Patent ID: 9416503
Filing Date: 2016-08-16
CPC Classification: E01C

Claim Text:
1. Apparatus for drying a road surface which has a liquid thereon, the apparatus comprising: an air knife, a compressor, a radiant energy heater, a control system, a temperature sensor, and a power generator; wherein the air knife is for providing a stream of unheated gas sufficiently forceful to push the liquid from the road surface; the compressor is for supplying the unheated gas to the air knife; the radiant energy heater is for transferring a sufficient amount of heat energy into the road surface to cause a sufficient temperature increase of the road surface to result in the evaporation of any residual liquid remaining on the road surface after the unheated gas is applied to the liquid on the road surface, wherein the radiant energy heater does not come into direct contact with the road surface and only minimal radiant heat energy is transferred to subsurface regions of the road; the power generator is for providing power to the radiant energy heater so that the radiant energy heater can produce heat energy; the temperature sensor is suitably configured to determine a surface temperature of the road surface, and the control system is suitably configured to automatically adjust the amount of heat energy transferred by the radiant energy heater into the road surface based on the surface temperature of the road surface as determined by the temperature sensor, whereby a predetermined desired temperature of the road surface is achieved.