Synox Bitumen Modifiers
Road Construction
Roads have always been one of the main features of civilization – by their presence, ramification, quality of road surface and durability, one can always judge the level of development of the civilization that built them. History knows how roads that have stood for millennia – an example of this can be the roads built by the Maya Indians or laid during the heyday of the Roman Empire, and what was built instead of roads in the Soviet and post-Soviet space – the road surface sometimes did not survive intact until the beginning of it exploitation.
In most of the civilized countries of the world, considerable attention is paid to the construction of roads, since the developed network of highways is the key to the growth and strengthening of the economies of countries and regions. For the construction of roads at different times various materials were used – stone slabs, paving stones, crushed stone, concrete and concrete slabs, asphalt or asphalt concrete. But modern roads require both modern road construction technologies and modern materials for roads – rubble and bitumen alone cannot be enough in the construction of a modern road.
Asphalt, Asphalt Concrete
The main material of the road surface is asphalt or asphalt concrete – an artificial building material consisting of bitumen, crushed stone, sand, mineral powder, mixed in certain proportions. The asphalt pavement has a lot of advantages – the uniformity of the pavement, the quick commissioning of roads, the asphalt concrete has a high roughness, which provides reliable adhesion to the wheels of transport, the asphalt roads are easily repaired, the road markings remain on the asphalt concrete for a long time.
But in order for the asphalt pavement to have high operational properties, when creating an asphalt concrete mixture, special modifying additives are used – the so-called bitumen modifiers or asphalt modifiers. Through their use, you can get a much stronger, more reliable and durable road surface. There are several types of asphalt modifiers, but all of them greatly improve the performance of the future road surface.
Bitumen Modification
To improve the performance properties of the asphalt road surface, Synox bitumen modifiers or asphalt modifiers are used, which change the properties of asphalt concrete, expanding the range of its use. Styrene-based thermoplastic elastomers are used as bitumen modifiers. Their use makes it possible to improve the mechanical properties of asphalt – to increase the operating temperature of the asphalt pavement and improve its elasticity at low temperatures, to slow down the aging of the asphalt concrete pavement of the road. The use of Synox bitumen modifiers increases the carrying capacity of the road and its durability, reducing the cost of maintenance and repair of the roadway.
The use of Synox asphalt modifiers significantly reduces the viscosity of asphalt at sufficiently low temperatures. This allows to reduce the temperatures of preparation and laying of asphalt by 10-30°C, as a result of which a decrease in the emission of bitumen and CO2 vapors is achieved, as well as significant energy savings for the production and laying of asphalt concrete. This also makes it possible to lay asphalt concrete pavement at temperatures of about 125°C and compact it using conventional rollers, which significantly expands the time span of road construction in the autumn-spring period. In addition, the use of Synox bitumen modifiers to improve the properties of poured asphalt allows it to be used as a high quality bridge pavement due to its low water absorption – such poured asphalt can be used as a pavement for both concrete and steel bridges.
One of the most important results of using Synox bitumen modifiers in road construction is the ability to significantly reduce the thickness of the asphalt concrete pavement without reducing its performance properties – strength, durability, elasticity and wear resistance. This makes it possible to significantly reduce the cost of building roads and get a higher quality asphalt than without using its modifiers. The use of highly modified bitumen makes it possible to reduce the thickness of the asphalt concrete pavement by up to 40% of the original thickness of the unmodified asphalt, and the use of Synox modifiers for the outer surface of the road reduces its noise, such a coating better retains gravel and water drops, improving the quality of traffic on such roads.
Summing up, we can conclude that the use of Synox bitumen modifiers allows you to build high-quality, durable and reliable roads, characterized by high performance and a long service life, and at the same time makes it possible to reduce the cost of road construction and reduce environmental damage from laying asphalt pavement during construction modern freeways.
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