BHP’s Advanced Quality Testing Laboratory (part2)

BHP is proud to inform its customers that its newly established laboratory is equipped with the fully powerful and modern bitumen testing systems (PG-Performance Grade) and all main and functional components of the laboratory are fabricated by Internationally well recognized companies in Germany & Italy.

Rolling Thin Film Ovens (RTFOT)
These ovens are used for measuring the effect of heat and air on a moving film of semi-solid bituminous materials.
Bitumen is aged based on two essential factors which are oil losses, material lights and air oxygen combination and oxidation. The RTFO Simulates Aging of bitumen in the process of mixing operations in asphalt plant and also can be used as part of your Super pave performance based testing program.The equipment is made by one of the well-organized compies (MATEST) in Italy. The test is set based on ASTM D2872 standard.

Rotational Viscometer (RV)
This device determines the bitumen’s viscosity at high temperature levels. This device is well designed to test the ability to pump bitumen in refineries, loading stations and asphalt plants. The device is also used to measure the viscosity of different types of bitumen.
The equipment is manufactured by one of the well-organized companies (BROOKFIELD) in USA and the test is set based on ASTM D4402/D4402M standard.

Vacuum Degassing Oven (VDO)
The Vacuum Degassing Oven (VDO) is designed to remove air bubbles created during accelerated oxidative ageing of asphalt binder by the PAV. This final conditioning makes the aged binder suitable for further tests such as BBR, DSR, penetration, ductility, softening point. The VDR (Model: B091M-01) is one of the most required and essential devices which checks the bubble or existence of any oxygen in the sample.
The microbubble highly impacts on the other tests such as PG and especially on BBR beam flexural strength test.