As the construction industry continues to grow, there is also a demand for the right types of equipment so that these construction projects can be completed faster and more efficiently. A portable asphalt plant can become a very important piece of equipment in your fleet. By choosing the right type of unit, you will be bringing efficiency and optimum production to your business operations.
According to manufacturers in the industry, there are several key areas that should be considered when you are choosing the best type of portable asphalt plant. Three of these factors are production, portability and maintenance.
Production
When choosing a portable asphalt plant, one of the first things that you will need to consider is the type of production you will be able to get from the plant. For any type of construction job, it is important that you have the right type of equipment on hand in order to meet and exceed the job requirements.
In order to better understand how much production you will need, you will need to do some basic math calculations. Production rates typically are measured in tph (tons per hour). You will also need to calculate how many days per week you will be operating the plant. These numbers will help you determine the final output.
For example, if there is a company that requires 400,000 tons each year, the portable asphalt plant should be producing just under 32,000 tons every month. If the plant will be operational three days a week, that is around 13 days every month. So, for an eight hour work day, the plant will need to process around 300 tph.
It is critical to understand the amount of production that is needed so you will what size of portable asphalt plant you will need.
If you purchase machine that is either too large or too small, it can be harmful to your overall production rate.
Portability
It is also important for contractors to take some time to consider portability and the amount of time that is necessary when setting up an asphalt plant.
The ease of an asphalt plant’s setup is very important because any downtime is very expensive for the contractor and investor. You want to be able to quickly go into a jobsite, quickly setup the asphalt plant and begin working immediately.
There are some plants that are considered labor intensive because they may require several days before they are completely set up and operational. However, with a portable asphalt plant, contractors may only need an hour.
Maintenance
Having ease of maintenance is also an important factor when choosing a portable asphalt plant. These types of plants create very dirty environments. The production numbers you may be getting are completely useless if you have a plant with dirt and debris accumulation that has caused the machine to shut down.
There are portable asphalt plants on the market with the technology that prevents the plants from shutting down due to sticky residue and build up.
Even though there is a lot of emphasis being placed on technology in the construction industry, most contractors still prefer reliability over any other feature when it comes to their equipment fleet. Portable asphalt plants offer benefits and features that make construction projects more cost effective and efficient.