Polymer modified bituminous materials can bring real benefits to highway maintenance/construction, in terms of better and longer lasting roads, and savings in total road life costing.
The term polymer basically means a combination of a large number of similar smaller molecules or “monomers” into large molecules or “polymers”. The main polymers used to modify bitumen are:
The cohesion and adhesion to mineral aggregates is higher. The range of plasticity (temperature range between breaking point and the fusion point) is increased. There is greater elastic recovery after relief and higher fatigue resistance. Apart from road construction other uses of PMB are production of high quality roofing-cardboard and damp-proof layers.
Modern IKA® Inline Technology
This is a batch process involving large footprint for the manufacturing facilities. The polymer is introduced
separately into a CSTR containing hot bitumen with
mild stirring. Dispersion is slow and less effective.
There is little flexibility and longer production times
are required. The batch processes poses bottlenecks
when production increase is considered.
Conventional PMB Manufacturing Technology
This is a continuous process with continuous dosing and incorporation of polymers (SBS/EVA) and bitumen into the inline IKA® Dispax Reactor DR 2000 PB. Because of intensive mixing at high shear finest dispersion is achieved in a single pass. Homogenized finished product is directly and continuously transferred to storage. The process provides for a lot of flexibility and production time is reduced by more than 60 percent.
