Airport runway rubber removal, also called airfield runway rubber removal. It uses high pressure water jetting to remove the runway rubber from tires that builds up on airport runways to increase the friction of the surface of the concrete or asphalt.
Every time when airplane lands. The rubber deposits from the airline tires collected time by time and a pound to a pound. When the airport runway rubber accumulates to some extend . It will not just make black marks on the surface. It will begin to reduce the friction needed for safe aircraft landing.
Different chemical medias are used depending on the surface of the runway. maybe it is made by cement or asphalt. There are many aspects should be taken during and after application due to the aggressive nature of the chemical cleaning.
If the chemical solvent is allowed to remain on the surface of the runway too long. The cement or road marking could be damaged easy.
Now ,the new technology and very environmental cleaning way , high pressure water blasting airport runway rubber .
Airport runway rubber removal vehicle and equipment
When an aircraft touches down, the landing wheels and tries start rotating. The friction peel some rubber off the tires and this process continues until the wheel rotation speed matches with the aircraft flying speed. Therefore, the touchdown zone is prone to rubber deposit accumulation.
Hydro jetting machine also can be used for pavement marking cleaning. rust removal and surface preparation before new markings are applied. It also can be used for cleaning oil, blasting residue and grease from taxiways sewer.
There is no good method can offer the same level of versatility with high performance on a single truck.
Airport runway rubber removal vehicle is quicker, cleaner, and more easily adapted to the pavement and runway maintenance. It can meet requirement of today’s major airports.
There are some adverse effects of these airport runway rubber deposits without removing
- Obliterate the runway markings that will confuse the pilots
- Make the airport runway slippery without friction which may contribute to a runway excursion
- When the aircraft start run, it will cause the long running then can fly, it will dangerous
Water jetting has many functions, not only used for remove the rust, paint, road marking. It also can be used for airport runway rubber removal. This is a new method with hydro jetting to remove rubber deposits. The airport runway rubber removal machine ranges from manually operated control cleaning panel equipped with more than 24 -52 pieces of nozzles with a rotative cleaning head to jet the rubber on the surface of asphalt or concrete.
There are many methods for removing rubber deposits for the airport runway,most airport use airport runway rubber removal vehicle
Chemical solvents as the traditional methods for airport runway rubber removal consists of spraying the solvent solution on the contaminated area. Waiting for a period of time and then washing and sweeping.
There are two working methods , one is called semi-automatic. put on the whole of the water jetting machine on the truck. Whole of the airfield runway rubber removal vehicle including the water tank. water jetting machine. and collecting system .Extra important parts is a small driving car equipped with the cleaning panel , then the truck and cleaning car driving together in the same speed . This type of airport runway rubber removal is more cheap .
Another popular type of airport rubber removal vehicle is whole of the machine and cleaning panel equipped on one truck. it can be called completely automatic and driven by on operator . But the price of the whole of the machine is expensive with high maintenance .
There is another cleaning way ,it is called hot compressed air. This cleaning method uses high temperature to burn away the rubber deposits. Air and gas mixture is fed into a combustion chamber. The resulting exhaust is emitted at about 500 m/s from orifices at a temperature of approximately 1000°C directly onto the surface. This gas soften and tackle the rubber and more them away easy.
After we introducing above three methods. You will find there are lots advantages of use water blasting machine to remove rubber from the airfield runway.
Lots of person think why choose water jetting machine to remove the airport runway rubber ?
The most popular reason is its ability to remove airport markings and runway rubber from asphalt. And concrete without causing any significant damage to the surface.
Airport runway rubber removal equipment from operate to cleaning. There is no chemicals or contaminants which minimizing the impact to the environment.
Airfield rubber deposits, paint, and thermoplastic cannot withstand the effective force of the high pressure water jets. Watex can removal rates of 4,800 m2/H) and more for rubber removal from asphalt and concrete runways. This equipment also routinely remove up to 4,810 linear meters per hour of painted lines on asphalt. And concrete surfaces as well.
The vacuum recovery system of liquid and solid debris occurs immediately; simultaneous with the hydro blasting machine.
Airfield runway rubber removal with water jetting machine
Airport runway rubber removal vehicle gets rid of residual rubber. And re-texturizes the surface of the runway. leaving the surface as new with enough friction.
From the above ,we told that there are three ways. but we had to take care of the extra features of those cleaning methods .
Extra cleaning method is to grind the rubber from the surface. This is the old one ,now not accepted by the airport . After many time testing , water blasting is the best and cost effective. Has no harmful effect on the structural integrity of the surface. Such cleaning process is also environmentally friendly and fast, guaranteeing efficient work time and minimize interruption to airfield traffic.
In the summer temperatures on the concrete surface of the airport runway. There will casue more the rubber abrasion ,normal machine cannot move them. In order to clean them completely , high performance water jetting devices are necessary. Watex designed a high-pressure cleaning vehicle for professional airport runway and surface processing. Equipped with high pressure pump system and supplied to international customers. With a high pressure of 2,000 bar, the rubber abrasion is removed and the residue is vacuumed off.
It is import to deal with the airport runway rubber urgently for the safe reason
When the aircraft touch down to the surface of the landing , there is often a cloud of smoking. The tires are accelerated in a quick speed from zero to the flying speed. Until reaching the landing speed, the tire will decrease the speed when it close to the concrete and a part of the rubber evaporates and a part remains as a skid mark on the runway. Runways must be separated from rubber but that dependent on the frequency of landings.
As one of the airport runway rubber removal industry maintenance specialists we have developed our very own machines and vehicles specifically designed to removing rubber deposits.
Each machine or vehicle feature oscillating cleaning heads with multiple nozzles to gently remove rubber deposits from runway touchdown zones. Thorough many times and years testing of our machines has proven that they has enough ability to provide more complete and controlled removal of rubber than lower pressured machines. But we also should control the cleaning speed and time for one area in case too much time cleaning will damage the surface of asphalt or concrete surface .
