What holds the asphalt pavement mixture together?
Asphalt Binder is a dark brown to black, sticky substance produced by refineries during petroleum processing. Asphalt binders are thermoplastic materials, meaning they are liquid when heated and solidify when cooled. At room temperature, they are a semi-solid, sticky material. The asphalt binder is the “glue” that holds the aggregates together to form the pavement. Generally, asphalt binder makes up less than 8 percent of the total pavement mixture, by weight. How are the aggregates and binder combined into the asphalt mix?Back to Top Two types of mixing facilities can be used to combine the correct amount of asphalt binder and aggregate at the correct temperature. Batch plants heat and dry the aggregate first. Then a separate mixer is used to blend the aggregate and asphalt binder one batch of asphalt mixture at a time. Drum plants heat and dry the aggregates and then mixes the aggregates with asphalt binder in a continuous process, using the same piece of equipment. What makes WMA di
