Wirtgen South Africa has introduced Ciber’s iNOVA range of continuous mobile asphalt plants. The range sets new standards with its ‘super mobility’ and a series of innovative technologies. Leading asphalt producer, Actop Asphalt, has taken delivery of the first unit in South Africa, a 200 t/h INOVA 2000.
Latest on Wirtgen South Africa’s launch deck is the new iNOVA range of continuous mobile asphalt plants from Brazil-based original equipment manufacturer, Ciber, part of global road technologies leader, Wirtgen Group. Waylon Kukard, sales manager at Wirtgen Group South Africa, explains that the new iNOVA range has varying capacities for customers requiring greater or lesser output volume.
With the most compact line of continuous asphalt plants on the market, the iNOVA range offers maximum productivity, regardless of inputs and projects – and at the core of the design focus is higher quality, lower environmental impact and lower overall operational costs. “There are four plants in the range – 100 t/h plant on one chassis, the 150 t/h plant on one chassis, a 150 t/h model on two chassis and the iNOVA 2000, which is a 200 t/h, two-chassis plant,” says Kukard.
Key features
One of the key features of the iNOVA line is the unique technologies that minimise the energy consumption needed to dry and heat aggregates. The Intelligent heat exchange system ensures automatic control of the dryer spin speed, which results in maximum heat exchange between aggregates and fuel gases.
“The new generation burner is an open-air burner, which makes it hugely efficient,” says Heinrich Schulenburg, Managing Director of Wirtgen Group South Africa. The intelligent exhaust system ensures perfect combustion regardless of the production rate, and the burner system ensures optimisation of air flow used for combustion.
There is also control of the exact amount of air required for burning, which results in lower fuel consumption, and the automatic control of the burner according to the need to heat the materials (closed loop system) is seamless. “The iNOVA is definitely more fuel efficient and economical. I would say that there is a fuel saving of around 25%,” says Schulenburg.
Kukard also makes special mention of the EasyControl system, an intuitive software which affords total control of all production processes. “It allows for automated control – without operator interference – of the burner flame and other components,” says Kukard.
The EasyControl system is an innovative improvement on the previous model, and a big step forward. It allows the plant to run a lot more automatically compared with previous plants, which were very manual. For example, previously you had to continuously inspect the plant to ensure that the burners were at the right temperatures, that feeding was happening at the right place and time. With the new range, you literally insert the day’s parameters, and the rest is automatic. The temperatures that are going through the baghouse are controlled automatically by the system.
First recipient
Leading asphalt producer, Actop Asphalt, part of the larger Actophambili Group, has since become the first recipient of the first iNOVA unit in the country. When recently contracted to supply 38 000 tonnes of hot mix asphalt for the Bambi-Lydenburg road in Mpumalanga, Actop Asphalt chose to purchase a new iNOVA 2000 continuous mobile asphalt plant from Wirtgen South Africa.
The new plant, which can produce up to 200 tonnes of asphalt per hour, is a contract-specific investment to service the Bambi-Lydenburg road rehabilitation project over an 18-month period. Actop Asphalt is suppltying asphalt to its sister company, Actophambili Roads, a specialist road surfacing contractor subcontracted by the main contractor on the project, Klus Civils.
The new Ciber plant brings to four the total number of asphalt plants in Actop Asphalt’s stable in just over three years of its inception, which is testimony to the company’s strong growth trajectory in a very short period of time, in the face of a constrained construction market in South Africa. The company’s sturdy growth over the past three years has hinged on its relentless focus on quality asphalt production, according to Managing Director, Francois Kemp.
A key driving factor in the buying decision was the plant’s “ultra-mobility”. “We were looking for an asphalt plant that we could install in a very short space of time,” says Kemp. “The compact nature of the plant translates into lower cost of transport when moving from one site to the other, as well as the lower area and cost of installation,” he adds.
According to Kukard, the Ciber 2000 is about 60% below the average of other asphalt plants of its class size when it comes to cost of transportation. “This is complemented by less time for mobilisation and assembly on site,” says Kukard. “The plant’s mobility is its key strength. It can simply be hauled to site on two trailers, get plugged in, start production and easily decommissioned and commissioned again onto the next site.”
Rudi du Toit, Actop Asphalt Operations Manager, says the iNOVA’s mobility is the single most attractive feature from an operations perspective, and the reason Actop Asphalt chose it. “We are confident that we can mobilise and commission this plant in one week, compared with three weeks on our other plants. Its ultra-mobility and easy adaptation to different sites translates into optimum operations efficiency – especially when you consider the three weeks of extra production when compared to other plants,” concludes Du Toit.
Kukard adds that there are two main factors that determine the size of the plant – the client’s output requirements based on average production per day, as well as location, where the plant will be working.
“Location affects output in the sense that production decreases with the increase in height above sea level. In Johannesburg, for example, there is a reduced output when compared with, say, a plant at a site in a coastal area. The loss in output is roughly 10% for every 1 000 m above sea level,” says Heinrich Schulenburg, Managing Director of Wirtgen Group South Africa.
