Abstract: A mixer having an elongated housing with an upper wall, a curved lower wall, an inlet end and a discharge end. A rotatable shaft within the housing extends from the inlet end to the discharge end of the housing. A plurality of blades are attached to the shaft in a discontinuous helical pattern. An injection tube is located at the inlet end of the housing to spray bituminous liquid into the housing. Recycle aggregate and bituminous liquid are introduced into the inlet end of the housing. Asphalt mix is removed from the discharge end of the housing. Each blade has a curved outer end which is in near contact with the lower wall of the housing as each blade moves through a lower part of its rotation. The upper wall of the housing is spaced a distance from the blades to define an open slinging area between the blades and the housing. The blades both mix and move material from the inlet end to the discharge end of the housing.

Abstract: A handling and transporting apparatus having a lifting and lowering frame supported by hydraulically actuated parallelograms at each end from transporting frames.

Abstract: A paving machine having a medially located dowel bar feeder positioned in front of a dowel bar inserter. The machine has a screw or paddle for spreading the concrete and a front strike-off to allocate a proper amount of unconsolidated concrete beneath the machine. Next in line, internal vibrators are mounted to the machine to perform a preliminary consolidation of the concrete, followed by a screed to meter out a correct volume of consolidated concrete for a finished concrete slab. To the rear of the screed, the dowel bar feeder drops dowel bars in a predetermined pattern on the top surface of the consolidated concrete. The dowel bar inserter is mounted to the paving machine behind the dowel bar feeder and is adapted to travel between a forward position and a rear position and includes a plurality of vibrating forks which descend to engage the dropped dowel bars and insert the dowels into the unhardened concrete.

Abstract: A closed, pressurized dust return system for introducing aggregate dust into a stream of liquid asphalt is provided. Aggregate dust is dispensed through a valve from a receiving chamber into a mixing housing. The aggregate dust enters the mixing housing at an intermediate location therein. The liquid asphalt is introduced into the mixing housing through a separate conduit at a location thereon above the point of entry of the aggregate dust. The liquid asphalt and the aggregate combine within the mixing housing to form a slurry composition. A heating jacket substantially surrounds the mixing housing and a system for preventing liquid asphalt from backing up into the receiving chamber is also provided. The dust return system is particularly useful in an asphalt plant using a baghouse.

Abstract: An asphalt production system utilizing a pair of rotatable drums for producing an asphaltic composition is provided. The asphaltic composition is produced by separately heating a volume of virgin aggregate material in a countercurrent drum dryer and heating a volume of recycle material in a parallel flow drum mixer. The hot virgin aggregate material is mixed with the heated recycle material at an intermediate location within the parallel flow drum mixer. A ducting system is provided for interconnecting the ends of the drums such that the hot exhaust gases from one drum are circulated into the other drum thus producing a common flow of exhaust gases between the drums.

Abstract: An apparatus for pulverizing a surface such as a road bed, parking lot, an interstate shoulder or the like. The apparatus comprises a frame with a cutting means secured thereto. A bidirectional drive and control means is also provided to enable the apparatus to make multiple passes over a surface while in an operating condition without turning the apparatus around. A system for adding liquid to the surface being pulverized may also be included.

Abstract: A drum mixer is provided for producing an asphaltic composition. The drum mixer utilizes a first heat source located at an intermediate position within the drum mixer for producing a first current of hot gases directed towards the entry end of the drum mixer. The drum mixer also utilizes a second heat source located at the discharge end of the drum mixer for producing a second current of hot gases directed towards the entry end. Virgin aggregate is introduced into the drum mixer at the entry end of the drum mixer and is heated by the first current of hot gases. Recycle material is introduced into a mixing zone within the drum mixer between the first heat source and the discharge end. The heated virgin aggregate combines with the recycle material in the mixing zone and is further heated by the second heat source. Liquid asphalt is mixed with the virgin aggregate and recycle material in the mixing zone and the product is removed from the drum mixer at the discharge end.

Abstract: A plurality of variable pitch baffles for diffusing hot combustion gases flowing through an asphalt drum mixer is provided. Each baffle, which is internally mounted at an intermediate location within the drum mixer, includes a plurality of opening therethrough.

Abstract: An apparatus to be towed behind a roadway planing machine to mix aggregate planed from a roadway into cold mix asphalt for repaving the roadway. The aggregate is introduced, via an inclined shaker screen, into a surge bin and conveyed from the surge bin to a pugmill on the chassis of the apparatus by a belt conveyor underlying the surge bin. The conveyor is driven through an electrically adjustable first variable transmission and manual and automatic controls are provided to adjust the speed ratio of the first transmission to maintain the level of aggregate in the surge bin between selected high and low levels. A pump is driven by the first variable transmission through a second variable transmission to select and fix the ratio of aggregate to asphaltic composition in the pugmill for varying rates of conveyor operation corresponding to different speed ratios of the first transmission.

Abstract: A combustion housing for surrounding a burner flame is provided at an intermediate location within a drum mixer. An annulus is formed by the combustion housing and the interior of the drum adjacent thereto. Hot virgin aggregate is mixed with cold recycle material within the annulus. The mixing materials are further heated by conduction from the combustion housing surface and extending structures extending from the combustion housing into the annulus. The combustion housing is also provided with a plurality of openings for allowing radiant heat to enter the annulus and heat the mixing materials and for circulating combustible by products of asphalt production into the combustion housing for burning.

Abstract: A method is provided for converting a four-track slip form paver into an improved three-track slip form paver for applying a continuous slab of concrete onto a road surface and against a vertical abutment adjacent the road surface.

Abstract: This application discloses several components relating to a heating apparatus which preferably are used in conjunction with each other in an apparatus for heating solid granular or particulate material, such as aggregate used to make asphalt concrete. One component of the present invention includes a heater-condenser unit which indirectly heats the material by circulating heat transfer fluid within hollow plates contained in a housing holding the material. The material is heated, the heat transfer fluid is condensed and a condensate removal means associated with the hollow plates removes the condensate from the housing. The heat transfer fluid used in the heater-condenser preferably is supplied in the form of a vapor or gas evolved from liquid contained in material heated by another type of heater. In this other type of heater, the material to be dried enters a chamber containing hollow heat exchange plates through which a primary heat transfer fluid is circulating.

Abstract: A road planar which includes a secondary cutter in the planar behind the primary cutter with grids between the primary and secondary cutters and following the secondary cutter to size and cooperate with the secondary cutter in reducing the particle size of pavement material removed by the primary cutter. The primary cutter is rotated in an up cutting direction and breaker bars are incorporated in the planar adjacent the primary cutter to further assist in breaking up the removed pavement material.

Abstract: A cutting head for a paved roadway resurfacing apparatus comprising a support block having a shoulder and a cutter having a shoulder mating with the shoulder on the support block to prevent rotation of the cutter with respect to the support block.

Abstract: A planer apparatus for cutting a selected upper portion of a roadway surface to coincide with a preselected reference plane, comprising a main frame drivingly supported by a drive assembly, the main frame carrying a planing assembly comprising a rotating cutter drum assembly and a cutter drive assembly. The cutter drive assembly comprises a pair of cutter power assemblies which are disposed on one side of the main frame and which are connected to a rotating hub member. The rotating hub member is carried by load-bearing hub support surfaces, with the rotating hub member rotatably driving the cutter drum assembly.The planer apparatus further comprises an upper material lifting conveyor for elevating and moving roadway material disengaged from the roadway by the planing assembly. The upper material lifting conveyor features an upper conveyor cover connecting the side members of the upper conveyor frame, with the conveyor motor assembly mounted on the upper conveyor frame between the side members.

Abstract: Annular lands are mounted on the inner periphery of the tubular shell of a drum for an asphalt mixing apparatus of the type wherein the drum is disposed on a slant and rotated so that flighting arranged about the inner periphery of the drum lifts and drops aggregate and asphalt across the drum to transport the aggregate and asphalt toward the lower end of the drum. Portions of the flighting are mounted in the inner periphery of the shell and portions are mounted on the annular lands. The lands reduce the inside diameter of the drum in selected regions thereof to establish differing advance rates of aggregate and asphalt through the drum in different regions thereof so as to selectively vary the density of veils of asphalt and aggregate across the drum with axial location within the drum.

Abstract: An improved front-end loader apparatus for collecting particulate material on a roadway surface comprising a frame assembly drivingly supported on the roadway, a windrow formation assembly supported at the forward end of the frame assembly for brushing particulate material into a windrow, and a feeder assembly disposed to engage the windrowed material up and onto a roadway scraper blade supported at the forward end of the frame assembly. An elevator assembly is disposed to receive the particulate material from the feeder assembly and elevate the material to a rear overhead discharge position. A residual material cleaning assembly is supported beneath the frame assembly and rearward to the feeder assembly for cleaning up residual material not collected by the feeder assembly, the residual material cleaning assembly directing the residual material to the elevator assembly so that the residual material is elevated to the rear overhead discharge position.

Abstract: A wheeled roadway planing machine in which the wheels are pivotable by individual hydraulic rams for steering purposes. Each ram is controlled by a rotary, blocked-center valve and the valves are simulataneously actuated by a linkage which establishes a pattern of off-center displacements of their valve members to initiate pivoting of the wheels. The valves are mounted on pivotable wheel representation members which pivot with the wheels, via cables connecting the representation members to support shafts upon which the wheels are mounted, to return the valves to their blocked-center positions as the wheels pivot to a pattern of positions on the chassis of the machine similar to the pattern of displacements of the valve members resulting from operation of the linkage. A cutting drum is mounted on the chassis to form a cut in the roadway, such cut having a shape determined by the position of the chassis on the support shafts.