What most paving and plant people call asphalt binder in conversation. Oil content is binder percent, the oil tanker delivers binder to the plant, and a mix short on oil looks brown and dry. The word comes from binder being a crude oil product; any actual fuel or motor oil in a truck bed or in the mix is contamination and a spec violation.
Plant's running heavy on oil this morning, the mat's shiny as a bowling ball behind the screed.
When a raker says the mix looks oily, he is reading binder sheen, and he is often right before the lab is.
Also heard as
- liquid
- liquid AC
Related terms
Asphalt binder
The black, sticky petroleum cement that glues the aggregate together in an asphalt mix.
AC
Asphalt cement: the binder itself, and in pavement design talk, shorthand for the asphalt concrete layer.
Fat
Describes mix carrying too much binder: shiny, slick and prone to bleeding or rutting.
Dry
Describes mix short on binder: dull brown, harsh to rake and likely to ravel early.