PMB Emulsion: Special Class of Bitumen Emulsion Products in India

By far, Bitumen emulsion is most commonly used a binding agent for construction of roads. It acts as adhesive, waterproofing agent, preservative, binder etc. But they have one special class or you can say an improvised version of the same, which is called polymer modified bitumen emulsion. Polymer modified bitumen emulsion manufacturers, prepare it in several ways. One way for the same is by adding latex to bitumen emulsion. It can be done both prior and after the colloid mill. PMB emulsion suppliers in India, find it difficult and hard to manufacture this special class of bitumen emulsions. The characteristics of both types of emulsions are almost same but PMBE’s generally have high performance and act as better binding agent as compared to the unmodified version of bitumen emulsions.

The difference only lies in the rheological properties of the same, PMBE’s have better and improvised rheological properties as compared to the unmodified version.  There are two types of modifying agents that are being used by PMB emulsion suppliers in India. The first one is Plastomers and the other one is Elastomers.

• Plastomers, have good properties with respect to high temperatures and are low in cost. They also have resistance towards rutting and has good storage stability. The disadvantage of plastomers is that it has limited elasticity and has phase separation issues. Also, it has a relatively low performance at low temperature.

• Elastomers, on the other hand, has increased stiffness, has better elasticity and works better even at low temperature. It also has resistance towards ultraviolet and oxidation. The disadvantage of the same is that it is relatively high in cost, and relatively less compatible with some of the bitumen emulsions.

The benefits of Polymer modified bitumen emulsion as compared to the unmodified version are:

• They have increased elastic recovery that ensures protection in extreme cold climatic conditions.
• Acts as a better binding agent to aggregate as its adhesive property improve.
• By modifying bitumen emulsion, Polymer modified bitumen emulsion suppliers in India makes sure that its softening point increases and brittleness fall down. It helps in protection against hot weather conditions.
• Though bitumen emulsions are also water resistant, PMBE’s have increased water resistance property.
• It resists cracking and stripping in low temperature.
• Helps in avoiding rutting and fatigue.