Asphalt Review - Volume 32 Number 3 (Jun / Juy 12) - Australian ...

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1000M SERIESWORKING FORAUSTRALIANSGilbert Mining Group was the first company inthe Northern Territory to purchase M SeriesMotor Graders. Owner and operator PaulGilbert talks about how he and his team havebeen putting the machines to work ever since.Gilbert Mining Group has been in business for13 years and employs 40 operators. They dorural road construction and airstrips and havejust moved in to mining, where they also buildroads and airstrips, as well as work a variety ofother machines, which are all Cat machines bythe way – all 24 of them.Included in the fleet are four M Series MotorGraders. Owner and operator Paul Gilbert says,“We were the first company to buy an M Seriesin the Territory and at that time I also had a Gand an H Series Grader. I sold the G and was goingto keep the H but after driving the M Seriesfor two days, I sold the H and bought another MSeries straight away. It was that good to drive.And easy - you get used to it quite easily. You’llnever go back to an H Series Grader after drivingthe M Series.”Of course Paul also had to convince his othergrader operators that the M Series was the wayto go.“When a lot of my operators, especially the oldschool operators, saw the grader, they weresheepish to say the least. They walked around it,looked at it and weren’t sure what to think. Butonce they got it, and spent a day on it they lovedit and they’ll never go back to the older graders -that’s for sure.“It’s so much easier to drive - in my opinion it’sbetter on your body and you don’t get a soreback. And the ease of operating it is fantastic- you just keep your hands there. You’re sittingthere, looking up the road and operating thegrader.“The operators all comment on the viewswith the grader because the cab’s not squareanymore - it’s on an angle because there’s nosteering wheel in front of you. They can see thewhole blade and know exactly what the machineis doing. They say the machine is so muchmore responsive in every way - they love it.“We do a lot of mixing up here. The graderspends about 80% of its time mixing the gravelso you’re up and back and you’re turning around.The joystick controls are great because theoperators can spin around so quickly and thenthey’re back in the mix heading the other way inno time at all. And even when they’re laying out,they can just see everything - it’s so much easierfor them to do.“The other reason I like the M Series Grader isthat overall productivity is up because the operatorswant to get in the machines. Up here in theTerritory we do 12-hour days on the roads and inthe mine. So they’re long days but the operatorsare quite happy to sit in them all day.“When we purchased the first M Series, the Catdealer organised for a trainer to fly into AliceSprings and he spent a day familiarising us withthe machine and how it works. Their servicewas magnificent. They went right through thewhole machine with us and then we’ve trainedup a couple of our people. And now if anyonenew comes along, we’ll teach them.“It only takes a couple of hours for them to gettheir head around it and by the end of the daythey’re fine. Within a week you’re as good as youwere on previous graders but with better results.“And when it comes to backup and support,we’re covered. We’re in the middle of nowhereup here and when things break down it costsyou time and money - so we’ve stuck with Cat.The Cat dealer rep always comes down and hesupports us 100%. They always keep in contactwith you.“We’re very happy with the graders, the productivityand how they perform. When it comes tothe joystick controls, at first I couldn’t see howit could work. But once I got my head aroundthe technology and what they’d done, I realisedthey’d done it the right way.”To find out more about the range of Cat M Series Motor Graderscontact your local Cat dealer or visit australia.cat.com/mseriesNSW/ACT - WesTrac: 1300 881 064WA - WesTrac: 1300 881 064VIC - William Adams: (03) 9566 0666TAS - William Adams: (03) 6326 6366QLD/NT - Hastings Deering: 131 228SA - Cavpower: (08) 8343 1600Note: Caterpillar makes no warranties, guarantees or representations as to the accuracy or timeliness of any information, beliefs or opinions (which do not necessarily reflect thebeliefs or opinions of Caterpillar) set out above and Caterpillar assumes no liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in same or actions in consequence upon same.© 2012 Caterpillar. CAT, CATERPILLAR, their respective logos, “Caterpillar Yellow,” the “Power Edge” trade dress as wellas corporate and product identity used herein, are trademarks of Caterpillar and may not be used without permission.
Asphalt reviewTest Track ShowsOutstanding Results forWarm Mix with 50% RAPArticle Courtesy of NCAT. By David H. Timm,Adriana Vargas-Nordcbeck, and J. Richard Willis*Researchers at the National Center for AsphaltTechnology’s Test Track have observedexcellent results from an experiment pittingconventional pavement mixes against mixescombining recycling and both hot-mix andwarm-mix asphalt.They constructed a control section ofconventional hot mix, an experimental sectionusing hot mix with 50% RAP (reclaimed asphaltpavement), and another section using warm mixfrom a foaming device with 50% RAP. The high-RAP sections had the same total thickness as thecontrol section. In the latest cycle, concludedin September 2011, the high-RAP warm-mixsection performed equal to the control.The attractions of high-RAP and warmmix are compelling for both economicand environmental reasons. Faced withincreasing material prices and trafficdemands, pavement and materials engineersare constantly searching for innovativeapproaches to creating high-performing,long-lasting, and, most critically, economicalpavement structures.Use of RAP has been extensive for thepast 30 years (McNichol, 2005). However,Figure 1. Pavement Materials and Cross Sectionsthe amount of RAP allowed in pavementmixtures has been limited by some statesdue to concerns about the stiffness ofthe aged binder in the RAP and lackof documentation about long-termperformance of high-RAP mixes.Currently, average RAP contents are about18%, with 15 states allowing greater than30% while a few states permit little or no RAPusage (Hansen et al., 2011).Agencies and industry recognize thatincreasing average RAP contents up to 25%could cut life-cycle greenhouse gas emissionsby 10% (NAPA, 2009). In addition, warm-mixasphalt (WMA) has taken the industry by storm;the tonnage produced in the U.S. more thantripled from 2009 to 2010 (Newcomb, 2011).Current estimates are a 20% energyreduction when utilizing WMA duringproduction (NAPA, 2009).Though warm mix and recyclingtechnologies were developed independently,agencies have begun to consider combiningthem to achieve even greater environmental,performance, and cost benefits. NAPA (2009)estimates that 25% RAP combined with WMAcould reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 3million tons per year.Achieving even higher RAP percentagescould have an even greater impact fromsustainability and cost perspectives. Inaddition, the use of WMA technologies canhelp improve workability, which is often anissue for high-RAP mixtures.To explore the use of high RAP and warmmix, these materials became the mainfocus of a group experiment that began in2009 at the Test Track. The experiment wassponsored by the Alabama, Florida, NorthCarolina, South Carolina, and TennesseeDepartments of Transportation and theFederal Highway Administration. The studyconsisted of two sections with 50% RAPthat have endured 10 million standardaxle loadings, with performance equal to acontrol section placed at the same time.Materials andCross SectionsWithin the experiment, there were three testsections, with each section having a surface,intermediate, and base mixture. The firstsection was the control; it did not includeany RAP and the mixtures were producedas conventional hot mixes. The second testsection contained 50% RAP in each layer andthe mixes were produced as hot-mix asphalt(RAP-HMA). The third group used the same50% RAP mixes, but the mixes were producedas WMA using a foaming system (RAP-WMA).The virgin aggregate used in all threesections was a combination of granite andlimestone. Each mixture was designed to 80gyrations following the Superpave procedure.Within the 50% RAP materials, fractionatedRAP was used for the surface (15% fine and35% coarse RAP) and intermediate/basemixtures (20% fine and 30% coarse RAP).Figure 1 illustrates the cross sections andas-built thicknesses with nominal maximumaggregate size (NMAS), virgin PG bindergrade, and mixing temperature noted foreach lift placed. Slight differences in totalROADS JUNE/JULY 2012 37
Page 2 and 3: ASPHALT REVIEWCEO’S REPORTJohn La
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