Prime Coat

Prime coat is define as application of low viscosity liquid bituminous material over an existing porous or
adsorbent pavement material like wet mix macadam base course.
Prime coat materials mainly consist of cutback asphalt, emulsified asphalt or polymer based chemicals.
• Cutback asphalt is manufactured by blending asphalt cement with petroleum solvent
• emulsified asphalt consists of a suspension of asphalt cement in water
• in Texas the most commonly used prime coat materials are MC-30, AEP, EC-30, CSS-1H and SS-1H
Prime coat serves the purpose of providing chip resistance, mechanical strength and substrate hiding.
Titanium dioxide and carbon black are common pigments along with extenders and additives to achieve
required performance.

Industrial scale manufacturing

Industrial scale manufacturing of Bitumen emulsion (example of prime coat) is same to pilot scale
manufacturing only difference is that the water heating and all material dosage are done continuously
using individual dosage pumps for each material. No batch tanks are used. Instead, the water phase system
must further be designed to provide sufficient reaction time for the chemicals so that adequate
neutralization and solution take place before the water phase meets the bitumen. The process needs to be
automatically controlled using flow meters for all material dosage except acid, which should be controlled
by the pH in the water phase. Industrial scale manufacturing of Bitumen emulsion (example of prime coat)
is same to pilot scale manufacturing only difference is that the water heating and all material dosage are
done continuously using individual dosage pumps for each material. No batch tanks are used. Instead, the
water phase system must further be designed to provide sufficient reaction time for the chemicals so that
adequate neutralization and solution take place before the water phase meets the bitumen. The process
needs to be automatically controlled using flow meters for all material dosage except acid, which should
be controlled by the pH in the water phase

Uses
 Prime coats protect the integrity of the granular base during construction and help reduce dust.
 Prime coat can also be used in waterproofing the base during construction. This allows
increased traffic flow and minimal delays to taxpayers.

 It is used to protect the underlying layers from wet weather by providing a temporary
waterproofing layer.

 It is used for stabilizing or bonding the surface fines together and promoting bond to the layer.

 It is used to hard or toughen the surface of road.