Highway-Class Heft in a Commercial Asphalt Paver

Screed manufacturer, Carlson, will enter the commercial-asphalt-paver business before the end of 2008 with the CP-90, expected to be about an 18,800-pound machine that borrows highway-class material-handling and undercarriage components from Roadtec's big pavers. Carlson's sister company in

"We want to offer a commercial machine that's completely rebuildable," says Tom Trivers, Carlson's marketing manager. "So we adapted the conveyor chains, slats and augers out of a 10-foot Roadtec paver for this application."

Conveyor floor plates made of 3/8-inch Hardox steel and a 12-inch-diameter auger with replaceable segments make the material-handling system easier to renew.

A new, electrically heated screed was developed for exclusive use on the company's first paver. The tractor will carry a 16-kilowatt generator set for power. The new EZ Mat Screed's standard paving width is 8 feet, but the unit can pave widths from 4 to 15 feet.

A Cat C3 diesel delivers 84 horsepower at 2,500 rpm to a two-speed hydrostatic drive and Carlson-designed rubber tracks.

Carlson is the industry's only aftermarket screed manufacturer. Its sales have been dominated by screeds, although the company does also sell a trench roller and windrow pickup machine. Trivers says about 78 percent of the 8-foot asphalt pavers sold today have Carlson screeds on them, and 40 to 50 percent of the 10-foot pavers use Carlson screeds. The company's managers at Astec must be confident that demand for heavy-duty commercial pavers is growing at such a rate that Carlson's traditional customers at this end of the asphalt-paver market — makers of commercial-class pavers — won't mind competing with a Carlson-branded paver.

A major expansion of Carlson's Tacoma, Wash., production plant is underway to make room for the assembly line that will produce as many as 200 of the model CP-90 pavers late this year.

Suggested retail price for the CP-90 is expected to be in the $150,000 range.

"We want to give the commercial-class customer a machine that's built to highway-class standards," says Trivers.