Asphalt Pro - November 2013

Convey Materials with Safe Innovations

Alternative Delivery?

Asphalt’s still smooth with these windrow tips Stay Safe: Untangle Trucks Lobby QC OEMs Tension Wash Screens Luck Loads by Remote Swift Sizes RAS at 3/8 Minus november 2013

contents

22

Departments Articles

Letter from the Editor 5 The Lizard Mixture

22 Don’t Break for Short Hauls

By AsphaltPro Staff

Around the Globe 6

24 Deliver Mix for Smooth Finish

By Corey L. Pelletier

Safety Spotlight 8 Stay Safe by Haul Trucks

By John Ball, Translated

by EZ Street® Company Project Management 13 Sundre Moves Material Faster

By Gary Pederson Producer Profile 16 Luck Makes Loading Safer Luck Stone encourages innovation 90 years into the business

By AsphaltPro Staff Equipment Gallery 58 Protect Crushers Downstream Here’s How It Works 62 Process Heating’s Internal Pipe Tracing

32 Move RAS Material Missouri producer shares the fine points of running recycled shingles

By Daniel C. Brown

24

16

39 Control Your Plant Mix

By Dr. Michael Heitzman and Clarence Richard 48 Avoid Tangling Up Truck Safety

By AsphaltPro Staff 50 Virginia Paving’s 2013 Cause

By John Ball 52 Select Correct TaxDeductible Pension Plan

By William H. Black, Jr.

Resource Directory 65

53 Construction Expert Grows Into Surety Owner

By Barbara Krause

Last Cut 66 NUMBY—Not Under My Backyard

By Sandy Lender

54 That’s a Good Idea Make Hopper Adjustments

By John Ball

48

Convey Materials with Safe Innovations

13 On the Cover ALTERNATIVE DELIVERY?

Asphalt’s still smooth with these windrow tips Stay Safe: Untangle Trucks Lobby QC OEMs Tension Wash Screens Luck Loads by Remote Swift Sizes RAS at 3/8 Minus NOVEMBER 2013

Asphalt 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.

editor's note November 2013 • Vol. 7 No. 2

The Lizard Mixture

2001 Corporate Place Columbia, MO 65202 573-499-1830 • 573-499-1831 www.theasphaltpro.com Group publisher

Chris Harrison publisher

Sally Shoemaker sally@theasphaltpro.com (573) 499-1830 x1008

editor

Sandy Lender sandy@theasphaltpro.com (239) 272-8613

Art Director

Kristin Branscom operations/circulation manager

Cindy Sheridan business manager

Renea 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.

Buried within last month’s editorial column, I confessed to keeping stray lizards hydrated in my Southwest Florida home. Imagine my surprise when I realized those little reptiles fit into this month’s information as well—albeit tangentially. Upon my return from the Asphalt Contractors Association of Florida (ACAF) annual conference in Orlando in Many thanks to the Lane Corporation September, I knew I would include in this for this excellent marketing idea.

Photo courtesy of John Ball. hauling and conveying issue a how-to article 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 Logistics” article on page 34 of the October issue to see how Oregon Mainline Paving 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 windrow 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 depends 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 absorbing 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 Florida throws itself in front of regular traffic on a regular basis. If you build a windrow 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 critters 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 www.theasphaltpro.com | ASPHALT PRO 5

around the globe

Industry News and Happenings from Around the World Ireland

Oldcastle, Inc., a subsidiary of CRH plc headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, has another feather in its cap. Its president and COO, Doug Black has been elected 2013-14 chairman of the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA).

2013 Statewide Winner for a rural resurfacing project was APAC-Southeast, Inc., for its successful completion of SR 235 where it placed 35,896 tons on 24.8 lane miles. Additional winners of smooth, gorgeous asphalt pavements in the state of Florida can be seen at www.acaf.org.

United States

Georgia

• The American General Contractors reported in late September that construction employment 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 metro areas get back to peak employment levels in construction.”

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

California

Cummins 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 people worldwide and serves customers in approximately 190 countries and territories. The company earned $1.65 billion on sales of $17.3 billion during 2012.

Colorado

Have you registered for the 40th Rocky Mountain Asphalt Conference and Exhibition Show to be held Feb. 19 through 21, 2014 in Denver? 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 registration began Oct. 1.

Florida

At the recent Asphalt Contractors Association of Florida (ACAF) annual conference, Lane Construction won the 2013 Statewide Winner for an urban resurfacing project for its excellent completion of SR 530 (US192) where it placed 18,373 tons on 7.877 lane miles. The 6 november 2013

The State Road and Tollway Authority, along with the Georgia State Financing and Investment Commission, has approved a $599 million 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

Idaho

To 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 application form and approval for the certification class. Get the NBTC Certification Application 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, program at the Asphalt Institute headquarters in Lexington, Ky.

Maryland

The 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.

Massachusetts

MassDOT 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 includes overpass spans and interstate work.

Michigan

According to MLive.com, the Michigan Department 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 Jersey

Bagela 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 Infrastructure Commission. Projects tangentially related 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 Resolving Situations three-day workshop Dec. 10 through 12. Early bird registration ends Nov. 22 at www.kpijci.com. Call Terry at (605) 6682545 for more information.

Tennessee

Astec, 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.

Washington

At 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

safety spotlight

Stay Safe

by Haul Trucks

By John Ball, Translated by EZ Street® Company

E

veryone’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 company’s safety culture. That means we all look out for ourselves 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 something’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 8 november 2013

que le da un manual, sino a todos los trabajadores de la técnica de laboratorio en la planta para el operador rodillo acabado es una parte integral de la cultura de seguridad 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 cuidadoso.

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

LEFT and RIGHT: Haul trucks present a clear and present danger at the asphalt 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 planta de asfalto y en la zona de trabajo. No te metas en el punto ciego del conductor. Nunca cuelgue del lado del camión de transporte de charlar con el conductor. No haga autostop en el lado del camión de transporte y no dar la espalda al tráfico.

www.theasphaltpro.com | ASPHALT PRO 9

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 construction noise and the confusion of multiple vehicles in the work zone, it is easy for a worker to not notice a backing haul truck coming 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 transferencia 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 trabajo, es fácil que un trabajador se da cuenta de un lance camión respaldo que viene su camino. Limpie 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 backing 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 observar en esta imagen? La más obvia debe ser la posición del hombre volcado. Nunca se coloque entre el pavimento y un vehículo de apoyo. El conductor del camión no se puede ver allí y usted no puede depender 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 protagonizaron 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 underneath the paver. The machine continued to move forward 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 accident 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 tripulación de una discapacidad cuando su pie quedó atrapado en una alcantarilla por debajo de la pavimentadora. La máquina siguió adelante como el hombre volcado cayó y se esforzó por debajo de él. El mando del conductor se detuvo y se dirigió hacia atrás, destrozando y eliminando inferior de la pierna del trabajador. Fue un terrible accidente que dejó a todos sacudió y la vida de ese trabajador cambió para siempre. Asegúrese de que usted y sus compañeros 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

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

Luck Makes Loading Safer

Luck Stone encourages innovation 90 years into the business

By AsphaltPro Staff

L

uck Stone, the oldest division of Luck Companies based in Richmond, Va., is launching some new initiatives 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 dangerous situations.

Now in its third generation of leadership 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 quality products with exceptional customer service. Today’s competitive business landscape demands that companies

12 november 2013

continually evolve and innovate, a challenge that Luck Stone both welcomes and embraces.

“The company takes pride in its reputation 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 partners, 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 environment,” 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 quarterback, the pit loader operator. However, we can always find new innovative

equipment maintenance

producer profile

ABOVE: Luck Stone President Bob Grauer told AsphaltPro, “We decided to develop 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 emblazoned on the work trucks.

ways to address challenges. Sometimes 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 associates. Think about cell phones or payat-the-pump gas stations.

“We decided to develop 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. The use of a remote control loader at Luck Stone is currently a limited 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 company has already reached out to its subcontractors and to share efficiencies and safeties. In another innovative move, Luck Stone harnessed the power of GIS technology to improve efficiency 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 directions for deliveries and place stone orders, among other features. Luck Stone distributed iPads with the Hauler App 14 november 2013

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 efficient. The company also generates an annual survey to rate its performance on how well Luck Stone listens and responds to feedback. “Our rating improved from 74 percent to 84 percent in one year as a result of really listening to what our customers say that we could be doing better,” Grauer said.

As a visual symbol of the new initiatives at Luck Stone, the company has unveiled a new logo and brand identity that has rolled out this summer on vehicles and signage at the 23 plant locations in Virginia and North Carolina.

“Our new logo aligns better with the iconic cloverleaf in the Luck Companies brand and also includes the dynamic corporate tagline, Igniting Human Potential, which infuses the brand

with lots of energy and a message that everyone can aspire to personal excellence 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 remarks when he inquired about that hiring process.

“The associates felt invested in making sure that the mechanic was successful because they had played a key role in hiring him,” Grauer said. “The mechanic 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.”

project maintenance

Sundre Moves Material Faster

By Gary Pederson

S

undre Contracting Co., located in Sundre, Alberta, Canada, has been family owned and operated since 1978. It produces more than 30 different product sizes—from 1/16inch (1.6-mm) fine sand to 12-inch (305-mm) screened rock and everything in between. Whether its customer is an Alberta road builder, asphalt plant or any of a number of golf courses in Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan, its products must

16 november 2013

Sundre increased production by 100 percent on rainy days because the operation no longer needed to shut down.

meet tight specs or be rejected. Rejection is a worry because clay material 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 Contracting screens more than 35 different products, moving and conveying material across six screen decks

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.

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 (20mm) minus aggregate from the customer’s highly clay-contaminated pit.

With the addition of rain every second 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 blinding and pegging…on our first screen deck,” Jason Harder, manager of operations at Sundre Contracting, stated. “In order to meet customer material spec, we needed 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 needed another solution. The operation tried a variety of woven wire and selfcleaning screen media options, but all were experiencing severe blinding and pegging. At the recommendation of Matt Armstrong, dealer representative at ELRUS Aggregate Systems, Harder installed Major Wire

project maintenance

Get Tense When You Install Wire

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

7/8-inch (22-mm) Flex-Mat® 3 Series D Tensioned screen media.

“The operation went from not being able to produce at all in marginally 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. Using Flex-Mat 3 tensioned screen media, 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 estimated 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 President of Sales for Major Wire Industries Limited in Candiac, Quebec, Canada. For more information, contact him at (450) 659-7681 or major@ majorwire.cc.

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The 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 holes o 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 rubber for 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

Don’t Break for Short Hauls

By AsphaltPro Staff

I

f you haul asphalt from Point A to Point B and then return to Point A for another load, the last thing you need interrupting the flow of the perishable product is a 30-minute government-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 every 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-theroad 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 litigation 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 provision as it applies to short haul drivers.” By the time this issue goes to press, the decision officially will have taken effect, but FMCSA announced that it immediately ceased enforcement 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 enforce 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 following 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 recordkeeping requirements of 395.1(e)(2).

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

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 probably 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

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.

Deliver Mix for Smooth Finish

By Corey L. Pelletier

N

ot 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 capacity although they are used to improve mat quality and production as their cousins the material transfer vehicles (MTVs) are designed to do. www.theasphaltpro.com | ASPHALT PRO 25

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.

Windrow elevators provide what I would consider a significant advantage 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 paver hopper, you can match the paving 26 november 2013

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 correct amount of mix in the windrow.

That makes your dump man vital to the success of your operation.

Windrow Advantages Your paving crew can see daily production 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

ABOVE: The Weiler asphalt material transfer device (MTD) shown here gives an example 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 feature to add to your MTD if it doesn’t come standard.

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 because 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 28 november 2013

LEFT: Don’t use a skid steer to manipulate the windrow; you could cause material and temperature segregation. Only use the wheel or skid steer loader to get the windrow started at the beginning of the paving day.

This is an excellent example of a windrow the Hardrives crew has created with welltimed trucks delivering material in a reliable, timely manner.

LEFT: The material transfer device (MTD) has no transportation engine; the paver pushes it. In this image you can see the front end of the paver with the pushbar where the MTD device 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.

MTD and there are some keys to its effective use.

Build the Perfect Windrow The most obvious key to the effective 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 secret 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 segregation.

Truck arrival rate must be consistent. 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.

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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 Enterprises on the wheels to prevent pickup and clogs.

The dump man will want to wait until 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, especially in colder weather. Speaking of ambient conditions, the windrow can maintain its temperature fairly well. We have records of material in the windrow at 317 degrees F, going up the elevator at 309 degrees, at the head of material at 301 degrees, and then behind the screed at 297 degrees.

Once material is in the paver hopper, paving and compaction continues with best practices.

Corey L. Pelletier is the director of Asphalt Technologies, Inc. For more information, contact him at Corey. pelletier@andersoncolumbia.com or (386) 752-4921.

Windrow-Building 101

If 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.

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.

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Move RAS Material

Missouri producer shares the fine points of running recycled shingles

By Daniel C. Brown

32 november 2013

U

nlike many asphalt producers who run recycled asphalt shingles (RAS), Swift Construction Co. of Joplin, Mo., doesn’t hire shingle-grinding services. The company owns two shingle grinders.

Randy Swift, president of the company, says running shingles is more cost effective that way. One grinder stays in a recycle yard for Swift’s own purposes in Joplin, and the other one travels around Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas, grinding for other customers.

Swift has been using RAS in its mixes for several years now, and was one of the first contractors in Missouri to do so. The company produces approximately 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 mainly do commercial work, city and county 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 pavement (RAP) in the mix. Swift has two asphalt plants, one of which is a 300TPH stationary plant. That plant can inject a small amount of water into the liquid asphalt to produce foamed asphalt and WMA.

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.

“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.” www.theasphaltpro.com | ASPHALT PRO 33

Swift reduces tons of shingles to tons of usable product.

“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 better, 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 Peterson Pacific 4700B, and both grinders are used for shingles only (no wood). “We can surge the new Peterson, 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 34 november 2013

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, replacing 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 anvil. 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 grinding chamber because of wear and production. And it does that really well.”

That was about two years ago.

Now, the product from the grinder is finer, which is more desirable because 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 grinding shingles, everybody wanted halfinch 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.

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 larger asphalt plant has an entry system for RAS and RAP that is an outer chamber. Recycled material mixes with hot aggregate and heat up in that area, and then they come up into the mixing chamber behind the burner. The smaller plant is a counter-flow plant, so shingles enter the drum behind the burner and mix with the aggregate and liquid binder. The larger asphalt plant can recycle more material 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 addition of shingles by weight normally replaces 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-byerror, you will come up to 1 percent binder replacement with shingles, as a 36 november 2013

rule of thumb. If a mix has 5.0 percent virgin AC, then you add 5 percent shingles, 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 replaced by the RAS aggregate. “It’s

Swift’s RAS Tips

kind of a tedious process to get it right, but when you do get it right, they work. You can’t tell that the shingles are in the mix. It works great.

We think the shingle mix is a tougher mix,” Swift said. “We don’t see the rutting, especially with manufactured waste shingles. That’s because the binder is not aged, as it would be from shingles in a 20-year-old roof.”

1. 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

never run shingles. He advised against trying to run too high of a shingle content 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 diminishes 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 benefits of a 3/8 minus product, Swift and Peterson have adapted to provide it.

Tear-off shingles contain a stiffer binder than manufactured waste shingles, so the producer often has to compensate for that. “If you’re trying to run a pretty good percentage of tearoff 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 harder 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 percent RAP and 5 percent shingles, but the typical mix contains 12 to 15 percent 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 www.theasphaltpro.com | ASPHALT PRO 37

Control Your

Plant Mix

By Dr. Michael Heitzman and Clarence Richard

I

f 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 asphalt 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 addressed 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 getting our best bang for the buck? Are we getting our best return on investment?

As an industry, we spend copious resources on mix designs, lab equipment to test the designs, and field equipment 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 materials and some of these are not accounted for as well as they could be. Consequently, the processes may be imperfect, 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 optimization of excellent production.

If we’re going to raise our expectations as an industry, it will take more money and effort than we spend today. The cost of the ton-of-mix produced may rise, but 38 november 2013

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.

the risk of penalty to the contractor will drop. The benefit 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 complex process.

The future of asphalt plant controls will have to make working with the baghouse as a material feeder, working 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 quality? Four particular problems at the conventional drum plant exist and can be resolved if we address them sufficiently. Let’s look at moisture, dust, RAS and training.

Moisture Affects Asphalt Content Continuous accounting and compensation for moisture in the aggregates isn’t happening. Past and current technologies 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

moisture in the cold feed bins. While there are some moisture 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” useful 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 continuously not only may be labor-saving for QC when doing daily oven tests, but the continuous moisture measurement would reduce variability of asphalt content and void control. An unknown still exists. Currently, plant operators need a definitive answer from their blending control 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 quality is easier to control. Although RAS is typically introduced in small percentages, its contribution to asphalt content is significant. Continuously accounting for moisture 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 controls so that variation in moisture is accounted for and the asphalt rate is adjusted during production.

Dust Affects Voids Instead 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 feeder system, you’d shut that system down until it was fixed.

The baghouse was originally designed to satisfy environmental 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 auger 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 baghouse is a mineral dust feed system without control. The baghouse 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 sufficiently. The design is all about pollution control; if no surge control was added, complying with Brown’s Tip #3 isn’t possible.

Protect Your Investment

When 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

www.theasphaltpro.com | ASPHALT PRO 39

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.

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 trying to figure out why the properties of the mix were fluctuating. I hadn’t been making changes in the percentage of materials at the hot plant, and we religiously had run crusher control on the aggregates as they had

been manufactured. I told the inspector that I was chasing 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 gradations on the stockpiles to know the crushing or inconsistent 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 generally decreased, creating less room in the mix for oil.

When the dust is being starved in the mix, the VMA generally is increased creating a mix with more room for oil.

With the VMA floating around, a mix with a varying demand 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 staying 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 problem is often magnified by volumetric tests being produced by the testing department, and adjustments to the mix being 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 consistently produce at these combinations. The search for consistency is more easily created in the lab than produced 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 system. Today, Joe Wancura, who is the plant manager for Elam in Durango, Colo., comments on the experiences 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.

40 november 2013

Recycled Asphalt Shingles This 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 blending 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 proportioning aggregates and RAP. RAS characteristics are different. 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 volumetrically controlling RAS, you have to continually ask yourself, “Is compressed RAS passing through the volumetric feeder 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 assume; 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 systems not accepting a RAS feeder scale input is available with no hardware-software changes to the plant computer. 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 bridging. If the RAP belt scale or RAS scale deviates significantly, the problem should be fixed immediately or the operator 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 operator isn’t alarmed and the system corrects the AC pump for a few tph of missing RAP and/or RAS. Was it corrected

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.

for 5 percent missing RAP or 18 percent RAS or something 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 content. Sweeting’s experience before acquiring a RAS scale was that of the AC content constantly changing. He described 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 until 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 www.theasphaltpro.com | ASPHALT PRO 41

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 difference 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 Florida’s annual conference that the NCAT team works closely with the contractor 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 proposition 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 specific products to the plant for mix designing, testing, production and placement. “Waste for us is extremely expensive,” Powell told the audience. “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 meter your materials into the final product properly? Do you know what’s in your mix?

varying as much as they were, it was apparent that we had to do something—either mount the RAS bin on load cells or install a RAS scale.”

Sweeting said they went with the RAS scale and modified their blending computer to accept the inputs from the RAS scale. “The AC contents 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 metering 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 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.”

Training Plant 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 process, 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 training 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 quality, 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 operated 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 production 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 address the variation. For some plant operators, the ROI for better process 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 instruments and procedures exist and some are hitting the drawing board. The industry should soon reach a consensus on what to continuously 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 manufacturers 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 clarence@clarencerichard.com.

To reach Mike Heitzman at NCAT, call (334) 844-7309 or Mah0016@ auburn.edu. To reach Mark Sweeting at Wolf Paving Company, call (262) 269-8473 or MarkS@wolfpaving.com. www.theasphaltpro.com | ASPHALT PRO 43

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Avoid Tangling Up Truck Safety

By AsphaltPro Staff

46 november 2013

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onditions were perfect for paving 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 experienced 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 lowered the body down again. He represented 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 rising up, catching on overhead wires and pulling them down. The tangled wires came down, interrupting service for neighboring homeowners, causing delay and fees and fines for the contractor, and—most importantly—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 vicinity 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 resumed paving the next day and completed a smooth asphalt mat.

Photos courtesy of John Ball, proprietor of Top Quality Paving, Manchester, N.H. www.theasphaltpro.com | ASPHALT PRO 47

Virginia Paving’s 2013 Cause

By John Ball

I

f 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 Virginia 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 Autism 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 autism. I thought that was a wonderful tribute.

The team chose the colorful puzzle motif because 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.

48 november 2013

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 younger kids, it also parallels the puzzling nature of the disease. ABOVE: The decorated haul truck is used in the field when it’s not at a requested site for display.

Select Correct Tax-Deductible Pension Plan

By William H. Black, Jr.

W

hen the days of plowing back profits for limit to a SEP-IRA can’t exceed the lower of growth are in the past, the plant and $51,000 or 25 percent of an employee’s salaequipment is either paid for or being amorry. The same annual contribution limits apply tized, the biggest concern becomes taxes. Let’s for the self-employed. look at solutions to minimize the tax bite.

401(k): There are many varieties of the 401(k).

For most closely-held businesses and proFor example: fessional practices the answer is a tax-deSalary Deferral–Only Structures: This type of ductible qualified plan. It’s called qualified plan has no employer contribution. The parbecause the contribution “qualifies” for an ticipating employee may defer 100 percent of William H. Black, Jr. income tax deduction. In other words, some W-2 income not to exceed $17,500 (2013 limform of a retirement plan. its). For those age 50 and older, one is allowed However, a well designed plan is not about retirement an additional $5,500 “catch-up” contribution for a maximum as much as it is about paying yourself rather than the Indeferral of $23,000. ternal Revenue Service. Keep in mind the contributions Safe Harbor: Maximum addition to one’s account is $27,700. are income tax deductible, the invested assets grow on a A byproduct of the Small Business Job Protection Act of tax-deferred basis, the plan assets are protected from the 1996, the Safe Harbor plan makes it very attractive to a busiclaim of judgment creditors under ERISA, and the plan asness owner. sets qualify for an income tax free IRA rollover.1 Safe Harbor with Discretionary Profit Sharing: Maximum addition to one’s account is $51,000. While the Safe Harbor Asphalt professionals want to select the best plan for their particular situation. For the same reason the local feature allows the owners to make their full salary deferrals car dealership has many different models and colors, of $17,500 ($23,000 for those 50 and over), the maximum plans come in many varieties as well. The reason: one size allowable contribution to one’s account is $51,000 ($56,500 for those age 50 and over). The difference comes from the does not fit all. Plans come in two general styles. employer’s discretionary profit sharing contribution. The op• Defined Contribution (DC)—These plans define the erative word is discretionary as the additional contribution contribution one can make to the plan. The limits are 25 is optional and there is no obligation to fund from one year percent of covered payroll not to exceed $51,000 for to the next. Take advantage of the deduction in profitable any one individual. years and disregard the contribution when cash is needed • Defined Benefit (DB)—These plans define the pension income one will receive at a future date. You have to for other purposes, such as expansion, etc. contribute adequate funds to provide for that future inIn addition to the above, a 401(k) Plan may have a Roth come. feature. The employee’s salary deferral can be made with Frankly, these plans are all budget-driven. While we all after-tax monies. The advantage is all the future qualified would like to retire on $1 million a month, few have the withdrawals can come out income tax free. Yes the account’s resources to get there. We all have a budget within which earnings, too. to work. That budget determines which plan is best for Defined Benefit Plan: When you’ve already done the one’s particular circumstances.

401(k) and you need a larger annual income tax deduction, Here are some examples: the Defined Benefit plan may be the answer. Consider that SIMPLE Plan: For 2013, the maximum pretax employee these plans allow for annual income tax deductions in some contribution to a SIMPLE is $12,000. Catch-up contribucases of as much as $250,000. As stated above, these plans tions for those 50 and older are limited to $2,500. Deare budget-driven, so determine the desired annual contrisigned for small business owners who don’t want to deal bution and have the plan structured to absorb that amount. with retirement plan administration or non-discrimination One thing about defined benefit plans, the contribution is tests, the SIMPLE is available for businesses with less than mandatory. In other words, design with the thought that this 100 employees. The business owner must make fully vestcontribution must be made for several years. ed contributions (a dollar-for-dollar match of up to 3 perWilliam H. Black, Jr. has been in the pension adminiscent of an employee’s income, or a non-elective contributration business for 34 years. For more information, contion of 2 percent of pay for each eligible employee). You tact bill@pensionsite.org. This discussion is not intended cannot sponsor a SIMPLE and another retirement plan. as tax advice.

SEP Plans: This employer-funded plan gives business1 es a simplified vehicle for making tax deductible contriRMDs, or required minimum distributions, must commence butions. Employer contributions are 100 percent vested no later than April 1 of the year following the year one attains age 70 ½. RMDs are taxable as ordinary income. from the start. In 2013, an employer’s annual contribution 50 november 2013

Construction Expert Grows Into Surety Owner

By Barbara Krause

As an instructor at UC Berkeley’s Extension, Dave Druml, Founder and President of Direct Suretyteaches contractors about Enterprise Risk Management.

C

ontractors can benefit from a direct relationship with their surety underwriter through the new company, Direct Surety, Foster City, Calif. The company has been established 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 broker network.

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

businesses while maximizing surety credit limits.”

Direct Surety uses a unique underwriting approach and proprietary 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 calculations with the contractor to validate their accuracy.

“Underwriting is not an exact science, and there is almost always information that is not fully or accurately considered,” Druml said. “With Direct Surety’s approach, the underwriter and contractor develop a…relationship intended to help contractors improve their credit and maximize their limits. We provide access to our proprietary risk analysis technology, giving 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-making ability, often leading to even higher credit limits.”

Direct Surety was born from the construction 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 manufacturer, a bonding and insurance agency, 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 interested in launching new construction companies.

For more information, contact (888) 288-9778 or visit www.directsurety.com. Let them know you saw it in AsphaltPro Magazine. www.theasphaltpro.com | ASPHALT PRO 51

that's a good idea

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.

Make Hopper Adjustments T

he crew at Pike Industries, Inc., Belmont, N.H., has multiple aggregate and asphalt facilities throughout New England. During a project where I consulted with them, the mechanic installed this simple light system on the paver to help the operator see into the hopper. Along with the convex mirror 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 center. 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.

52 november 2013

By John Ball

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 metal 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, Manchester, N.H. You can contact him at (603) 493-1458 or tqpaving@yahoo.com.

equipment gallery

Protect Crushers Downstream R

ecycling and/or crushing facilities that have installed a magnetic separator 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 alongside a highly-sensitive metal detector 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 Detector/Magnetic Separator combination to provide protection of valuable crushers and downstream equipment.

Let’s look more closely into the company’s reasoning for installing both items. Eriez officials explain that neither a magnetic separator nor a metal 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 prevents 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 deliver the product, including tank trucks and rail cars. The contamination may also originate within the plant because of material processing, granulating, shredding or general abrasion.

There’s also the human factor: Inevitably, items such as coins, pens and processing tools will occasionally fall into the product stream.

56 november 2013

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.

If you discover these items often, you may wish to initiate a program whereby workers who come into contact with conveyors wear a uniform 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 magnetic separators and metal detectors that work well together, depending upon the industry. Magnetic separators remove the ferrous contaminants while

the metal detector focuses on any ferrous missed by the magnet as well as nonferrous metals, i.e. aluminum, copper, brass, and 300 series stainless steel, according to Klinge.

Eriez engineers work with customers to create the ideal “Double Team” Metal Detector/Magnetic Separator combination for their specific application needs. For more information, contact (888) 300-3743 within the United States and Canada, or eriez@eriez. com. Let them know you saw it in AsphaltPro Magazine.

Time and Again The Historical Construction Equipment Association (HCEA) has its 2014 HCEA Calendar available to order either online 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 construction 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 Fuel The BW141AD-5 and BW151AD-5 tandem vibratory rollers from BOMAG Americas, Inc., headquartered in Kewanee, 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 controlling 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 maneuverability and reduced noise during operation. A pressurized water spray system 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 operators to offset the rear drum of the rollers up to 6.7 inches in either direction.

Other standard features include automatic vibration control, speedometer, V-belt protection, halogen working lights, indicator and hazard lights, backup alarm, master battery disconnect switch, and tool compartments. Optional features include a mat temperature display, ROPS cabin with heating or air conditioning, BOMAG Telematics, drum edge lighting, and integrated edge cutter for the rear drum.

For more information, contact Bomag at (309) 853-3571 or info. bomag@bomag.com. Let them know you saw it in AsphaltPro Magazine.

Honeywell Seals Safety At the end of September, Honeywell 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-resistance. The style is also available with Dura-streme® technology that combines Uvextreme® anti-fog coating on the interior and Ultra-dura® anti-scratch coating on the exterior, for longer lens life. This is eyewear designed for durability, fit and protection 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 hazards exist. Uvex Livewire meets the ANSI Z87.1-2010 standard as well as the CSA Z94.3 standard, and its lenses provide 99.99 percent UV protection, according to the manufacturer.

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

Cummins Adds Global Heavy-Duty Engine To complement its existing global product offering, Cummins, Inc., of Columbus, Ind., has added the G Series engine, which is an in-line six-cylinder available in 10.5- and 11.8-liter displacements. Initial engines are designed to run on diesel fuel. The tea in www.theasphaltpro.com | ASPHALT PRO 57

equipment gallery the United States lead the design and development of the engine with support by global technical and marketing resources.

The G Series is designed to minimize engineering requirements for vehicle and equipment manufacturers with a common, compact installation envelope. A key design focus has been to achieve weight savings to increase the power-to-weight ratio. A sculptured block retains high rigidity while removing unnecessary mass; the team used composite material for the oil pan and valve cover 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 engine. With multiple injection events driven by Cummins electronic controls, the XPI fuel system contributes to peak torque for the G Series of 1,700 foot-pounds (2,305 newtonmeters), together with a torque rise as high as 60 percent available. It offers fuel efficiency through parasitic reducing technology without variableflow 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 Series 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 requirements. 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 purpose-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 58 november 2013

a similar power range. High-efficiency air handling and advanced combustion combustion enable the QSG12 to achieve near-zero emissions without the need for a cooled Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) system.

The G Series will initially be manufactured at the Beijing Foton Cummins Engine Co., serving customers on a global basis. Production will start during the first half of 2014.

For more information, contact Carol Lavengood at (812) 377-3079 or carol.lavengood@cummins.com. Let them know you saw it in AsphaltPro Magazine.

IROCK Wheels Jaw Onto the Scene IROCK Crushers of Valley View, Ohio, has introduced the wheeled jaw crusher 2644 (WJC-2644). They recommend it for use as a primary crusher. It’s designed 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 capacity of 10.5 cubic yards.

A hydraulic adjusting chamber allows operators to adjust crushing size from a 2-inch minimum closed side setting to a 6-inch maximum side setting. 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 adjustable flop gate, as well as a 40-inch by 14-foot feeder with a 5-foot grizzly bar section. These features ensure that material, depending on its size, is properly classified and directed to either 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 hydraulic outriggers for off-loading and leveling the plant.

For more information, contact IROCK at (866) 240-0201 or sales@ irockcrushers.com. Let them know you saw it in AsphaltPro Magazine.

www.theasphaltpro.com | ASPHALT PRO 59

equipment gallery Gill Streams Weather Gill 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 originated from what Gill saw as a gap in the market. They used sister company Gill Research & Development Ltd. to develop the hardware and software.

For more information, call +44 (0) 1590 613500 or sales@gillinstruments.com. Let them know you saw it in AsphaltPro Magazine.

Flex-Mat Comes to Fife Major Wire Screen Media, a subsidiary of Major Wire Industries, Ltd., of Candiac, Quebec, Canada, is now producing the company’s popular FlexMat® 3 high-performance screen media from its new facility in Fife, Wash.

This means aggregate, mining, recycle, asphalt and green waste producers can receive shipments of Flex-Mat 3 Tensioned with shorter lead times and lower freight costs than previously. The Flex-Mat 3 Modern will still be manufactured in Montreal for the foreseeable future.

For more information, contact Major Wire at (450) 659-7681 or major@ majorwire.cc. 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) 5686387. Orrin Grangaard continues his role as president of Systems Equipment and Joe Papp is CEO.

60 november 2013

here's how it works

Step 1 A thermostat ahead of the heating element controls separate lines, monitoring product at various points in the system.

Step 2 The open coil heating element provides continuous heat inside its housing.

Weatherproof control box

Heating Elements Step 3 Low watt density emits heat outward from the cylindrical surface to provide controlled heating to the product in the line.

Step 4 To perform maintenance, the ground man removes the heating element from its housing without draining the lines.

Process Heating’s Internal Pipe Tracing P

roducers, refiners and anyone moving liquids in the asphalt industry needs to keep material heated as it goes from Point A to Point B. The engineers at Process Heating Co. in Seattle developed the Internal Pipe Tracing 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 inches 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.

62 november 2013

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 element in the circuit and individual lines are controlled separately so product temperature can be monitored at various points in the system.

The drywell type, open coil, heavy duty heating element is direct immersion. The watt density is kept low to avoid coking of the product in the lines. As stated above, it is placed inside the line where it emits heat outward from its cylindrical surface, providing 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 Works If you’re an equipment manufacturer with a complex product, let us help you explain 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 equipment fits the parameters of a HHIW features. Contact our editor at sandy@ theasphaltpro.com.

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Astec® Parallel Flow Portable 6 Pack Plant

• 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

528

ONLINE #

Joe Clancy

Astec Pre-Owned Equipment

Mobile: 423.240.6968

astecused.com

Zoning and Permitting • Retrofits and Upgrades • Warm Mix Green System Installations • Controls Upgrades • Batch-to-Drum Conversions • Dismantles and Relocations • Set-ups and Repairs • Painting • Shipping • Engineering and Design

ASTEC, INC.

an Astec Industries Company 4101 JEROME AVENUE • CHATTANOOGA, TN 37407 USA • 423.867.4210 • FAX 423.867.4636 • www.astecinc.com

www.theasphaltpro.com | ASPHALT PRO 65

the last cut

NUMBY—Not Under My Backyard

By Sandy Lender

A

s discussed in last month’s Last Cut column, a lack of adequate pipeline capacity in North America has lead to an abundant use of over-the-road trucking, railway and waterway transport of crude oil, tar sands and derivative products. 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 pipeline. That infrastructure goes between the Indiana-Michigan 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 2013 Not everyone is delighted with pipeline advances.

While the promise of lower asphalt cement (AC) costs translates to good news for the asphalt industry in trickle-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 August 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 fossil fuels needed to power the various industries and provide 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 (DTexas) had presented their drafted legislation that would 66 november 2013

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

Crude Oil Activity (U.S. Crude)

Diesel Fuel Retail Price (dollars per gallon)

futures spot data

stocks

Jun 7

$96.03

393.8 m bbl

Jun 3

3.869

Jun 14

$97.85

394.1 m bbl

Jun 10

3.849

Jun 21

$93.69

394.1 m bbl

Jun 17

3.841

Jun 28

$96.56

383.8 m bbl

Jun 24

3.838

Jul 5

$103.22

373.9 m bbl

Jul 1

3.817

Jul 12

$105.95

367.0 m bbl

Jul 8

3.828

Jul 19

$108.05

364.2 m bbl

Jul 15

3.867

Jul 26

$104.70

364.6 m bbl

Jul 22

3.903

Aug 2

$106.94

363.3 m bbl

Jul 29

3.915

Aug 9

$105.97

360.5 m bbl

Aug 5

3.909

Aug 16

$107.46

359.1 m bbl

Aug 12

3.896

Aug 23

$106.42

362.0 m bbl

Aug 19

3.900

Sources: Energy Information Administration

accelerate the permitting procedures for cross-border oil pipelines to a committee panel for review. Their bi-partisan idea would make some big changes such as limiting 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.

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