Construction World January 2018

ROADS & BRIDGES

More MOBILITY for ASPHALT PLANTS Intensive research and development – alongside its experience in the field – has allowed Comar's design engineers to develop the smaller, more mobile asphalt plant configurations that the market has been demanding.

aspect to the next level,” he says. Definite interest in this mobile design has been expressed, says Dreyer, and the design model is being prepared for the manufacturing process. “Along with this mobile plant, we will also supply the bitumen units, the HFO units and the diesel units, all on mobile trailers,” he says. “This will allow them to be hooked up and moved easily to site; all that remains to be done on site is the plugging in of cables and pipes.” Comar’s application of technology in its R&D has led to the development of a user-friendly plant interfaces with which to manage the automated plant. This allows an operator to be based in the comfort of an air-conditioned control room, with all key plant parameters at his fingertips, using an HMI touch-screen facility. In addition to new builds, Comar also upgrades and optimises existing asphalt plants. This is done by working with customers on their current operations to improve their performance, and retrofitting or replacing components. An important focus of Comar’s asphalt plant designs has been their energy efficiency. Over the years, it has introduced technological innovations to drastically reduce the energy consumption required to produce the same result. The company has also developed a number of ancillary products for its plants. In a recent contract, Comar developed, customised and manufactured a bitumen storage facility comprising nine heated containers of approximately 70 m 3 capacity each. Comar also produces bag houses; while many older plants still use wet scrubbers to control contaminants and dust in the plant, the more effective bag houses are a compliance requirement for new asphalt plant installations. Other ancillary equipment offered by Comar includes bitumen decanting systems, hot storage facilities, silos, screw conveyors, Comar's design engineers have developed small- er, more mobile asphalt plant configurations that the market has been demanding.

A ccording to Comar director Ken Basson, "owners and operators of asphalt plants have felt, for some time, that mobile asphalt plants are not actually mobile enough. Comar has heard them, and our professional team of engineers and designers has developed the solution that the market has been looking for.” Basson says the design is in line with international trends, and comprises a more compact plant that can be easily transported in two parts and quickly installed on site, ready for operation. With its experienced design team and extensive manufacturing facilities in Kempton Park, Gauteng, Comar is well known not just for developing asphalt plants, but for its ongoing R&D that allows for continuous improvement of existing and new designs. According to Comar operations manager De Wet Dreyer, many mobile plants have traditionally still incorporated various static components. These components need to be transported separately on low bed trucks and erected using cranes. “We have now focused on a fully mobile

design, which consists of two units: one chassis carries the feed bins and the other the drum, bag house and other components,” says Dreyer. “This allows for quick installation. Instead of taking a week or two to assemble, it can be set up within hours, and mixing can begin almost immediately.” The design model is already finalised, and is available to the market, putting Comar in a leading position as a local manufacturer with decades of product experience and applications knowledge. “The beauty of this design is that the operation can be set up to discard directly into a truck, for those projects that only require 100 or 200 tonnes of production; or it can be parked and configured to feed into the standard Comar skip rail and 100 tonne hot storage facility for larger scale projects,” he says. “This makes it very versatile, where it can be used with our other standard components.” Basson says Comar’s new compact mobile design does not compromise on capacity. “We still ensure that it is a high- capacity plant, but have taken the mobility

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CONSTRUCTION WORLD JANUARY 2018