Road machinery stands guard the creation of high-quality coverage. Moreover, it contributes to the development of out-of-the-box solutions for the design of facilities and private property.
Those involved in road repair and maintenance know that infrared asphalt heaters help them make emergency or patching repairs with minimal resources. You no longer need to cut the asphalt with a road milling cutter, throw out pieces, pour resin over the site, and use a large amount of new asphalt to patch the pothole.
Instead, you take an infrared asphalt heater, install it on the damaged area and heat the coating. The heated asphalt melts and partially covers the pit. You can only add a small amount of new asphalt to completely close the pit.
This method is very popular in the field of road repair and maintenance. However, a few people know that infrared heaters are able to create real beauty
Embossed asphalt by Stamping: How and Why
Paving stones always look beautiful. But the high price and labor intensity of works sometimes hinders the implementation of artistic ideas. Should you drop the subject? No way. The use of asphalt heaters allows you to jump into stamping and imitate tiles and other relief images on the road surface. Here's how it looks in reality:
What do you need in order to make such beauty on your site?
First, please think of necessary equipment. You will need an infrared asphalt heater and a vibro- plate or roller. In addition, take a metal cliché (mold) to stamp in the form of tiles. The algorithm of actions looks as follows:
Heat the asphalt with an infrared heater.
Apply the mold to the area with softened road surface and press it with the vibro-plate to evenly bury it in asphalt to 5-7 mm.
Remove the mold and let the asphalt harden.
Optionally, you can cover the entire textured surface with colored or even fluorescent paints or paint only grout lines to achieve custom visual effects. In addition, you can use molds of different sizes, shapes, and configurations, creating ingenious relays on asphalt.
Important to Remember!
It is necessary to completely deepen the mold into asphalt, so that you do not feel it under your feet. It is important to warm up the asphalt well with an infrared heater so that it enters the coating easily and slowly. These measures minimize the stress effect on the surface and prevent cracks due to the impact of vibro-plates on it. Overheating asphalt is also not worth it. The complete lack of resistance of the road surface at the moment you immerse the mold won’t make the surface perfect, and grout lines will be unstable and too sharp. Here are other important factors to consider:
The speed of movement of the vibration plate matters. The slower it moves, the greater the punching force is created. Therefore, maintaining balance is crucial. For example, it is worth speeding up the movement at the beginning of the process, when the surface is still hot, and slowing it down as the asphalt cools to get a quality stamp.
We recommend considering mold density and stamping force to achieve a proper result.
Do not forget to spray the water directly in front of the vibro-plate while it moves. If you do this beforehand, asphalt will cool down too quickly.
Think carefully about the vibro-plate’s size. Large ones are necessary for the implementation of commercial or government projects, while smaller ones are suitable for work in residential complexes or on sidewalks. This is important because stamping areas with high cross-country ability and transport loads require the laying of reinforced asphalt mixtures and, accordingly, additional force during stamping.
It is necessary to understand well what the heating area is, since there may be hot and cold areas as they affect the stamping. The front and rear edges of the treated area can receive less heat, which requires additional time for heating.
Take care of a quality cliché. It should be dense and flexible. Insufficient rigidity and the ability to stretch individual mold patterns can lead to distortions during stamping. Clichés with long wire ropes are quite difficult to work with, since such ropes can move under the weight of the vibro-plate. In such cases, the stencil is often tamped manually. Or you can buy a stamp with steel ribbons attached to restrict movement. Generally, working with molds that imitate common bricks is the easiest.
Advantages of Stamps on Asphalt Pavement over Conventional Tiles
Maintenance required with stamped asphalt pavement is minimal. No individual tiles will fall you off during the winter season because of freezing or excess moisture during the thaw. You do not have to worry about pulling weeds that grow through the cracks of an ordinary brick layout.
Textured road surfaces improve the street landscape of intersections, shopping centers, pedestrian squares, residential streets, and entrances. The technology of stamping on asphalt or asphalt concrete allows you to simulate many types of masonry, stone, and tiled patterns of varying complexity. Textured coatings have practical value. Water flows more quickly through grout lines in bad weather conditions, providing better traction with vehicle wheels.
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