A road roller is a compactor type engineering

vehicle, which is used to compact soil, gravel, concrete, or asphalt in the construction of

roads and foundations. Also, road rollers are used in landfills and agriculture. The rolling

process ensures that foundations are compacted thoroughly so the materials are compact, and

do not come loose. Rollers are equipped with basic features such as diesel engine, canopy to

protect the driver, drum(s), which can be a vibratory smooth drum or a static smooth drum,

tires, a compaction meter to measure the level of compaction and a water system.

An analysis of the Use of road rollers

Road rollers are iconic in the construction industry. In history, they started  as

simple stone cylinders being pulled by people to flatten the earth a bit, soon they made

animals pull large stone cylinders or wooden planks as a means to flatten the earth. And then

when the age of metal came, the rollers finally came into play. This piece of heavy equipment

is one of the most common machines to find in construction sites, mainly because they are

mostly used at the beginning stages when the foundation of the building is being built.

A road roller is a compaction vehicle used to compact soil, gravel, asphalt, crushed

stone sub-base layer or some other site surface material. Rollers are most often used for

road construction or for creating compact foundations for large areas although they can also

be used in areas as diverse as on landfill sites or agricultural projects.The primary use for

rollers is to crushing equipment,

knead or vibrate loose materials by applying direct pressure. The rolling process is used to

compact loosely bound foundation materials, so they remain compacted and do not come loose.

Road rollers use the weight of the vehicle to compress the surface being rolled  or

use mechanical advantage (vibrating). Initial compaction of the substrate on a road project

is done using a padfoot drum roller, which achieves higher compaction density due to the pads

having less surface area. Rollers are also used in landfill compaction. Such compactors

typically have padfoot or “sheep’s foot” drums, and do not achieve a smooth surface. The

pads aid in compression, due to the smaller area contacting the ground.

Roller types

Road rollers are essential for those thinking about maximizing their output. There is a

tremendous amount of stress that is put on the system and it’s important to start with a

reliable solution. With the help of a high-grade road roller, it becomes easier than ever

before to make sure proper results are found. This is why people love the idea of a great

road roller. Discussed below are the various types of road rollers.

Single drum roller

A single drum roller is a heavy duty piece of machinery. The front has a giant drum while

the back has special tires. These tires are sturdier and able to prevent most flats. You need

these heavy-duty tires when you work on construction sites and roads.On the single drum

roller, the driver sits in the middle section. This part is called the cab. It sits high,

giving the driver a great view of the nearby area. The worker can see the places where they

will use the roller.

Double drum roller

The main difference with the double drum roller is that it lacks tires. That’s good or

bad, depending on your job.A double drum roller can smooth objects in front of and behind the

driver at the same time. The trade-off is that the drums move the roller while flattening

items in the surrounding area.For this reason, double drum rollers don’t have the traction

of single drum units. You won’t use these vehicles for specialized work. They operate best

on flat services or ones with gradual grading.

Cylinder Roller

These are the most common rollers used today. They have the traditional cylinder drum and

are the most basic type of road roller. Most of these are just single drum rollers, though

there are often designs that make use of two drums.

They are also known as smooth wheel loader

rollers. These type of road rollers are mostly used for consolidating stone or other

similar materials into flat land. They are believed to work best when you also use surface

dressings to create an even smoother, flatter surface.

Vibratory Roller

Visually, a vibratory roller isn’t much different from the cylinder roller. What

differentiates it is an internal eccentric shaft that causes the wheel drums to vibrate. Its

vibratory function enhances its functionalities by a lot. This makes them more commonly used

in applications with granular base layers. Sometimes, they’re also used in laying asphalt in

highway construction.

The vibratory features help reduce the space between particles in the materials being

compacted, creating denser layers to add greater depth to the foundation. The vibrations also

cause the particles to lie closer together as they’re pushed into place by the oscillations

from it.

Rubber-Tyred Roller

These types of rollers move away from the typical wheel drums and instead have several

rows of closely spaced pneumatic tires both in front and at the back of the machine. These

tires are also staggered to exert compacting pressure across the full width of the machine

These kinds of rollers are best used on soft materials and loosely compacted soils. That

being said, they are also found in highway construction, particularly for when they start

smoothing bitumen on some roadworks.

Tamping Roller

These types of road rollers are unique when it comes to their wheel drums. These are

studded with lugs that are usually rectangular in shape and arranged in a rather hexagonal

pattern. Some designed have different shaped lugs, though, in actuality, their shape isn’t

that important.

These tamping rollers are also called sheep foot rollers and are normally used in

projects that have to work with heavy soils such as clay. This is because the overall surface

area of the drum that’s in contact with the soil at any one point in time is projected to be

around 8 to 12%.

Parts and attachments of a road roller

The rollers parts and attachments vary from design to design with added modifications,

however the most constant ones are-

On some machines, the drums may be filled with water on site to achieve the desired

weight. When empty, the lighter machine is easier and cheaper to transport between work

sites. On pneumatic tyre rollers the body may be ballasted with water or sand, or for extra

compaction wet sand is used. Modern tyre rollers may be filled with steel ballast, which

gives a more even balance for better compaction.

Additional compaction may be achieved by vibrating the roller drums, allowing a small,

light machine to perform as well as a much heavier one. Vibration is typically produced by a

free-spinning hydrostatic roller

motor grader inside the drum to

whose shaft an eccentric weight has been attached. Some rollers have a second weight that can

be rotated relative to the main weight, to adjust the vibration amplitude and thus the

compacting force.

Water lubrication may be provided to the drum surface from on-board “sprinkler tanks”

to prevent hot asphalt sticking to the drum.

Hydraulic transmissions permit greater design flexibility. While early examples used

direct mechanical drives, hydraulics reduce the number of moving parts exposed to

contamination and allows the drum to be driven, providing extra traction on inclines.

Human-propelled rollers may only have a single roller drum.

Self-propelled rollers may have two drums, mounted one in front of the other (format

known as “duplex”), or three rolls, or just one, with the back rollers replaced with

threaded pneumatic tyres for increased traction.

Conclusion

There are multiple requirements associated with a road roller and the operator needs to

get through the project easily. With this in mind, the road roller is great as it can handle

everything the project demands. There is a sense of power that comes along with a great road

roller and it’s important to invest in one as soon as possible. The right road roller can

deliver on all expectations and continues to maximize the work that’s being done. There is

nothing better than taking a high-grade road roller and making sure the power is consist.