Ammann looks to the future at bauma 2019

First published at bauma - April 12, 2019

Lieven Van Broekhoven, executive vice president sales and marketing at Ammann (right) and Dr Hans-Friedrich Peters, executive vice president division plants at Ammann (left)

The Ammann Group is determined to develop sophisticated new technologies for road construction that tackle the growing environmental and resource challenges facing the road construction industry.

Discussing some of the key advances and market trends in the sector Lieven Van Broekhoven, executive vice president sales and marketing at Ammann and Dr Hans-Friedrich Peters, executive vice president division plants at Ammann, said Ammann is busy tackling the big challenges.

One key focus will be recycling construction materials, an area in which the Ammann Group is already well-established, particularly for recycled asphalt pavement (RAP). There is still potential for further development in this area and, as Dr Peters commented: “We will have to think about solutions to increase the amount of recycling in road construction.”

The pressure on the supply of virgin road materials will continue to increase as restrictions on quarrying become ever tougher. With the slow but gradual shift away from a reliance on fossil fuels, the bitumen sector will also face challenges.

According to Dr Peters: “Bitumen will become more and more difficult to get,” adding that the best solution is for the use of RAP for road building operations to increase, right across the globe. This does present challenges however as quality has to be optimised. While it is practical to recover milled cuttings from a jobsite, determining the quality of the recovered asphalt presents a challenge.

“You have to have a good laboratory and you have to have a good granulator,” said Dr Peters. “You cannot take cuttings from the road and put these straight into the plant.” He added that careful control and sorting of the RAP feed is required to ensure optimum mix quality.

With environmental factors now an important political issue, limits on emissions are being prioritised for transport and industry. In this respect, Ammann is amongst the technology leaders in ensuring its systems stay ahead of regulations and requirements. Different markets have different challenges with regard to environmental legislation however.

In China, tough new regulations are being imposed by the government to help address air pollution issues in major urban areas, with asphalt plants now becoming subject to increasingly stringent requirements.

According to Van Broekhoven: “The regulations in China are changing and very fast if we compare them to the rest of the world. The requirements for plants are changing rapidly so we are trying to stay on top of the regulations.”

He explained that in some respects, the Chinese regulations on asphalt plant emissions are becoming more stringent than in Europe, especially with regard to dust.

In Europe however, the key focus is on lowering gas emissions from asphalt plants. Although these different approaches may remain in China and Europe, he believes that the technology being developed is likely to be unified in the future, delivering asphalt plants that offer key benefits for operators.

The global market will benefit too: “We will bring our modern technology solution to North America, with strongly reduced emissions levels,” he added.

He said that while California has strict requirements on plant emissions at present that are similar to the regulations for Europe, most of the other US states are less stringent. However, when tougher regulations come to North America, Ammann will be ready and the firm has already set a precedent with the plant it delivered in Ohio.

Another key challenge for the road construction sector is digitalisation of the worksite, again an area in which Ammann is developing advanced technological solutions.

The firm has established a partnership with Q Point to deliver a digital solution for digitalisation of asphalt road construction. Dr Peters said: “We are working with a highly integrated system providing a solution from the rock to the road, which started in mid-2018.”

He explained that this incorporates factors such as truck logistics, types of mix and compaction values from the road construction. Overall, he said, it is all about “ensuring a connected worksite.”

Stand FS 909