What makes Crumb Rubber Modified Bitumen Idyllic for Indian Roads

The reach of Indian roads has extended to vast areas of different states and many rural areas.  The connectivity of areas has significantly improved leading to more substantial economic development over the years. With better access to technology, consequently greater awareness alternatives were discovered in road infrastructure planning.

Crumb Rubber Modified Bitumen (CRMB) is a binding agent used by many contractors as it increases the strength and durability of roads. Today different CRMB suppliers in India are using different modifiers with their bitumen to enhance the quality of their products. CRMB is a hydrocarbon Binder derived from scrapped rubber from used tyres and treated with chemicals to act as a modifier for Bitumen. To keep the properties of binder intact through all stages of the supply chain, stabilizing additives are also used in the process.

Crumb Rubber Modified Bitumen conforms to IS:15462 specifications and licensed by Bureau of Indian Standards.

Advantages of Crumb Rubber Modifiers:

• Protects the roads from rutting and forming cracks
• Reduces the maintenance cost and overall cost efficient
• Increase in pavement’s life irrespective of heavy load traffic
• Favorable in all weather conditions
• Efficient adhesive agent
• Help in making roads Slip Proof.

CRMB Grade used:

• CRMB 50: Suitable for cold climate conditions
• CRMB 55: Suitable for moderate climate
• CRMB 60: Used in Hot climatic areas

Process Of Production:

• Scrapped Tire from trucks is cut into small pieces with mechanical blades.
• 25%percent of natural rubber is used with 75% of waste tyre
• Two ways to production

1. Ambient Grinding:

• Occurs at room temperature or above that
• Higher Surface area

• It makes use of Liquid Nitrogen to freeze Crumbed rubber
• Lower Surface area
• Process to prepare the modifier

1. Dry Process: Crumb Rubber also used as some part of the aggregate
2. Wet Process:
   • Intermittent mixing of CR with Bitumen and let the mixture react for 1 hour
   • Maintaining high temperature throughout.

The government is paying special attention to improving infrastructure of roads and encouraging research and development for instilling better technologies in their urban planning. The available resources also encourage more industry experts actively contributing to the process.