Novel paver screed design from Sumitomo as company plans global expansion

April 8, 2025 Read time: 2 mins
Sumitomo president & CEO, Isamu Mitsuhashi, says that the firm is looking to develop its asphalt paver sales worldwide

Sumitomo is aiming to boost its share of the global market for asphalt pavers. The company is market leader in Japan and plans to develop sales around the globe, according to president & CEO, Isamu Mitsuhashi and regional manager road machinery, Weichao Shi.  

The company has undergone an organisational change to expand its presence in the global paver business. At the moment the firm is only exporting its HA60 model to Europe but believes this model offers performance benefits over competing machines.

The key to a paver’s performance is its screed and in this respect, the firm says its design offers high versatility. Compared with the conventional 2.55-5m or 3-6m screed, the Sumitomo design offers paving widths of 2.3-6m or 2.8-7.5m, without the need for bolt-on extensions. This can save time, labour, and the need for equipment such as forklifts or cranes to manually bolt-on the extensions onsite.

Screed performance is also said to be good by the firm as the strike-off, tamper and vibration (STV) compaction system on the Sumitomo unit is highly effective. The strike-off unit guides the material smoothly to the tamper and vibration plate, providing pre-compaction. It also gives the tamper a longer wear life.

The transport width of the 2.3-6m screed equipped HA60 is 2.49m. A user can close the screed, load on the trailer and go, without having to remove the side-plate on a 2.55m minimum screed and without extra application for the transport width clearance in most countries.  

The Sumitomo machines are also versatile enough to able to work with a range of asphalt types, with warm mix now being used in the market. Mitsuhashi said that in the late 1990s, several private companies in the road pavement sector developed medium-temperature technologies that use additives to reduce the production temperature while maintaining the quality of the asphalt mixture.  

The Japan Road Construction Association (JRA) compiled these technologies and published the "Guide to Medium-Temperature (Low Carbon) Asphalt Pavement" in March 2012. In Japan warm mix asphalts are used typically for duties such as repair work requiring early traffic reopening, or for paving work in mountainous areas involving long-distance transportation, thin-layer paving or winter paving.

Stand C4.513 

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • New asphalt paving developments are coming to market
    January 7, 2015
    Atlas Copco introduces new low emission diesels in its latest large paver models - Mike Woof writes The large pavers from Atlas Copco’s Dynapac range are now compliant with the Tier 4 Final/Stage IV emissions regulations due to the installation of new engines. Running costs are also said to have been reduced due to lower fuel consumption and the firm claims each of the latest models can offer a fuel saving of 4200 litres/year, as well as a reduction in CO2 emissions of 11tonnes/year.
    Read More
  • Developments in noise-reducing road surfaces
    February 17, 2012
    Mixtures with special additives are being produced for roads, offering noise reduction and aiding recycling. Patrick Smith reports. Noise-reducing road surfacings have been used in motorway construction for some time. But relatively new are noise-optimised surfacings used on roads in towns that do not follow a standard concept.Road trials with these materials have taken place in Germany since 2007 and have been prioritised due to the European Union Guidelines on the Assessment and Management of Environmenta
    Read More
  • Advanced technologies will increase the wear life of bitumen further
    February 28, 2012
    Bitumen has been used for thousands of years, but now a wide variety of products are available that can be added to it to produce blends with improved properties. According to the Refined Bitumen Association (RBA) bitumen is the oldest known engineering material. Indeed, the organisation says that its versatility as a construction material is unparalleled, and having been used as an adhesive, sealant and waterproofing agent for over 8,000 years, its uses include the construction and maintenance of roads, ai
    Read More
  • Defining the standards for asphalt road surfaces
    February 20, 2012
    Materials used to construct roads must meet defined standards to offer a variety of solutions including durability, smoothness and long life. The need for the regular testing of materials used in highway construction is now a must on all projects. It is essential to make sure that the materials used in producing roads meet defined standards and offer durability, smoothness and long life.
    Read More

Highlighted Content