Generally, the preparation of asphalt mixtures is like baking cakes. The contractor needs to ensure that he has the correct formula and proper ingredients, and mixes all ingredients in the correct proportion, and then “bakes” the mixture to produce a beautiful and uniform final product that everyone is satisfied with – when used correctly on the road, the performance of the mixture will meet the expectations. There are mainly two basic types of asphalt mixing plant: batch type asphalt mix plant and drum type asphalt mix plant. For more information on asphalt, click here.
Batch Asphalt Mix Plant VS Drum Asphalt Mix Plant
Batch Plant
The batch asphalt plant will produce asphalt mixture with small quantity and high quality in batches through a cycle and repeated process until the required supply of the project is completed.
Advantages
The process of production can be controlled according to specific construction requirements.
Due to the accurate weighing of each batch of products, the intermittent asphalt station can produce high-quality finished materials.
Due to the intermittent production process, the factory operator can easily adjust the proportion of different components according to the construction requirements of specific projects to produce finished materials that meet different needs.
Drum Plant
The drum type plant produces asphalt mixture through continuous process.
Advantages
The production process is continuous because the aggregate and liquid asphalt flow continuously into the drying / mixing chamber.
Based on how the aggregate flows with hot air, there are several different types of drum asphalt mixing plants: parallel drum asphalt mixing plant, counter flow drum asphalt mixing plant and double drum asphalt mixing plant. Regardless of the configuration, it is a continuous process that can produce an even asphalt mixture and can be produced at high speed (sometimes up to 600-800 tons per hour).
Similarity
Both batch asphalt plant and drum asphalt plant have the following components: cold feed container, liquid asphalt storage tanks, drying chamber, dust collector, storage silos.
Difference
Aggregate and asphalt (liquid asphalt) are metered into the final mixture in different ways in batch asphalt plant and drum asphalt plant. In the intermittent asphalt plant, the aggregate and asphalt binder are weighed by the load cell to ensure accuracy. In drum asphalt plant, flow meters and calibrated feed belts are used to measure the liquid and aggregate composition entering the mixing chamber. Since drying and mixing are carried out in the same rotary drum, it is necessary to regularly monitor the moisture content of the aggregate pile, which is essential to produce high-quality finished products.
Another difference is that the way of producing finished asphalt mixture is different. Batch asphalt mixing plant, as the name implies, produces asphalt finished materials in batches. There is a short interval after each batch is completed. The batch asphalt plant has primary metering and secondary metering, which makes the asphalt mixture have a high proportion and the finished products produced have excellent quality. The aggregate is only measured once in the whole production process of the drum type asphalt plant. The production process is continuous and the productivity is high, but the quality of the finished material produced is not very high.