In recent years, my country’s transportation infrastructure construction has achieved leapfrog development. In 2023, the total length of newly built and reconstructed highways nationwide exceeded 120,000 kilometers, and the annual consumption of asphalt mixtures exceeded 500 million tons, driving the continuous growth of market demand for mixing equipment. However, significant shortcomings still exist behind the industry’s development: although most domestic enterprises have mastered the basic manufacturing technology of medium and large-sized mixing equipment, in the field of ultra-large equipment with a capacity of tens of millions of tons and a capacity of over 400t/h, foreign brands occupy more than 65% of the market share due to their core technological advantages, and domestic equipment faces the dilemma of being “large but not strong”.The core problem lies in the fact that the design theory and manufacturing process of the mixing mechanism lag behind the international advanced level, resulting in large fluctuations in the uniformity of the mixture, insufficient asphalt coating, severe equipment wear, and high energy consumption, which directly affect the quality of the project and the construction cost.
Asian Construction Equipment Group Co., Ltd. (abbreviated as ACE Group) deeply understands that optimizing and upgrading mixing mechanisms is not only an inevitable choice to enhance the core competitiveness of products, but also a strategic measure to promote the localization of high-end equipment and ensure the quality and safety of national transportation infrastructure construction. By breaking through the bottlenecks in mixing theory and structural design through technological innovation, the gap with international brands can be effectively narrowed, providing the industry with high-performance, low-energy-consumption, and long-life domestic solutions, demonstrating the technological responsibility and industrial commitment of national enterprises.
Modern engineering has upgraded the performance requirements for asphalt mixtures from the traditional macroscopic homogeneity to a multi-dimensional homogenization standard of “precise particle size distribution, sufficient asphalt coating, uniform microscopic dispersion, and stable temperature field.” This places stringent requirements on the design of mixing mechanisms.
1. Particle size distribution uniformity: Coarse and fine aggregates must strictly follow the design ratio to achieve uniform distribution in three-dimensional space, forming a dense and stable skeleton structure to ensure the load-bearing capacity and durability of the mixture;
2. Asphalt coating integrity: High-intensity shearing action breaks down the water film and adsorption layer on the aggregate surface, ensuring that the asphalt binder completely coats the aggregate particles and forms an asphalt film of uniform thickness;
3. Microscopic dispersion stability: Effectively breaks up aggregate agglomeration, ensuring that fillers, admixtures and other components are uniformly dispersed in the asphalt matrix, thus constructing a stable suspension-compact system;
4. Temperature field consistency: During the mixing process, local overheating should be avoided to prevent asphalt aging, or local undercooling to prevent insufficient coating. Ensure that the temperature fluctuation of the mixture outlet is controlled within ±3℃.
5. Green and low-carbon adaptability: While meeting the mixing quality requirements, it minimizes energy consumption and equipment wear, meeting the green development requirements of engineering construction.
Addressing the industry’s technical pain points, the R&D team at ACE Group, based on fluid mechanics and particle dynamics simulation analysis and combined with over a thousand experimental verifications, has developed a three-dimensional optimization system of “fluid state optimization + structural upgrade + material innovation,” achieving a leap in the performance of the mixing mechanism.
(一) Innovation in material flow movement mode: design of circulation-shear composite flow pattern
Traditional twin-shaft mixers, operating in either counter-current or purely circumferential flow patterns, suffer from issues such as material retention, insufficient shear strength, and uneven liner wear. ACE Group has innovatively developed a “circulation-shear composite flow” technology, achieving three major breakthroughs through an asymmetric phase angle mixing arm arrangement and optimized guide vane design:
1. It adopts a zoned design of “main mixing zone + auxiliary shearing zone”. The main mixing zone uses a spiral mixing arm to push the material to form a closed circulation, ensuring macroscopic uniformity; the auxiliary shearing zone is equipped with high-strength shearing teeth to form a local turbulent field and enhance the microscopic dispersion effect.
2. Optimize the phase angle of the stirring arm arrangement, controlling the phase difference between adjacent stirring arms to 45°, avoiding material stagnation zones at the shaft ends and corners of the housing, and increasing the material circulation rate by 30%;
3. An innovative guide vane angle adjustment mechanism can dynamically adjust the material flow rate according to the aggregate gradation and asphalt grade, adapting to different working conditions and improving mixing adaptability by 40%.
Compared with the traditional method, the composite flow design improves the wear uniformity of the liner by 50%, extends the service life of the equipment by 35%, and increases the shear strength by 25%, effectively solving the problem of insufficient asphalt coating.
(二) Precise optimization of core structural parameters
Based on a multi-objective optimization algorithm, ACE Group accurately calibrates the key parameters of the mixing mechanism:
(1).Blade helix angle: Adopting a variable helix angle design of 17°-19°, it takes into account both axial conveying efficiency and radial mixing intensity, increasing the axial conveying speed of materials by 20% and avoiding local accumulation;
(2).Stirring arm spacing and angle: The spacing between adjacent stirring arms is optimized to 120mm, and the angle is set to 75° to form a continuous stirring trajectory, reducing the material residence time to less than 2s;
(3).Main and auxiliary shaft speed matching: Utilizing variable frequency speed control technology, the speed difference between the main and auxiliary shafts is stabilized at 17%-18%, forming an efficient shear field and reducing the coefficient of variation of asphalt film thickness by 40%.
(4).Innovative Liner and Blade Materials: Utilizing NM450 wear-resistant alloy steel and a ceramic composite coating, a “stepped self-cleaning liner” was developed, extending service life by 60% and reducing uneven mixing caused by material adhesion. Upgraded Sealing and Heat Dissipation Structure: Adopting a double-seal + negative pressure dustproof design, combined with a forced air cooling system, reduces equipment failure rate by 30%, adapting to harsh working conditions such as high temperatures and dust.
(三) Integration of intelligent control technology: adaptive adjustment system for operating conditions
ACE Group has deeply integrated intelligent sensing technology with the mixing mechanism to develop a “condition-adaptive adjustment system”: equipped with an infrared temperature sensor, a material level sensor, and a torque sensor, it monitors parameters such as the temperature of the mixture, the material level, and the mixing resistance in real time;
A database of mixing parameters is established based on big data algorithms. The speed, mixing time, and blade angle can be dynamically adjusted according to aggregate moisture content, gradation changes, asphalt viscosity, etc., to achieve “one machine adapting to multiple working conditions”.
It integrates remote diagnostics and predictive maintenance modules, which can provide early warnings of wear and tear on vulnerable parts through equipment operation data analysis, thereby reducing operation and maintenance costs.
A provincial-level eight-lane expressway reconstruction and expansion project, with a total length of 89 kilometers, requires the supply of 1.2 million tons of asphalt mixture, with stringent requirements for the uniformity, durability, and production efficiency of the mixture. The project adopted a mixing plant equipped with a new composite fluid mixing mechanism. After six months of practical application, third-party testing data showed:
· The standard deviation of Marshall stability decreased from 1.3kN to 0.7kN, with a coefficient of variation ≤5%, which is better than the industry limit of 10%.
· The average thickness of the asphalt film was 68μm, and the coefficient of variation was optimized from 16% to 8%.
· The actual production efficiency of a single machine reaches 420t/h, which is 5% higher than that of traditional equipment, and the unit energy consumption is reduced to 8.2kg standard coal/t, a 15% reduction in energy consumption;
· The equipment can operate continuously without failure for up to 720 hours, reducing the failure rate by 32% and extending the replacement cycle of vulnerable parts to 8,000 hours.
· The road surface achieved a 100% pass rate in the first inspection of core indicators, and there were no early damages, ruts, or other defects within three months of opening to traffic.
Asian Construction Equipment Group Co., Ltd. will always take technological innovation as its core driving force, adhere to the product philosophy of “independent and controllable, high performance, green and low carbon”, and continuously provide the industry with more competitive high-end equipment and solutions, injecting a continuous stream of technological power into the construction of a transportation powerhouse.
Note: The technical points and development suggestions in this article are for industry reference only. Specific applications should be considered in conjunction with the actual working conditions of the project.
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