of a retirement plan.

However, a well designed plan is not about retirement as much as it is about paying yourself rather than the in-ternal revenue service. Keep in mind the contributions are income tax deductible, the invested assets grow on a tax-deferred basis, the plan assets are protected from the claim of judgment creditors under erisA, and the plan as-sets qualify for an income tax free irA rollover.1

Asphalt professionals want to select the best plan for their particular situation. For the same reason the local car dealership has many different models and colors, plans come in many varieties as well. the reason: one size does not fit all. plans come in two general styles.• Defined Contribution (DC)—these plans define the

contribution one can make to the plan. the limits are 25 percent of covered payroll not to exceed $51,000 for any one individual.

• Defined Benefit (DB)—these plans define the pension income one will receive at a future date. You have to contribute adequate funds to provide for that future in-come.Frankly, these plans are all budget-driven. While we all

would like to retire on $1 million a month, few have the resources to get there. We all have a budget within which to work. that budget determines which plan is best for one’s particular circumstances.

Here are some examples:SimPLe PLAn: For 2013, the maximum pretax employee contribution to a simple is $12,000. Catch-up contribu-tions for those 50 and older are limited to $2,500. De-signed for small business owners who don’t want to deal with retirement plan administration or non-discrimination tests, the simple is available for businesses with less than 100 employees. the business owner must make fully vest-ed contributions (a dollar-for-dollar match of up to 3 per-cent of an employee’s income, or a non-elective contribu-tion of 2 percent of pay for each eligible employee). You cannot sponsor a simple and another retirement plan.SeP PLAnS: this employer-funded plan gives business-es a simplified vehicle for making tax deductible contri-butions. employer contributions are 100 percent vested from the start. in 2013, an employer’s annual contribution

limit to a sep-irA can’t exceed the lower of $51,000 or 25 percent of an employee’s sala-ry. the same annual contribution limits apply for the self-employed.401(k): There are many varieties of the 401(k). For example:salary Deferral–Only structures: this type of plan has no employer contribution. the par-ticipating employee may defer 100 percent of W-2 income not to exceed $17,500 (2013 lim-its). For those age 50 and older, one is allowed

an additional $5,500 “catch-up” contribution for a maximum deferral of $23,000.safe Harbor: maximum addition to one’s account is $27,700. A byproduct of the small Business Job protection Act of 1996, the safe Harbor plan makes it very attractive to a busi-ness owner.safe Harbor with Discretionary profit sharing: maximum ad-dition to one’s account is $51,000. While the safe Harbor feature allows the owners to make their full salary deferrals of $17,500 ($23,000 for those 50 and over), the maximum allowable contribution to one’s account is $51,000 ($56,500 for those age 50 and over). the difference comes from the employer’s discretionary profit sharing contribution. the op-erative word is discretionary as the additional contribution is optional and there is no obligation to fund from one year to the next. take advantage of the deduction in profitable years and disregard the contribution when cash is needed for other purposes, such as expansion, etc.

in addition to the above, a 401(k) plan may have a roth feature. the employee’s salary deferral can be made with after-tax monies. the advantage is all the future qualified withdrawals can come out income tax free. Yes the account’s earnings, too.DeFineD beneFiT PLAn: When you’ve already done the 401(k) and you need a larger annual income tax deduction, the Defined Benefit plan may be the answer. Consider that these plans allow for annual income tax deductions in some cases of as much as $250,000. As stated above, these plans are budget-driven, so determine the desired annual contri-bution and have the plan structured to absorb that amount. One thing about defined benefit plans, the contribution is mandatory. in other words, design with the thought that this contribution must be made for several years.

William H. Black, Jr. has been in the pension adminis-tration business for 34 years. For more information, con-tact [email protected]. This discussion is not intended as tax advice.

1RMDs, or required minimum distributions, must commence no later than April 1 of the year following the year one at-tains age 70 ½. RMDs are taxable as ordinary income.

by wILLIaM h. bLack, Jr.

Select Correct Tax-Deductible Pension Plan

William H. Black, Jr.

50 noveMber 2013

Contractors can benefit from a direct relationship with their

surety underwriter through the new company, Direct surety, Foster City, Calif. the company has been es-tablished and is managed by a risk management expert with roots in the construction industry and offers contractors a direct relationship with surety decision makers instead of asking them to work through a bro-ker network.

“We believe contractors should be able to work directly with their surety underwriters to maximize their cred-it limits and obtain the best pricing,” David Druml said. He’s the founder and president of Direct surety. “With Direct surety, contractors work di-rectly with us—their underwriter—in-stead of through a surety broker. As veterans in the construction indus-try, we speak their language and can help them improve and grow their

businesses while maximizing surety credit limits.”

Direct surety uses a unique un-derwriting approach and proprie-tary process designed to maximize a contractor’s surety credit and lower the cost of bonds through the use of technology. Underwriters share their assumptions and credit limit calcula-tions with the contractor to validate their accuracy.

“Underwriting is not an exact sci-ence, and there is almost always infor-mation that is not fully or accurately considered,” Druml said. “With Direct surety’s approach, the underwriter and contractor develop a…relation-ship intended to help contractors im-prove their credit and maximize their limits. We provide access to our pro-prietary risk analysis technology, giv-ing them a better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. We also offer construction enterprise

risk management (erm) training to provide contractors with step-by-step guidance to improve their profit-mak-ing ability, often leading to even high-er credit limits.”

Direct surety was born from the con-struction industry; Druml grew up in a construction family and was himself a contractor for more than 15 years. He founded multiple construction-related companies, including a public works construction firm, a precast manufac-turer, a bonding and insurance agen-cy, and a risk management firm. As an instructor at UC Berkeley’s extension, he provides construction erm training to contractors of all sizes, bank and surety underwriters, and those inter-ested in launching new construction companies.

For more information, contact (888) 288-9778 or visit www.direct-surety.com. Let them know you saw it in Asphaltpro Magazine.

As an instructor at UC Berkeley’s extension, Dave Druml, Founder and president of Direct suretyteaches

contractors about enterprise risk management.

by barbara kraUse

conStruction expert growS into Surety owner


that's a good idea

Make Hopper Adjustmentsthe crew at pike industries, inc., Belmont, n.H., has multi-

ple aggregate and asphalt facilities throughout new eng-land. During a project where i consulted with them, the me-chanic installed this simple light system on the paver to help the operator see into the hopper. Along with the convex mir-ror on the bar, this lets the operator keep track of yield.

the mechanic has bolted the aluminum pole to the tractor frame. Convex mirrors have been affixed to either end of a bar across the top of the pole with a halogen light in the cen-ter. the mirrors are set on an angle and can be adjusted for the paver operator to see down into the hopper. He will be able to see when the conveyors start to run empty.

Another way that the crew has modified this paver is by making their own “hopper insert.” notice that the wings are locked in the folded position. At the front of the hopper, the mechanic has bolted a small length of metal track—on both sides of the hopper wings—to hold a met-al sheet in place like a tailgate. With the metal sheet slid into place and the hopper wings folded, the hopper can hold about 10 tons and the conveyors move the material as a mass.

John Ball is the proprietor of Top Quality Paving, Man-chester, N.H. You can contact him at (603) 493-1458 or [email protected].

by John baLL

the paver operator can look into the convex mirror in the foreground of the picture and easily see the conveyors in the bottom of the hopper.

52 noveMber 2013

equipment gallery

Protect Crushers Downstreamrecycling and/or crushing facilities

that have installed a magnetic sep-arator along their conveyors may still find contaminant in their product. the team at eriez, in erie, pa., recommends putting more than one contraption to work for your operation. By matching a powerful magnetic separator along-side a highly-sensitive metal detec-tor you can defend against unwanted tramp metal. this setup guards against equipment damage and reduces the contaminant left in product. if you’re using equipment from eriez, they offer the “Double team” eriez® metal De-tector/magnetic separator combina-tion to provide protection of valuable crushers and downstream equipment.

let’s look more closely into the com-pany’s reasoning for installing both items. eriez officials explain that nei-ther a magnetic separator nor a met-al detector is 100 percent effective in removing metal contamination. pairing the two pieces of equipment together is their solution to achieving the most complete removal of troublesome tramp metal possible.

“Using the right magnet with the proper metal detection technology can safeguard processing equipment and ensure product purity,” John Klinge said. He’s the eriez product manager in metal detection. “this tried-and-true ‘marriage’ keeps users’ products under strict surveillance at all times and pre-vents unnecessary machine downtime and costly maintenance.”

As aggregates managers know, metal contamination comes from a variety of sources. incoming products may contain fine metal objects from the transportation vessel used to de-liver the product, including tank trucks and rail cars. the contamination may also originate within the plant be-cause of material processing, granu-lating, shredding or general abrasion. there’s also the human factor: inevita-bly, items such as coins, pens and pro-cessing tools will occasionally fall into the product stream.

if you discover these items often, you may wish to initiate a program whereby workers who come into contact with conveyors wear a uni-form with no pockets or whereby all workers deposit loose items into a locker before stepping past a certain point at the plant. there’s no excuse for sloppiness.

there are several types of magnet-ic separators and metal detectors that work well together, depending upon the industry. magnetic separators re-move the ferrous contaminants while

the metal detector focuses on any fer-rous missed by the magnet as well as nonferrous metals, i.e. aluminum, cop-per, brass, and 300 series stainless steel, according to Klinge.

Eriez engineers work with custom-ers to create the ideal “Double Team” Metal Detector/Magnetic Separator combination for their specific applica-tion needs. For more information, con-tact (888) 300-3743 within the United States and Canada, or [email protected]. Let them know you saw it in As-phaltpro Magazine.

Using a metal detector and magnetic separator in combination provides greater opportunity to remove contaminants than using one item alone. photo courtesy of eriez, erie, pa.

56 noveMber 2013

Time AnD AGAinthe Historical Construction equipment Association (HCeA) has its 2014 HCeA Calendar available to order either on-line at www.hcea.net or by phone at (419) 352-5616. they’ve pulled 12 rare images from the archives, scanned and restored them, and made the con-struction and paving scenes available in the 2014 calendar. the association is a non-profit based in Bowling Green, Ohio, and charges $10 per calendar or helps you turn the calendar into a marketing item with special pricing for custom imprints of your company name on lots of 50.

For more information, contact HCEA at (419) 352-5616. Let them know you saw it in Asphaltpro Magazine.

bomAG TAnDem roLLerS USe LeSS FUeLthe BW141AD-5 and BW151AD-5 tan-dem vibratory rollers from BOmAG Americas, inc., headquartered in Ke-wanee, ill., feature a new frame design for clear visibility and tier 4 engines for a variety of asphalt compaction jobs. the water-cooled diesel engines are 73.2-horsepower Kubotas. Offering 59-inch and 66-inch working widths, respectively, the BW141AD-5 and BW151AD-5 each deliver up to 17,760

pounds of centrifugal force. the rollers feature eCOmODe, a system that aids the operator in conserving fuel by con-trolling the engine speed in relation to load, reducing fuel consumption by up to 30 percent.

the component placement, such as a large water tank below the operator’s station and the engine located in the rear frame, contributes to high maneu-verability and reduced noise during op-eration. A pressurized water spray sys-tem includes a second pump and triple filters for reliable drum sprinkling. the large engine hood offers easy access from either side of the machine.

A crab-steer feature allows opera-tors to offset the rear drum of the roll-ers up to 6.7 inches in either direction. Other standard features include auto-matic vibration control, speedometer, V-belt protection, halogen working lights, indicator and hazard lights, back-up alarm, master battery disconnect switch, and tool compartments. Op-tional features include a mat tempera-ture display, rOps cabin with heating or air conditioning, BOmAG telemat-ics, drum edge lighting, and integrated edge cutter for the rear drum.

For more information, contact Bomag at (309) 853-3571 or [email protected]. Let them know you saw it in Asphaltpro Magazine.

HoneyWeLL SeALS SAFeTyAt the end of september, Honey-well of smithfield, r.i., launched the Uvex livewire™ sealed eyewear. Based on research and fit-testing, the Uvex livewire frame provides a gap-free fit that seals out debris. the Uvextreme® plus coating provides anti-fog protection and scratch-re-sistance. the style is also available with Dura-streme® technology that combines Uvextreme® anti-fog coat-ing on the interior and Ultra-dura® anti-scratch coating on the exterior, for longer lens life. this is eyewear designed for durability, fit and pro-tection to keep workers safe in harsh conditions.

Uvex livewire is available in nine specialized lens tints. Frame options include two colors, and 6-base and 8-base prescription safety frames are available to accommodate workers who require vision correction. the manufacturer states the style is 100 percent dielectric for safe wear in environments where electrical haz-ards exist. Uvex livewire meets the Ansi Z87.1-2010 standard as well as the CsA Z94.3 standard, and its lens-es provide 99.99 percent UV protec-tion, according to the manufacturer.

For more information, contact Honeywell Safety Products Custom-er Care at (800) 430-5490 or visit www.uvex.us. Let them know you saw it in Asphaltpro Magazine.

CUmminS ADDS GLobAL HeAvy-DUTy enGineto complement its existing global product offering, Cummins, inc., of Columbus, ind., has added the G se-ries engine, which is an in-line six-cyl-inder available in 10.5- and 11.8-liter displacements. initial engines are de-signed to run on diesel fuel. the tea in


equipment gallery

the United states lead the design and development of the engine with sup-port by global technical and marketing resources.

the G series is designed to mini-mize engineering requirements for vehicle and equipment manufactur-ers with a common, compact instal-lation envelope. A key design focus has been to achieve weight savings to increase the power-to-weight ra-tio. A sculptured block retains high rigidity while removing unnecessary mass; the team used composite ma-terial for the oil pan and valve cov-er to provide further weight savings. the G series achieves a low engine weight of 1,900 pounds (862 kg).

it incorporates Cummins Xtra-High pressure injection (Xpi) fuel system, derived from the large X series en-gine. With multiple injection events driven by Cummins electronic con-trols, the Xpi fuel system contrib-utes to peak torque for the G series of 1,700 foot-pounds (2,305 newton-meters), together with a torque rise as high as 60 percent available. it of-fers fuel efficiency through parasitic reducing technology without variable-flow pumps. it includes single Cam in Head (sCiH) design with roller valve train and high-efficiency intake ports. the resulting low-weight design allows more payload delivery while requiring less energy.

For on-highway markets, the G se-ries Heavy-Duty engine platform will be introduced as the Cummins isG11 and Cummins isG12. At launch in 2014, engines will meet euro iii, euro iV and China ns4 emissions require-ments. engines for euro V, euro Vi and U.s. environmental protection Agency (epA) are also in development. One engine from the new G series platform was initially unveiled at BAUmA in April 2013 under the name Qsm12, and will now be renamed QsG12 as part of this family of engines. the QsG12 is pur-pose-designed to meet U.s. epA tier 4 Final and european Union (eU) stage iV emissions regulations with a more compact envelope and a more than 30 percent higher power-to-weight ratio than the class average for engines with

a similar power range. High-efficiency air handling and advanced combus-tion combustion enable the QsG12 to achieve near-zero emissions without the need for a cooled exhaust Gas re-circulation (eGr) system.

the G series will initially be manu-factured at the Beijing Foton Cummins engine Co., serving customers on a global basis. production will start dur-ing the first half of 2014.

For more information, contact Car-ol Lavengood at (812) 377-3079 or [email protected]. Let them know you saw it in Asphaltpro Magazine.

iroCk WHeeLS JAW onTo THe SCeneirOCK Crushers of Valley View, Ohio, has introduced the wheeled jaw crush-er 2644 (WJC-2644). they recommend it for use as a primary crusher. it’s de-signed to process hard rock, recycled concrete, sand and gravel, and slag.

it’s powered by a 350-horsepower Caterpillar® C-9 ACert tier 3 engine to produce up to 370 tons per hour

(tpH). the hopper on the unit has a ca-pacity of 10.5 cubic yards.

A hydraulic adjusting chamber al-lows operators to adjust crushing size from a 2-inch minimum closed side setting to a 6-inch maximum side set-ting. this allows the unit to produce a top size ranging from 2 to 6 inches. the machine includes a 24-inch-wide grizzle bypass conveyor with an ad-justable flop gate, as well as a 40-inch by 14-foot feeder with a 5-foot griz-zly bar section. these features ensure that material, depending on its size, is properly classified and directed to ei-ther the side discharge conveyor or the crusher discharge conveyor.

the wheeled crusher features radial tires mounted under a 24-inch beam chassis. the unit features quad-axle rear ride suspension and includes a fifth wheel pin. For quick setup, the WJC-2644 is equipped with four hy-draulic outriggers for off-loading and leveling the plant.

For more information, contact IROCK at (866) 240-0201 or [email protected]. Let them know you saw it in Asphaltpro Magazine.

58 noveMber 2013


equipment gallery

GiLL STreAmS WeATHerGill instruments, ltd., has launched a new data solutions platform called metstream, which it showcased alongside other products from a range of ultrasonic anemometers at the meteorological technology World expo in Brussels. Comprised of a hub and supporting software, metstream enables users to obtain multi-channel data via one single unit streaming it across different outputs.

Users access data via tablets, smart phones and personal computers.

the idea behind metstream origi-nated from what Gill saw as a gap in the market. they used sister com-pany Gill research & Development ltd. to develop the hardware and software.

For more information, call +44 (0) 1590 613500 or [email protected]. Let them know you saw it in Asphaltpro Magazine.

FLex-mAT ComeS To FiFemajor Wire screen media, a subsid-iary of major Wire industries, ltd., of Candiac, Quebec, Canada, is now pro-ducing the company’s popular Flex-mat® 3 high-performance screen me-dia from its new facility in Fife, Wash. this means aggregate, mining, recy-cle, asphalt and green waste produc-ers can receive shipments of Flex-mat 3 tensioned with shorter lead times and lower freight costs than previ-ously. the Flex-mat 3 modern will still be manufactured in montreal for the foreseeable future.

For more information, contact Ma-jor Wire at (450) 659-7681 or [email protected]. Let them know you saw it in Asphaltpro Magazine.

CoRReCTion: The AsphaltPro Staff regrets misidentifying

Dave Enyart, Sr., in the “Control Moisture” article on page 22 of

the August 2013 issue. Enyart is the senior on-site plant service

technician for Systems Equipment. He can be reached at (563) 568-6387. Orrin Grangaard continues his role as president of Systems

Equipment and Joe Papp is CEO.

60 noveMber 2013

here's how it works

Weatherproof control box Heating

Elements

A thermostat ahead of the heating element controls separate lines, monitoring product at various points in the system.

Step 1

The open coil heating element provides continuous heat inside its housing.

Step 2

Low watt density emits heat outward from the cylindrical surface to provide controlled heating to the product in the line.

Step 3

To perform maintenance, the ground man removes the heating element from its housing without draining the lines.

Step 4

Process Heating’s Internal Pipe Tracingproducers, refiners and anyone mov-

ing liquids in the asphalt industry needs to keep material heated as it goes from point A to point B. the en-gineers at process Heating Co. in se-attle developed the internal pipe trac-ing to eliminate the need for jacketing of those pipes for hot oil systems to transfer heat to the lines. Here’s how it works.

First, the internal pipe tracing is a flange-mounted, packaged unit that is inserted in any line that is 4 inch-es in diameter or larger; any line that is used to carry asphalt; any line that would be jacketed where hot oil is used to transfer heat to the lines.

A weatherproof control box that contains a thermostat is pre-wired to the heater with the sensor installed. it is placed ahead of the heating el-ement in the circuit and individu-al lines are controlled separately so product temperature can be moni-tored at various points in the system.

the drywell type, open coil, heavy duty heating element is direct im-mersion. the watt density is kept low to avoid coking of the product in the lines. As stated above, it is placed in-side the line where it emits heat out-ward from its cylindrical surface, pro-viding continuous, controlled heating to the product in the line.

For maintenance, the ground man can remove the heating element from its housing without draining the lines.

For more information, contact Rick Jay at (206) 682-3414 or visit www.processheating.com.

show Us how IT worksif you’re an equipment manufacturer with a complex product, let us help you ex-plain its inner workings to the readers of AsphaltPro magazine. there’s no charge for this editorial department, but our staff reserves the right to decide what equip-ment fits the parameters of a HHiW fea-tures. Contact our editor at [email protected].

62 noveMber 2013

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AsphaltPro’s Resource Directory is designed for you to have quick access to the manufacturers that can get you the information you need to run your business efficiently. Please support the advertisers that support this magazine and tell them you saw them in AsphaltPro magazine.

resource directory

Astec® Parallel Flow Portable 6 Pack Plant ONLINE #528

astecused.com

Joe Clancy Astec Pre-Owned Equipment

Mobile: 423.240.6968

• Portable 8’ x 45’ parallel flow drum with recycle collar: New 8’x 45’ replacement drum shell with two leaf mounted tires, complete set of new flights, four trunnion assemblies with two gear boxes• 5 bin cold feed (1/4” liners on 3 in 2012)• Astec 50,000 cfm baghouse, 2008 bags

• Command 4 control house on gooseneck with PM96 controls• Astec 100 ton silo with 24’ drag, 2011 chain and sprockets• Astec recycle, new in 1995, new belt in 2012• Astec 30” x 45’ conveyor• Deister 4x10 screen, new in’09• Heatec double wall bulkhead tank with Heatec ‘08 heater

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the last cut

NUMBY—Not Under My Backyardby sandy Lender

As discussed in last month’s last Cut column, a lack of ad-equate pipeline capacity in north America has lead to

an abundant use of over-the-road trucking, railway and wa-terway transport of crude oil, tar sands and derivative prod-ucts. the industry doesn’t have to wait long, though, for the lines that crisscross the United states to get up to speed and help mitigate some of those transportation costs.

For example, nwi.com (northwest indiana) reported at the end of August that the U.s. Army Corps of engineers had approved work to begin on the new line 6B pipe-line. that infrastructure goes between the indiana-michi-gan border and laporte. the online news source reported these stats within its story:• enbridge energy partners lp is investing $1.5 billion to

replace the 44-year-old line with a bigger line to handle already increased capacity

• the new line will be 60 miles long, beginning in Canada, ending in Griffith

• it will serve the Bp Whiting refinery and others in the midwest

• 180 area employees have completed 11,000 hours of safety training; about 200 local construction jobs will be created

• Work is expected to be complete by the end of 2013not everyone is delighted with pipeline advances.

While the promise of lower asphalt cement (AC) costs translates to good news for the asphalt industry in trick-le-down economics, homeowners are affected by newly employed workers digging on their land. in the example above, farmers were paid for the violation and property was returned to a useable state according to contracts. in texas, pipeline work has gotten into court.

the Fort mill times’ online edition reported in late Au-gust that a case went to the appeals court where a judge upheld a lower-court ruling letting transCanada condemn a woman’s northeast texas farm property to gain access. in that situation, transCanada wishes “to carry oil from Canadian tar sands to texas Gulf Coast refineries” with the infamous Keystone Xl pipeline.

While no one wants to think about giving up family land or moving from home at the government’s behest, it’s a fact that pipeline capacity must increase to move the fos-sil fuels needed to power the various industries and pro-vide the various products on which humans rely. At this time that capacity is going through its necessary growing pains and the many facets of the transportation industry await the results. in fact, thehill.com posted sept. 26 that representatives Fred Upton (r-mich.) and Gene Green (D-texas) had presented their drafted legislation that would

accelerate the permitting procedures for cross-border oil pipelines to a committee panel for review. their bi-par-tisan idea would make some big changes such as limit-ing the review process for applications to 120 days, but would strip away the detailed national environmental policy Act reviews. Once again, not everyone is happy.

Liquid Asphalt Cement Prices—average per ton

Company, State Jun ’13 Jul ’13 Aug ’13 Sept ’13

ConocoPhillips, Tenn. $550.00 $550.00 $565.00 550.00

nuStar Energy, Ga. 600.00 620.00 585.00 550.00

nuStar Energy, n.C. 600.00 620.00 587.50 567.50

nuStar Energy, Va. 625.00 625.00 590.00 570.00

Assoc’d Asphalt inman, n.C. 590.00 585.00 600.00 590.00

Assoc’d Asphalt inman, S.C. 590.00 590.00 600.00 590.00

Assoc’d Asphalt inman, Va. 585.00 585.00 600.00 590.00

Marathon Petroleum, Tenn. 550.00 550.00 565.00 550.00

Marathon Petroleum, n.C. 535.00 535.00 555.00 565.00

Valero Petroleum, n.C. 590.00 595.00 600.00 605.00

California Average 543.80 559.20 592.30 596.00

Delaware Average 595.00 600.00 578.33 575.00

Kentucky Average 546.25 542.50 553.75 548.75

Massachusetts Average 620.00 607.50 592.50 610.00

Missouri Average 533.75 540.00 547.50 547.50

Data for Southeast region, Source: ncdot.org; Data for Massachusetts, Source: mass.gov; Data for California, Source: dot.ca.gov; Data for Missouri, Source: modot.mo.gov; Data for Colorado, Source: CDOT and Cenovus

Diesel Fuel Retail Price (dollars per gallon)

Jun 3 3.869

Jun 10 3.849

Jun 17 3.841

Jun 24 3.838

Jul 1 3.817

Jul 8 3.828

Jul 15 3.867

Jul 22 3.903

Jul 29 3.915

Aug 5 3.909

Aug 12 3.896

Aug 19 3.900

Crude Oil Activity (u.S. Crude)

futures spot data stocks

Jun 7 $96.03 393.8 m bbl

Jun 14 $97.85 394.1 m bbl

Jun 21 $93.69 394.1 m bbl

Jun 28 $96.56 383.8 m bbl

Jul 5 $103.22 373.9 m bbl

Jul 12 $105.95 367.0 m bbl

Jul 19 $108.05 364.2 m bbl

Jul 26 $104.70 364.6 m bbl

Aug 2 $106.94 363.3 m bbl

Aug 9 $105.97 360.5 m bbl

Aug 16 $107.46 359.1 m bbl

Aug 23 $106.42 362.0 m bbl

Sources: Energy information Administration

66 noveMber 2013

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Documents

APro November 2013