TEAM VIATOP & IAT CPD
It has been an active month for the UK VIATOP Team and the Institute of Asphalt Technology. Rick, Steve and Rob first attended the IAT National Conference on 8/9 May at The Beflry in Sutton Coldfield. The event started with the Institutes social activities and Presidents Dinner. The event brings customers and peers together for an evening’s networking and entertainment. After dinner speaker ex professional Arsenal footballer Paul Merson had some candid tales to share along with motivational uplifting life stories.
The evening was a great success and is always an excellent opportunity to meet contacts old and new.
The main event followed the next day and the VIATOP squad had the exhibition stand ready in the exhibition hall to welcome all delegates. Presentations in the conference were of a high calibre and demonstrated the IAT membership is at the cutting edge of innovation, environmental friendliness and sustainability in the asphalt sector.
We had many visitors to the
exhibition stand during the breaks and lunch exhibition with a lot of interest
in the VIATOP plus portfolio of Functional Asphalt Additives. The team will be
following up enquiries from interested parties in the following weeks. An event
the team will certainly be attending in 2025.
Following the success of the National Conference Rick and Steve took the VIATOP story to regional level with a CPD approved evenings technical presentation at Statham Lodge Hotel in Lymm, Cheshire for the Pennine Branch of the IAT. As an ex-Chairman of this branch Rick knows the members well and knew they would appreciate an update on VIATOP technology. After a pleasant buffet for the attendees Rick briefly outlined a company overview of JRS Rettenmaier and the company history up to the global entity we see today with the various business lines. Rick then followed with the introduction of Stone Mastic Asphalt (SMA) surface courses to Germany from the late 1960's and their technical developments up to the durable sustainable SMA's of today.
Once the attendees were up to speed on conventional SMA production and installation using technical cellulose fibre pellets (VIATOP premium) Rick then introduced the VIATOP plus range of Functional Asphalt Additives (FAA). This covered VAITOP CT pellets for the production of warm mix asphalts (WMA) resulting in lower carbon emissions, improved health and safety and optimised contracting operations. This was followed by VIATOP AD10 adhesion promoting pellets, finally focussing the main part of the presentation on VIATOP RC pellets for the rejuvenation of aged bitumen from reclaimed asphalt road planings.
This final section aroused much debate in a Q&A session over what can be considered a rejuvenating additive? Rick demonstrated the superior properties of VIATOP RC to its competitor technologies in achieving bitumen rejuvenation via the use of validated independent laboratory rheological data obtained from actual case studies undertaken in Germany since 2017. The trials demonstrated up 60% reclaimed asphalt arising from aged roads can be reused in new asphalts safely, credibly and sustainably. This data was well received by the peer group present and will become the focus of editorial work to be published in the following month’s trade journals.