All-weather construction from -20°C to 50°C
Low-cost investment
Cold mix asphalt plant evenly blends aggregate, filler, and emulsified asphalt at low temperatures through the cold-state coating technology of emulsified asphalt, eliminating the need for the drying and heating processes in traditional hot mix technology. The mixture gradually gains strength through solvent evaporation and natural compaction, offering both construction convenience and long-term durability. It provides an efficient and environmentally friendly technical solution for modern pavement maintenance.
Application Scenario of Batch Mix Asphalt Plant
| Emergency Rescue and Repair Scenarios: | Sudden pavement damage (such as potholes and cracks) on urban main roads and transportation hubs, requiring rapid restoration of traffic. A cold mix asphalt plant can play a crucial role in quickly dealing with these situations. |
| Low-temperature and Strict Environmental Control Scenarios: | Characterized by construction in northern winter, repair of roads in scenic areas or residential areas, and projects around water sources. Cold mix asphalt and cold asphalt plants are particularly suitable for these scenarios due to their adaptability to low temperatures and environmental friendliness. |
| Small and Medium-scale Maintenance Scenarios: | Local damage repair of community roads, parking lots, and rural roads, with limited budgets or narrow construction sites. A cold mix plant can be a cost-effective choice for these small and medium-scale projects. |
| Special Structure Repair Scenarios: | Structures like bridge expansion joints, airport runways, and tunnels, which require materials with high flexibility and impact resistance. Cold mix asphalt plants can produce materials that meet these specific requirements. |
Core Technical Advantages of Cold Mix Asphalt Plant
Construction Flexibility — All Terrains・Multiple Modes
- Portable and Mobile: With a vehicle-mounted design, it can be transferred to another site within 4 hours. Manual operation is possible in remote areas without electricity. The mobile cold mix asphalt plant is highly suitable for such mobile operation requirements.
- Dual-mode Construction: Supports on-site mixing for immediate repair and prefabrication for transportation, adapting to different logistics conditions.
Environmental Friendliness and Economy — Low Consumption・Zero Emission・Long-term Storage
- Energy Consumption Comparison: The energy consumption per ton is ≤5kWh, which is 1/5 of that of hot mix equipment. Taking a daily output of 50 tons as an example, it can save cold mix asphalt plant costs by over 200,000 yuan annually.
- Emission Data: The dust emission is <10mg/m³, and no environmental protection approval is required. The construction meets the standards of a green construction site.
- Storage Advantage: It can be stored at room temperature for more than 2 years, and the storage period can be extended to 3 years with a sealed bag, reducing material waste and inventory pressure.
Performance Reliability — Self-healing・Strong Adhesion・Durability
- Self-healing Mechanism: Cracks below 0.5mm can heal automatically through vehicle rolling, reducing the frequency of repeated repairs by 30%. This is one of the significant advantages of cold mix asphalt produced by cold mix asphalt plants.
- Adhesion Strength: The adhesion to the old pavement is ≥0.8MPa, and the semi-dense gradation design increases the water damage resistance by 25%.
- Strength Development: It reaches 70% of the designed strength in 7 days, allowing ordinary traffic. It becomes completely stable and can withstand heavy loads in 3 months.
Cold Mix Asphalt Plant vs Hot Mix Asphalt Plant
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|---|---|---|
| Cold Mix Asphalt Plant | Model | Hot Mix Asphalt Plant |
| Low-temperature construction, environmental friendliness, low cost | Core Advantages | High-temperature stability, strong adaptability to new road construction |
| -20°C to 50°C | Construction Temperature | 10°C to 35°C |
| Low (The equipment cost is 1/3 to 1/2 of that of the hot mix) | Initial Investment | High (Requires supporting drying and heating equipment) |
| Maintenance projects with a repair rate > 70% and projects restricted by environmental protection | Typical Applications | New road bases, heavy-duty traffic pavements (ports, highways) |
| Small-scale repair ≤ 4 hours per site | Construction Cycle | The same scenario requires 8 to 12 hours (including preheating preparation) |
Standardized Construction Process of Cold Mix Asphalt Plant
Pothole Pretreatment
- Cleaning Standard: Remove gravel, soil, and ice layers. The moisture content should be <5%. Wipe the oil-stained areas with a diluent.
- Shape Trimming: Vertically cut the edges into regular geometric shapes. For a depth > 5cm, construct in layers, with each layer about 3-5cm thick.
Material Filling and Paving
- Filling Height: Fill it 1.5cm higher than the pavement (a pre-settlement amount of 10%-20% can be added for municipal engineering).
- Gradation Selection: Dense gradation (water damage resistance) is used in rainy areas, and semi-open gradation (drainage) is used for tunnels and bridge decks.
Compaction Process
- For ordinary roads, a 1-2 ton vibrating plate compactor is used as the compaction tool. The compaction standard should reach ≥93%, and the number of compaction passes is 3-5 times with layered compaction.
- For expressways, a 10-12 ton steel wheel roller is employed for compaction. The compaction standard requires ≥95%, and the compaction should be carried out at a uniform speed with 5-8 compaction passes.
Surface Treatment and Opening to Traffic
- Sand Spreading Process: Lay 5-10mm fine sand to fill the voids and reduce the initial driving dust.
- Opening Time: Open to light traffic (cars) in 3 days, normal traffic in 7 days, and heavy loads in 30 days.
Equipment Selection Guide: Multidimensional Adaptation
Cold mix asphalt plants offer a variety of models, which can be flexibly selected according to the construction scale, mobility requirements, and automation level. The following are the core selection directions and scene-based suggestions
Matching According to Production Capacity and Project Scale
- Small-scale Stations (Daily Output ≤ 10 Tons): Suitable for small-scale projects such as community road repair, local damage repair of parking lots, and sporadic maintenance of rural roads. A cold mix asphalt plant for sale with a small production capacity can meet the needs of these projects.
- Medium-scale Stations (Daily Output 10-50 Tons): Suitable for daily maintenance of municipal roads, regional pavement repair (such as crack treatment of urban main roads), and industrial park road reconstruction.
- Large-scale Stations (Daily Output ≥ 50 Tons): Suitable for large-scale production in large maintenance centers, special repair projects of expressways, and centralized feeding for overseas infrastructure projects.
Selection According to Mobility and Deployment Scenarios
- Fixed Models: Suitable for long-term fixed construction bases (such as urban maintenance stations and asphalt mixture prefabrication plants).
- Vehicle-mounted Models: Suitable for mobile operations at multiple construction sites (such as cross-regional municipal projects), emergency rescue in remote areas, and rapid laying of temporary roads. The mobile asphalt plant is very suitable for these scenarios.
- Containerized Models: Suitable for transcontinental transportation projects and construction in special environments such as polar regions and islands.
Selection According to the Degree of Automation
- Manual Models: Suitable for small projects with limited budgets (such as village road repair) and temporary emergency rescue (such as simple repair after sudden disasters).
- Semi-automatic Models: Suitable for regular maintenance projects of municipal roads (such as annual regular pavement inspection and repair) and renovation of medium-sized parking lots.
- Fully automatic Models: Suitable for projects with high requirements for construction accuracy (such as the construction of the impact-resistant layer of airport runways and the flexible filling of bridge expansion joints).
Selection Decision-making Suggestions of Cold Mix Asphalt Plant
- Choose Small-scale Models for Scattered Repairs: For small-scale scenarios such as communities and parking lots, give priority to small vehicle-mounted models. With low cost and fast transfer, the repair cost per site can be reduced by 30%. The mobile cold mix asphalt plant in a small size is a good choice.
- Choose Medium-scale Models for Municipal Maintenance: For daily repair of urban roads, medium semi-automatic models have the best cost-performance ratio, taking into account both automation and operation convenience, and the daily processing area can be increased by 50%.
- Choose Large-scale Models for Large-scale Projects: For group construction or international projects, large containerized fully automatic models ensure mass asphalt production and transportation, and the construction accuracy reaches the industry-leading level.
- Choose Electric Models for Environmentally Sensitive Areas: In strictly controlled areas such as scenic areas and residential areas, give priority to matching electric models with noise ≤ 75dB and zero carbon emissions to avoid environmental complaint risks.
Applicable Countries for Cold Mix Asphalt Plant
Cold mix asphalt is widely used in the following types of countries and regions due to its environmental protection, energy saving and low cost
Countries with strict environmental protection regulations
- Europe (Germany, Nordic countries, France, etc.): The EU’s “Green Agreement” requires the reduction of carbon emissions. Cold mix asphalt is widely promoted due to its low energy consumption (30%-50% lower than hot mix); Germany’s “Federal Traffic Road Planning” explicitly encourages the use of cold mix technology for low-traffic roads.
- North America (United States, Canada): The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) supports the use of cold mix asphalt in municipal roads and parking lots to reduce VOC (volatile organic compound) emissions.
- South Korea: Strict PM2.5 control promotes the application of cold mix technology in urban roads.
Regions with mild climate or cold winter
- Nordic countries, Canada: Cold mix asphalt can be constructed at low temperature (above -10℃) to avoid the low-temperature cracking problem of hot mix asphalt.
- Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia): In high temperature and high humidity environments, cold mix asphalt does not require high temperature heating, reducing energy consumption.
Economical and applicable projects in developing countries
- Brazil and some African countries: The low-cost advantage is suitable for rural roads and low-grade road construction, but is limited by technical standards and equipment penetration rate.
Industry Trends and Solutions for Cold Mix Asphalt Plant
With the increasing global environmental awareness, the upgrading of road maintenance needs and the promotion of energy-saving policies, the cold-mix asphalt mixing plant market is accelerating its iteration towards high efficiency, greening and performance optimization. Technological improvement has become the core driving force, which is specifically reflected in the following key directions
Modified cold-mix asphalt technology
- Performance improvement: By adding polymers (SBS) or emulsified asphalt, the high-temperature stability is significantly enhanced to solve the problem of traditional cold-mix asphalt being easy to soften and deform under high temperature conditions.
- Structural optimization: Strengthen the stability of the material molecular structure, effectively resist rutting and deformation, and even in road repairs in high temperature and high humidity areas, the road surface structure can be kept intact for a long time to avoid damage caused by high temperatures in summer.
- Scenario expansion: Break through the low temperature limit and extend the application scenario to the entire climate zone, especially suitable for road maintenance with large traffic flow and heavy-loaded vehicles, and improve the applicability in complex environments.
Warm mix technology (WMA)
- Process innovation: Innovatively integrate the advantages of cold mix and hot mix, accurately control the construction temperature at 80-120℃, and achieve technological breakthroughs.
- Environmental protection and energy saving: Greatly reduce energy consumption, in line with the global energy-saving trend; at the same time, reduce the emission of harmful gases and dust such as VOC during construction, and meet the green construction standards of regions with strict environmental protection regulations such as Europe and Japan.
- Widely adaptable: Broaden the construction temperature range, avoid the low-temperature cracking problem of hot mix asphalt plant during winter construction in cold areas, and prevent excessive heating and aging of materials in high-temperature areas, so as to achieve flexible construction in all seasons and provide more stable technical guarantees for large-scale projects such as highways and municipal trunk roads.
Through the above technical improvements, while consolidating the core advantages of environmental protection and low cost, cold-mix asphalt mixing plants can better meet the diverse global road construction and maintenance needs with the help of performance upgrades and scenario expansion, and become the key support for the sustainable development of the industry.
Cold mix asphalt plants have become the core technical solution for modern pavement maintenance due to their all-weather adaptability, environmental friendliness, economy, and construction flexibility. Whether you are facing emergency repair, low-temperature construction, or large-scale project needs,Macroad, one of the cold mix asphalt plant manufacturers, can provide customized model configurations and technical support according to project budgets, site conditions, and performance requirements. If you want to obtain exclusive solutions, please feel free to contact us. Let our professional technology empower your road maintenance projects.