Notch Wedge Pneumatic solid wheel design

Introducing Willow Designs Notch Wedge Pneumatic solid wheel design. When one of our Connecticut clients approached us last year to come up with a solution for secondary compaction of the "wedge" part of the notch wedge joint our initial reaction was hesitant and with skepticism because as seasoned asphalt guys with over 20 years experience in laydown we have never tried this technique because we had always been successful not compacting the wedge until the adjacent pass was placed. Well, my opinion is now way different than it was a year ago and I believe this is the piece of the puzzle to make contractors highly successful at getting density in the joint.

Wheels by Superior Tire

Here's why:

• Pneumatic tire rollers kneed the material and compact from the bottom-up, and since the " wedge" portion of the notch wedge joint is essentially a thin lift with aggregate sizes exceeding appropriate nominal size, the risk of fracturing aggregate and over compaction is non existent.
• The biggest concern was how to get the Notch Wedge Pneumatic Roller to track behind the paver properly. Our patent pending steering design let's this become reality but, also yielded one crucial thing we did not expect. The steering system allows the ability to adjust lateral tracking behind the paver, so as the prototype worked last year, we discovered with precision adjustment of the steering system we could compact the "vertical notch" of the notch wedge joint with the side wall of the pneumatic tire which gave the open joint great stability while compaction was taking place.
• The Willow Designs Notch Wedge Pneumatic Roller is designed to work with our Notch Wedge Systems only. A simple update allows your current systems to work with the Notch Wedge Pneumatic Roller.
• A pressurized tank is fitted to the top of the Notch Wedge Pneumatic Roller for release agent. When paving starts, the screed operator sprays the release agent on the pneumatic tire till it comes up to temperature. From this point, applying release agent is only periodic throughout the shift.
• Designed to be pulled from either side of the paver, with a fully adjustable pull point to accommodate front or rear extend screeds
• Willow Designs Notch Wedge Pneumatic Roller weighs in @450 lbs and is very manageable for 1 person to hook up.

RESULTS: -When good paving practices are followed, we have been achieving joint density numbers equal to mainline mat densities on cold joint construction. These results are consistently being yielded by every contractor using these systems to date.