Cold Mix Bitumen Emulsion and its Advantages in India

The main use of bitumen these days is for road construction and in the infrastructure industry. It is used for road maintenance and safety. Bitumen emulsions are mainly a mixture of bitumen in water. Even though bitumen is an oil based product which is originally supposed to float on water rather than mix with it, an emulsifier, which is a surface active element, is added to the water before the bitumen is added to the water to make the mixture. These are prepared at really high temperatures, high enough to melt things around them, but are applied at proper temperatures. But in places which have high rainfall or low average temperature coming up with a proper mix of bitumen emulsion is hard. As a certain temperature needed to keep the mix proper, the distance between the site of construction and the factory is also an important factor. Thus, to save themselves from situations like these construction workers started to use the cold mix technology.

Cold mix bitumen emulsion in India allows construction to take place in all seasons irrespective of whether it is cold or rainy. While being used for fixing the road cold mix bitumen emulsions are usually applied with a mineral mix, which then acts as a binder to mend cracks on the road.

Cracks or missing parts or dents on the road are not really a pleasant site and are also reasons for accidents. Thus, the need for properly fixing the roads with cold mix bitumen emulsions is high. They are easy to use and come with a lot of advantages. The most important one being that they can be prepared and produced even at the site of construction. The process even though, is the same as producing the hot mix, the cold mix does not need a particular temperature to be produced. In addition to that it eliminated the heating of the binder, which in turn saves energy and is cheaper as compared to the hot mix. They do not need a huge setup for preparation and can be easily prepared in small areas on the site itself. And one of the biggest advantages of cold mix is that it can be used in areas where the climate is wet and humid as well.