Today, scientific literature gives several alternative classifications to road construction equipment. They are all based on two main criteria – the application area and the purpose of the equipment.
The following is one of the generally accepted and widespread classifications.
All road construction equipment includes:
- machines for mining and processing rock material;
- machines for production and transportation of concrete mixtures, bitumen and bitumen emulsions;
- machines for road and aerodrome construction;
- machines for compacting road construction material; and
- machines for road maintenance and repair.
The machines for rock mining are applied to develop the deposits of the raw material for road surface construction. This kind of equipment includes pneumatic drills, rock drilling machines, grinders, and mills.
Such units as (1) concrete mixing machines, (2) metering units, (3) containers, (4) additive production units, (5) ready-mix trucks, (6) bitumen storage tank, (7) transit bitumen carriers, and (8) bitumen spraying machines are considered to be the equipment for production and transportation of concrete mixtures, bitumen and bitumen emulsions.
In this class of equipment, special attention should be paid to the GlobeCore UVB-1 unit which is used to produce bitumen emulsions. Bitumen emulsions are considered to be the most effective road construction material since it allows for significant energy and bitumen saving and is characterized by eco-friendliness and reliability.
Apart from the UVB-1 line of units, GlobeCore has also produced the UVB-2 units which are designed for the modification of polymer bitumen. The properties of the asphalt concrete mixture are influenced by the properties of the modified bitumen as one of the most important components.
A non-exclusive list of machines for road and aerodrome construction include (1) pavement profilers; (2) concrete spreaders; (3) concrete pavers; (4) pavement finishing machines; (5) film-forming materials distributor; and (6) asphalt spreaders.
Roads and highways are maintained and repaired using such road construction equipment as street washers, street sweepers, marking machines, road heaters, and milling machines. If it is impossible to perform a particular operation using the units listed above because of their size, special mechanical hand tools can be applied.
Generally speaking, a hand-driven machine includes such main parts as (1) an engine; (2) a function-generating mechanism; and (3) a working body. Such a mechanized tool is controlled by an operator. This type of machine is small, convenient, serviceable, safe and efficient.