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to establish its first standard for hot-pour sealant, but its use was uneven at best. The 1970s provided a new economic incentive for evidence-based preservation— in the form of a geopolitical oil crisis. Crude oil and its derivatives, like asphalt, became drastically more expensive, which meant that keeping pavement in good shape became more cost-effective than replacing it. Although concrete paving was not directly affected by the oil crisis, the movement toward evidence-based preservation of asphalt pavement led to increased focus on maintaining both surface types.

Asphalt had long been the favored material for filling cracks, but unmodified asphalt tends to crack in cold temperatures and liquefy in hot temperatures. It soon became obvious that the budding pavement preservation industry would need more advanced materials. In the 1960s, a City of Phoenix maintenance engineer named Charlie McDonald was experimenting with adding crumb rubber from recycled tires into asphalt binder. The rubber added flexibility and resilience, allowing crack sealant to better adapt to changing temperatures, and the technique was being tested with chip sealing and other treatments at the time. An Arizona-based regional contracting company named JWJ saw the promise of this new material class for crack sealing and began demonstrating it for transportation agencies around the U. S. In 1976, the owners of JWJ founded Crafco, Inc. to develop and manufacture crack sealants. The new company worked closely with the Arizona Department of Transportation, testing and refining both the sealant and the process of applying it. Crafco offered Overflex MS, a crack sealant consisting of three parts asphalt to one part vulcanized rubber

from recycled tires. The new sealant was used on concrete highway joints, asphalt cracks, and even irrigation canals. A few years before Crafco’ s founding, a different company named Deery Oil was also developing modified asphalt products. Deery was founded in 1910 and focused primarily on petroleum delivery to homes and businesses. In 1973, the Zentner family purchased the company from its original owners and refocused it on modified asphalt products in response to the changing economic conditions, including the development of a polymer-modified crack sealant. Though the company was sold again in 1987, the Zentners founded a new company called Deery American in 1991, focused on crack sealant, waterproofing, and patching products. Crafco and Deery worked on parallel tracks over the next two decades, pushing forward the development of new materials and improved methods. One example is the use of new ingredients in crack sealant, such as process oils to slow the oxidation that makes asphalt brittle over time. Crafco acquired Deery in 2010, rolling several of the latter company’ s innovative products— like the Ultraseal bridge deck waterproofing system— into the Crafco lineup. Today, Crafco supplies agencies and contractors around the world with crack sealants designed to handle every climate, from sub-zero tundra to yearround tropical heat. Material science hasn’ t been the only area of advancement in the industry. Everything from the crack sealing process to the equipment itself has been continually improved. Crafco helped develop a process of routing asphalt cracks in the late’ 70s to improve sealant adhesion to

the crack sidewalls and to create a sealant“ reservoir” that accounts for seasonal expansion and contraction of the pavement. A Federal Highway Administration study later validated crack routing and showed that it doubled average sealant service life to nearly eight years. The equipment involved in crack sealing has seen significant improvements over the past 50 years. First-generation crack sealing melters were small, propane-fired units that required cleanout with solvent after each use. Crafco’ s first melter, the BC220, was released in the late’ 70s. Since then, the company has continually pushed the envelope— increasing capacity, eliminating the need for cleanout, improving ergonomics and safety, and finding innovative ways to speed up loading and melting. Modern melters, like the popular Super Shot or EZ Series II machines, are usually diesel-fired, with larger-capacity tanks, high-output pumps, and numerous features and options. Even crack sealant packaging has evolved since the early days. Crack sealant was originally field-mixed from a distributor truck, which added time to the process and introduced opportunities for error. Eventually, pre-mixed sealant was offered in metal pails that had to be cut apart with a hatchet. In the early 1980s, Crafco introduced pre-mixed material in cardboard boxes, reducing cost, waste, and labor. The company later debuted meltable packaging, further reducing waste and labor, while increasing safety. In 2002, ASTM published a new D6690 standard to replace the earlier D1190, di-

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