As a beginner in the highway maintenance industry, today we will learn about the difference between emulsified asphalt and modified asphalt that we commonly use in highway maintenance construction.
First of all, the obvious difference between emulsified asphalt and modified asphalt is that emulsified asphalt has water, while modified asphalt does not.
Emulsified asphalt disperses hot asphalt into water (oil in water) or water into asphalt (water in oil) through an emulsifier to form a temporarily stable emulsion. The continuous phase is water and the dispersed phase is asphalt. Asphalt exhibits solid-like properties at room temperature and liquid-like properties at high temperatures. Therefore, after asphalt is dispersed in water, it can be used at room temperature, which is the biggest advantage of emulsified asphalt. In a word, the asphalt heated to liquid is mixed with an emulsifier, stabilizer, acid or alkali by a colloid mill to obtain emulsified asphalt.

Sand-containing fog seal uses MasterSeal asphalt concentrated cover material. MasterSeal asphalt-based concentrated cover material is a road cover material composed of clay and emulsified asphalt, and special surfactants are added to form super strong bonding ability and durability. Aggregates are added at the construction site to form a non-slip surface layer. It is an ideal material specifically used to protect and beautify asphalt pavements. MasterSeal asphalt concentrated cover material is an excellent asphalt pavement maintenance cover material. It can effectively fill the initial small surface cracks caused by rain erosion, oil and snow melting agent corrosion, and vehicle overload, and penetrate deep into the cracks of the pavement to prevent the cracks from further expanding. In the process of filling these cracks, it can not only effectively replenish the oily matrix of the pavement asphalt and activate the severely aged asphalt molecules, reduce the hardening degree of the pavement, but also solve various diseases caused by the loss of asphalt. It is mainly used for the beautification and maintenance of asphalt pavements, such as parking lots, airports, driveways, shopping malls, roads, etc.

Nowadays, asphalt pavement is widely used in road construction due to its many advantages. At present, we mainly use hot asphalt and emulsified asphalt in the construction of asphalt pavement. Hot asphalt consumes a lot of heat energy, especially bulk sand and gravel need to be baked, the construction environment of operators is poor, and the labor intensity is high. When using emulsified asphalt for construction, it does not need to be heated, it can be sprayed or mixed and spread at room temperature, and various structures of pavement can be paved. Moreover, emulsified asphalt can flow by itself at room temperature, and it can be made into emulsified asphalt of different concentrations according to needs. It is easy to achieve the required asphalt film thickness when pouring or permeating, which is not possible with hot asphalt. With the gradual improvement of the road network and the upgrading requirements of low-grade roads, the use of emulsified asphalt will increase; with the enhancement of environmental awareness and the gradual tension of energy, the proportion of emulsified asphalt in asphalt will increase, the scope of use will become wider and wider, and the quality will become better and better. Emulsified asphalt is non-toxic, odorless, non-flammable, fast drying, and strong bonding. It can not only improve road quality, expand the scope of asphalt use, extend the construction season, reduce environmental pollution, and improve construction conditions, but also save energy and materials.

Cracks are common diseases of highways and asphalt pavements. A large amount of funds are spent on crack caulking in the country every year. In this case, it is particularly important to take corresponding treatment measures according to the actual road diseases and reduce maintenance costs.

Slurry seal is to use mechanical equipment to mix appropriately graded emulsified asphalt, coarse and fine aggregates, water, fillers (cement, lime, fly ash, stone powder, etc.) and additives into a slurry mixture according to the designed ratio and evenly spread it on the original road surface. After wrapping, demulsification, water separation, evaporation and solidification, it is firmly combined with the original road surface to form a dense, strong, wear-resistant and road surface seal, which greatly improves the performance of the road surface.

Chip seal technology is a thin layer construction technology used to establish road surface functions. The basic method is to first spread an appropriate amount of asphalt binder evenly on the road surface through special equipment, and then spread the relatively uniform particle size of crushed stones densely on the asphalt layer, and after rolling, an average of about 3/5 of the crushed stone particles are embedded in the asphalt layer.