Wet Mix Paver

Wet Mix Paver: An Overview

A wet mix paver is a road construction equipment that plays a crucial role in creating and maintaining plain and smooth surfaces of highways, airport runways, and other concrete surfaces. This road construction equipment is useful for applying layers of dry-lean concrete ( it combines aggregate and cement in a 14:1 ratio) for preparing the GSB surface. It is also instrumental in laying wet mix macadam (graded, crushed, and granular aggregate which is mixed with water in specific proportion to attain a dense texture). The mixture is laid and spread on the granular sub-base layer (GSB) one or multiple times to achieve the desired surface of roads. The design and mechanism of a wet mix paver conform to MoRTH (Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Government of India).

How does a wet mix paver work?

Automatic or semi-automatic wet mix paver consists of several units and each of these units has a significant role in its smooth running. To understand its operating process, one should have a clear understanding about its standard components and their roles.

1. Based on the project requirement, this road construction equipment is available in diesel-fueled or water-cooled engines of specific horsepower along with an electrical starting system.

2. Its hydraulic hopper is useful for the transportation of asphalt concrete to its conveyor.

3. Its twin bar conveyors are instrumental in feeding the material to its augers from the hopper.

4. Power steering of this road construction equipment simplifies its controlling procedures. All the parameters of this equipment are controllable from its single dashboard for the convenience of the operator.

5. Hydraulic telescopic screed of wet mix paver helps to maintain the specific thickness of asphalt -concrete -layer by precisely removing excess material.

6. Chassis of this road construction equipment strengthens its structure and improves its stability.

Usually, for spreading the first layer of asphalt concrete, a motor grader is the ideal choice. Its hydraulic blade is capable of adjusting the thickness of the wet mix macadam layer as per the slope of a specific surface. Its design includes loading hoppers, a material distribution unit, and a compaction-controlling section to attain flawless texture of the finished surface.

The wet mix paver starts its compaction process by using a vibratory compactor immediately after the completion of lying layers of wet mix macadam. Width-by-width movement of the vibratory compactor is maintained from the lower edge to the upper edge of the applied WMM layer. The second layer of wet mix macadam is spread only after checking the quality of the first WMM layer. The final compaction of the WMM surface takes around 24 hours to dry.

Types of Wet Mix Pavers

Wet mix pavers are available in different models with various specifications. Parameters like travel speed, screed design, operating width, fuel tank capacity, and other attributes of these road construction machines vary as per their design. These include:

1. Semi-automatic Wet Mix Paver Finisher

This road construction equipment features noiseless operation. Its advanced features include-

a. Hydraulically controlled telescopic screed for precise removal of excess WMM material to maintain the required thickness of the spread layer

b. Power steering and air brake-based design

c. Single dashboard-based operation controlling arrangement

2. Semi-automatic Asphalt Cum Wet Mix Paver Finisher

This version of the wet mix paver is suitable for WMM and bitumen-spreading purposes. It uses LPG fuel or an oil-based burner as the source of heat of its screed for maintaining homogeneity and a standard thickness of the applied layer.

3. Semi Hydro Wet Mix Paver

This version of wet mix paver operates semi-hydraulically to precisely control the paving process.

Applications of Wet Mix Pavers

Wet mix pavers have a broad scope of applications. These road construction equipment are suitable for constructing roads, highways, driveways, walkways, and sidewalks. The specialty of wet mix pavers is that these equipment maintain high precision while preparing wet mix macadam. Specific proportion is maintained while blending water, graded and crushed aggregates, and cement to attain desired texture of the spread layer post-compaction. The aesthetics of developed roads and driveways is another important factor that wet mix pavers help to achieve and maintain.

Advantages of Using A Wet Mix Paver

Wet mix paver is effective in constructing roads, commercial parking areas, residential parking spaces, airport runways, warehouse floors, factory floors, and highways with improved surfaces. There are several advantages to this road construction equipment. These are mentioned below:

1. Its user-friendly mechanism not only boosts its productivity but also upgrades the standard of construction.

2. This road construction equipment maintains high accuracy in maintaining the proportion of raw materials and their mixing to achieve the desired result.

3. It can be relocated to different construction sites.

4. High output of wet mix paver ensures higher return in any construction project at minimal investment.

5. Hardware -parts of this equipment are made as per global manufacturing norms.

6. Lubricated components of this equipment help to minimise their downtime rate.