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Today, it owns nine asphalt plants to make mix for its county and state projects as well as for its city and private contracting customers. Nelson mentions that Lehman-Roberts is not afraid to take on new technologies to maintain its competitive advantage and build upon its reputation for delivering a quality product.

Proven technology

While the Terex warm mix asphalt system is new for asphalt plants, it’s not an untested technology. As a matter of fact, the “new” system is adapted from the manufacturer’s patented foamed asphalt system, developed for its reclaimer/stabilizers and milling machines. It has been used in recycling and reclamation applications for 10 years.

“When we set off to develop our warm mix asphalt product, we wanted to build a system that was simple to install and operate, could be easily adapted to a wide range of asphalt plant technologies and would not significantly impact the producer’s cost per ton to make asphalt,” says David Emerson, director of product management for Terex Roadbuilding. “It was a natural progression for us to adapt our foamed asphalt technology for asphalt producers.”

To operate the system, a producer needs only water, a power source and a signal from the asphalt plant controls package. As a field retrofit, the warm mix asphalt system is equipped with a programmable logic control (PLC) to accurately meter up to four percent of water by mass weight of the liquid AC.

“We can vary the percentage of water, but we are finding that two percent mass of water is working well,” explains Joe Musil, senior engineering fellow for Terex Roadbuilding. With new plant purchases, operation of the system will be integrated into the plant controls package, eliminating the need for a separate PLC control.