Skip to main content

Innovation is behind all business partnerships

While reclaimed asphalt pavement is not a new idea, there are new and innovative technologies coming all the time to improve its application and durability. This RAP is “black gold”, as Thierry De Sars, technical director at Groupe Fayat, told delegates at the Pavement Preservation and Recycling Summit conference in Paris this week. But it all comes down to cost savings and efficiencies that importantly include increasingly precise dozing to get the exact amount of bitumen laid down on a pass. De Sars cauti
February 24, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
RSSWhile reclaimed asphalt pavement is not a new idea, there are new and innovative technologies coming all the time to improve its application and durability.

This RAP is “black gold”, as Thierry De Sars, technical director at Groupe 217 Fayat, told delegates at the Pavement Preservation and Recycling Summit conference in Paris this week.

But it all comes down to cost savings and efficiencies that importantly include increasingly precise dozing to get the exact amount of bitumen laid down on a pass.

De Sars cautioned delegates that imported bitumen from RAP may have deteriorated to a sufficient degree that the road project is compromised. For one thing, the imported bitumen may have reduced mixability at the plant.

The Retroflux technology from Fayat, the French civil engineering, general and steel construction and energy services provider, has along thermal heating exchanger to protect the bitumen from overheating. Also, from a health and safety standpoint, the Bitumen vapours are consumed in flames.

Yet innovation is not just about technology, said Andreas Marquardt, head of exports at 2395 Wirtgen. It can also develop through, and be imbedded by, the way companies behave in a true partnership, he told PPRS delegates during his presentation.

Never underestimate the need to sell your technology and projects to potential customers. However, as a machine supplier, you must always listen to the client about how the machinery is operating. No matter how tried and tested the equipment, there is always something learn about its performance. Building this data bank from global projects is essential for knowing where to start improving equipment.

But for innovation to come about, all partners need to listen and learn, he explained. Importantly, never forget that brand reputation almost always comes from not from the machinery being used on a project but how the companies work together to make progress and solve problems.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • ERIC 2016: What shape the ‘Smart Road’?
    February 7, 2017
    Optimism about the future of highways worldwide abounded at the inaugural European Road Infrastructure Conference (ERIC) in Leeds, UK. Around 500 delegates passed through the varied sessions during the three-day event at the Royal Armouries Museum in the northern English city of Leeds. They came away with many visions of what a motorway and road could look like. But what speakers at the event - co-organised by the Brussels-based European Union Road Federation (ERF) and the UK’s Road Safety Markings Associat
  • Democratisation of technology: an interview with Ivan Di Federico
    June 20, 2025
    A very different global future is emerging where a successful business must have a large amount of the right data and access to the best technology. But for long-term success a business must create value for its customers, says Ivan Di Federico, formerly chief strategy officer and now president and chief executive officer of Topcon Positioning Systems. He talks to Anthony Oliver, host of the Infrastructure podcast.
  • Sustainability-focused Marini
    July 10, 2023
    Marini, a Fayat Group company, has been busy explaining the significant sustainability gains of its asphalt plant solutions to customers and potential customers.
  • World Road Association Secretary General: ‘Act now on global road infrastructure’
    May 29, 2014
    The Secretary General of the World Road Association-PIARC has stressed the need for urgent unified action to maintain international road infrastructure. Jean-François Corté, whose association unites the road administrations of 120 governments and has members, individuals, companies, authorities and organisations in over 140 countries, spoke ahead of the keenly awaited PPRS Paris 2015 Congress 22-25 February 2015, which he is chairing. Emphasising the importance of quality road infrastructure and the need