Road Roller
A road roller or roller compactor is a engineering vehicle which is used for compaction of soil, gravel, concrete, or asphalt in the construction of roads and foundations etc.
Road roller are generally used for crushing, kned or to vibrate loose materials by applying direct pressure.
Types of Road Roller
Based on the functionality there are different types of road roller used for compaction and one can choose the type of roller based on their requirement. Below we have discussed some of road roller and their functions.
Vibratory Roller
Vibratory roller is a type of road roller which are heavy duty compactor and usually used for compaction of loose soil or asphalt in road construction and can be used for ground stabilization at construction sites.
Vibratory roller are fitted with one or two smooth steel cylindrical drum wheels of 0.9m to 1.5m in diameter and width of 1.2 to 1.8 m.
These tandem road roller weight ranges from 3 to 9 tones and comes with advance feature.
Grid Roller
Grid roller are heavy duty roller usually used for compacting coarse grained soils and weathered rocks as it provides high contact pressure and has less kneading action.
These road roller comes with heavy cylindrical steel surface with a grid network of steel bars which from square shape holes.
Grid roller are not suitable for silty soils, clay soils or uniform soils. These road roller weight ranges from 5 to 15 tones.
Smooth Wheeled Roller
Based on number of wheels smooth wheeled roller can be divided into two types as follows:
Tandem Roller
Tandem roller consist of one large heavy steel drum(Steel Wheels) at front and another at rear end. These road roller weight ranges from 6 to 8 tones.
Three Wheel Roller
Three wheel roller consist of one steel drum(Steel Wheels) at front and two at rear end. These road roller weight ranges from 8 to 10 tones.
In order to achieve more compaction the drums are ballasted(filling inside the drum) with water or wet sand resulting in weight increase of roller up to 20 tones. These rollers are most suitable for compaction when the material does not require high pressure.
The performance depends upon its load per cm width and diameter of the roll. The load per cm width is derived from the gross weight of the drum.
Pneumatic Tyred Roller
Pneumatic tyred roller is heavy loaded wagon which consists of four to six rows of closely spaced tyres. This is also known as rubber tyre roller.
These tyred roller are flexible and can perform on both aggregates and asphalt. It provides an uniform pressure throughout the width.
These road roller can adjust the weight of machine and air pressure of the tyres according to requirement of work. Pneumatic tyred rollers are best suited for compacting fine-grained cohesive soils and closely graded sands and also suitable for finishing off embankment which is compacted by sheepsfoot roller.
Pneumatic tyred rollers are useful for compacting soft base course materials ,cold laid bituminous pavements or layers of loose soil.
Pneumatic tyred roller weight ranges from 6 to 10 tones and can be increased up to 25 tones by ballasting.
Sheepsfoot Road Roller
Sheepsfoot roller consist drum with many round or rectangular projections or feet. This type of road roller is also known as tamping rollers or padfoot rollers.These roller comes with different diameter and width of drums and different shape and size of feet.
Sheep foot roller is used for compacting heavy clays and silty clays and usually used in road and rail projects.The most common sheepsfoot roller weight ranges from 15 to 40 tones.
Also Read – Difference Between Backhoe vs Excavator
