The industry is sometimes in need of low viscosity bitumen. There manufacturers came to a solution to deliver cutback bitumen which is a low viscosity liquid dissolved in a solvent. The main advantage of this type of bitumen is that there is no need to heat it before using.

Cutback bitumen is made by the addition of controlled amounts of petroleum extracts such as kerosene, naphtha, diesel oil, and furnace oil to perform as a solvent. Although these adhesive materials are added to lessen the need for heating before using, they will evaporate as the bitumen is applied. This process is done for a temporary reduction of the bitumen viscosity.  Cutback bitumen is more appropriate for cold regions than the others. Primer sealing and sprayed sealing are some items for which cutback bitumen is suitable.

A short comparison between Bitumen, Cutback, and Emulsion

Bitumen should have been heated before application, to lower its viscosity rate.

Cutback bitumen offers some advantages over other types of bitumen. After the production of this low viscosity bitumen, the heating operation was put aside. Because the volatile solvents in cutback bitumen met the need for heating by alleviating its viscosity.

The only concern was the harm that cutback bitumen had, to the environment. The volatile solvents were noxious to nature, human and environment.

Then the Emulsifiers and Bitumen Emulsion came to the industry. Not only were they considered as innoxious and safe materials since only water evaporated, but also they were energy efficient.

Cutback Bitumen Slow Curing, Sc is also known as road oil, is a residual substance which is obtained from the fractional distillation of specific crude petroleums. SC grades are 30, 70, 250, 800 and 3000 as follow:

Cutback bitumen medium curing, MC, is a chemical combination of asphalt cement and petroleum solvent. MC bitumen is widely used in tack coats, fog seals, slurry seals, and stabilizers. Mc grades have a high prioritized place in the Kenya market. This bitumen grade is widely applied in many countries, especially East African countries such as Kenya and Tanzania. Infinity Galaxy has successfully exported MC30 and other MC grades monthly to eminent customers of these countries. Important to say that, exporting MC30 to Mombasa port of Kenya necessitates having PVOC (Pre-Export Verification of Conformity) and GIS (Government and Institution Services) documents, and the drums specific marking approved by Mombasa customs. On the contrary, for the export to other East African countries, PVOC and GIS are not required. Only the SGS inspection report is sufficient for the goods entrance. Infinity Galaxy supplies Bitumen MC Grades in drums with 10 mm thickness to prevent any leakage. MC grades are as follow:

Cutback bitumen Rapid Curing, RC, is a petrochemical mixture of solvent as naphtha or gasoline and bitumen. RC grades are as come below: