Patent ID: 6929393

Claim:
An asphalt production plant comprising: (a) an asphalt binder storage tank; (b) a mixer for mixing asphalt binder and aggregate materials; (c) an asphalt binder pumping system for conveying asphalt binder to the mixer; (d) an asphalt binder metering system for controlling the rate of flow of asphalt binder to the mixer; (e) a cold feed proportioning system comprising: (1) a plurality of cold feed bins for holding aggregate materials, with each such bin having a discharge opening through which aggregate materials may be discharged; (2) a cold feed conveyor system that extends from beneath the discharge openings for the plurality of bins for conveying aggregate materials to the mixer; (3) means for adjusting the relative proportions of aggregate materials from each of the cold feed bins that are conveyed to the mixer; (f) an aggregate sample dryer for removing volatile components from a sample of aggregate materials; (g) an aggregate sampler for obtaining a sample of aggregate material from the cold feed conveyor system and depositing such material in the aggregate sample dryer.