Production

Getting consistent samples of hot mix asphalt (HMA) from the loadout area can be difficult if random ground personnel use shovels to gather imprecise bucket-fulls from the top of the mound in the back of a truck. Automating the process provides a safer environment for the worker and a more consistent sampling technique. The team […]

Let’s say the ground man walked around the plant this morning and came back with a bad report on the slat conveyor. He can tell if you start up with it “as is” this spring, it’ll run heavy to the right or left or whathaveyou. There’s an easy, time-efficient way to maintain the slat conveyor […]

Know your legal limits, as well as your untapped potential, for sUAS in your asphalt business When the use of small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS)—drones, in layman’s terms—first cropped up in the road construction industry, savvy contractors were using them to get images and footage for marketing purposes. Like children playing with their fathers’ tools, […]

After a winter of settling, possible moisture contamination and conglomeration, it’s almost time to grind the recycled asphalt shingle (RAS) piles for the paving season startup. Whether you perform this at one location, or move your grinder from site to site to get ready for full production, here are some tips to make the process […]

No recycling issue would be complete without discussing the management of materials. Let’s get back to basics with the concept of proper stockpiling of virgin and recycle materials. This may serve as a refresher course for some managers; it will hold nuggets of cost-saving information for new materials managers. Either way, whether you’re dumping millings […]

It was a sunny California day when Tyke Van Zandt first began putting iron to the test using nothing but a massive pile of crushed concrete. Over the course of a month, Van Zandt methodically tested all of the major players in the impact crushing game. Each manufacturer got one week to demonstrate its productivity, […]

Casey Greinermiller never set out to be in the asphalt industry. It wasn’t until he took a summer job at RS Asphalt Maintenance, Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, between school years studying fine arts at Kutztown University that he began to consider it as a career option. Art and asphalt may seem two completely different industries, but that’s […]