EXPERT ADVICE
SMOOTHING
THE WAY
By Jeff Winke
How to repair and resurface
asphalt pavement through milling
W
hen an asphalt surface becomes
rough for motorists to drive on
or people to walk on that’s the
time when it needs to be roughed
up further. Milling is the process used be-
fore repairs or resurfacing can occur. With
pavement milling, a heavy-duty piece of
construction equipment known as a mill-
ing machine—also known as a cold plan-
er, pavement planer, pavement recycler, or
roto-mill—roughs up the surface. Its
large, rotating drum with carbide teeth
chews up the paved surface. It removes
and grinds the bituminous pavement or
asphalt concrete from the lot or roadway.
Scrolls of tool holders cover the exterior of
the drum and hold the carbide cutters
that actually cut up the pavement.
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The surface material that is removed is
normally fed by conveyor into a dump
truck or semi-trailer, but can be left in
place or windrowed to be removed or re-
cycled later. A water spray system gener-
ally provides cooling for the mandrel, as
well as dust management.
The somewhat rough, but even surface,
can immediately be opened to traffic until
repaving occurs.
In addition to large dedicated milling
machines, there are milling attachments
that can be affixed to heavy equipment
such as skid-steer loaders, wheel loaders,
and backhoes. For example, “Road-
Hog offers a line of engine driven units
from 67hp for skid-steers, 74hp units for
loader backhoes, to 275hp units for wheel
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loaders, so the customer has a wide range
of host carrier options to choose from
their fleet,” stated Bill Bethards, OEM
manager, RoadHog, Inc., Brownsburg,
Ind. “This lineup of machines allows
greater fleet utilization, while filling the
price and performance gap between large
dedicated milling machines and skid-steer
planers. Additionally, there are no elec-
trical or hydraulic connections required,
making them compatible with any carrier
capable of propelling them during opera-
tion.”
Early milling machines were simply a
mining mandrel attached to a mobile un-
dercarriage. They were designed to remove
a layer of old concrete or asphalt so that a
new layer could be applied to a better-qual-
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