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SMART Move for Belgian Roads
Date:  29 June 2004

Excel Fibre Technology’s Viscocel 500 SMA bitumen modifier pellets and SMART refibreising system are being used by Belgian asphalt manufacturer, Screg, to produce the SMA wearing course for a 100 mile stretch of the six lane highway that runs from Luxembourg to Brussels.  The pellets are being supplied locally through Excel’s distributor, Caldic, Belgium.

The SMART system installed by Excel at Screg’s Enrosambre manufacturing plant near Charleroi features a gravimetric feed primary module, with a one tonne hopper that is fed with 0.5 tonne bags of pellets.  Providing a seamless in-line process addition to Screg’s SMA manufacturing facility, the Smart system ensures the pellets are fully converted into loose, open fibre before being added to the SMA mix in a single continuous process.

The Viscocel/SMART combination was selected to replace Screg’s previous ‘direct addition’ 3Kg bagged loose fibre to improve product performance and remove the need for manual addition of fibre to the SMA mix.  In addition, being a pure fibre pellet, Viscocel 500 does not rely on a binder to hold the fibre together in pellet form and is therefore cleaner to handle than bitumen-based pellets.

Requiring a lower addition rate and shorter mixing times for full dispersion, Viscocel also offers greater reliability and consistency of dispersion in the SMA mix, since the pellets do not rely on a binder melting before dispersion can take place.  Once dispersed in the asphalt, Viscocel 500 fibres create a lattice, which binds the material together, holding the bitumen in place around the aggregate and preventing it from draining away during the laying process.

Viscocel 500’s performance results from the closely controlled manufacturing process that ensures correctly engineered fibres are produced batch after batch and that these fibres are precisely pelletised so that they hold firmly together during handling and transportation, but break up and disperse readily prior to being added to the wearing course asphalt mix.  This results in superb consistency across the laid road surface and, consequently, a repeatable high level of performance.

The patented SMART range of pellet refibreising systems is based on three ‘primary module’ refibreising options, together with a range of standardised pellet hopper configurations to create a dedicated handling and refibreising unit that takes into account throughput rates, storage capabilities, working practices and existing plant equipment and infrastructure.

Excel Fibre Technology, a division of Excel Industries Limited of Rhymney in Gwent, is the UK’s leading manufacturer of speciality fibres and fibre delivery systems.  In addition to Viscocel SMA fibre and pellets and the SMART range of refibreising systems, Excel manufactures a range of products for use in varied industrial applications as well as the building and construction industry.