Film director Karsten Hinrichs was in northern Sweden where he and producer Dennis Beyer have been making the Ammann documentary, BlackMove II: A Midsummer Adventure, close to the harbour town of Umeå. Ammann says the film on the product represented a special kind of industrial documentary for the production team, with fotopizza aiming to "tell exciting stories through impressive pictures." A Midsummer Adventure is a sequel to the PR film, Mission One, that reported on the strat of production of the BlackMove II.
Sweden reaches as far as the Arctic Circle, and here the winter months are very long, so it is necessary to take full advantage of the warmer months, for instance to maintain the road network.
Two important European roads, the E4 and E45 cross the country, and these are more than just important supply routes as they also open up Sweden's far northern territories to tourism.
The BlackMove II is a powerful roadmobile asphalt mixing plant with an output of 320tonnes/hour, and this says Ammann makes it particularly suitable for large-scale construction sites. The complete mixing plant is erected on six semi-trailers, and it can be easily relocated using standard towing vehicles, and can be quickly set up using small-sized lifting gear.
"The functionality of the mixing plant's individual elements is checked at the factory.
"Assembling and decommissioning the plant on site is essentially limited to connecting the standardised interfaces," says the company.
With a continuous output of 160-320tonnes/hour at 3% humidity, the hot aggregate silos are either 19tonnes or 25tonnes with five chambers, and an optional mixed material storage silo trailer is available, while there are also the options of a cold RA (reclaimed asphalt) feed and a feed for fibres and other additives. The BlackMove II's journey started on 9 June 2011, when it was loaded onto a ferry at Travemünde in Germany for the trip to Sweden. On 13 June, the BlackMove components were ready to be transported from the port of Umeå to the installation site where cranes were at the ready. "The unsurfaced, bumpy forest tracks leading to the quarry were no problem for the trucks," says Ammann.
Meanwhile, site manager Tobias Räger determined the positions for the two cranes, and the assembly team were hard at work.
By 14 June the first section was in place and the lower section of the plant set up, and the elevator and screen are in place. Next day the entire mixing tower was fully assembled with the assistance of Ammann's assembly engineer from Sweden, Peter Uls, and on 19 June the reclaimed asphalt feeder was connected to the assembly. The assembly was completed on 24 June, and by the start of July had been used to mix various asphalt recipes.
Asked about the main challenges posed by a project such as the BlackMove II, Stefan Welther, project manager, who has been with Ammann for 16 years, said: "The entire process must be precisely planned due to the high degree of mobility. Every aspect has to link in and line up perfectly with the others. Good teamwork plays a decisive role when we are transporting and assembling new products." Tobias Räger said; "The plant is running smoothly and the customer is busy producing asphalt."
