Asphalt Recycling vs. Reclaiming

We at KM International believe in equipping our customers with the most suitable equipment to help them in achieving their goal. KM International would like to take this time to clarify the difference between asphalt RECYLING and RECLAIMING, and more importantly the equipment necessary to achieve these two processes.

Asphalt Reclaiming

The process of reheating bulk stored, un-compacted virgin hot mix asphalt back to its original temperature of 350˚F and into a malleable state. This reheating process takes place by means of a heat source in static asphalt hotbox reclaimer without adding any additional additives.

As stated above the reclaiming process can be achieved in an asphalt hotbox reclaimer.

Asphalt Recycling

Asphalt recycling is the process of taking asphalt millings, chunks, or pulverized and recycling that material backs to its original consistency and temperature of 350˚F. To proper recycle you need not only a heating source but a rotating drum to break down, dry out, and evenly encapsulate reintroduced asphalt cement.

The process of asphalt recycling can be achieved in an asphalt recycling machine such as the KM T-2.

Compare asphalt recycling and reclaiming to baking a cake.

When you are making a cake you put all the ingredients into a bowl and then use mixer to mix the ingredients together then put it in the oven and 30 minutes later you have a cake, but what if you didn’t mix the ingredients in the bowl and just dumped everything in then put it in the oven, you would come out with a big mess.

Asphalt recycling is the same thing, think of the millings as the cake batter and the asphalt cement as the eggs, if you don’t have a way to mix the ingredients you are not going to come out with a quality material.

So, when someone’s says you can RECYCLE in a static hotbox, ask how can a static hotbox mix the new asphalt cement evenly, how it can completely dry out the millings, do your proper homework.

The reason a hotbox reclaimer will reheat virgin material is because virgin material still encapsulates the asphalt cement added at the plant so it has not lost any of it chemical properties. Reclaiming is the just the process of reheating.