We are transforming the way asphalt surfaces are maintained
See for yourself that road repairs can be done quickly, efficiently, cheaply and sustainably. Early and preventive microwave repairs allow avoiding inconvenient traffic closures and save maintenance costs.
Own monitoring
Data analysis
Preventive repairs
Any new asphalt surface develops cracks in a few years due to weather and traffic, often within the warranty period of the road. Cracks soon turn into potholes and these, if not repaired quickly, make the road unsafe to use. This necessitates emergency temporary or even major repairs, which are not only financially but also socially demanding, as they bring inconvenient and lengthy traffic closures.
Regular monitoring of potholes is necessary for the prevention of additional costs. FUTTEC is developing a smart system for collecting and evaluating road condition data using big data and artificial intelligence (AI), alongside the development of microwave devices for non-invasive pothole repair. The monitoring thus enables you to plan for timely microwave repairs. This ecosystem also includes a proprietary asphalt mix for microwave heating, which improves the speed and quality of repair.
It is the monitoring of damage and preventive early repair of surfaces that brings significant savings in asphalt road maintenance. Preventive repairs with microwave technology reduce maintenance costs for road managers by more than half. In addition, they can be carried out in winter and prevent the expansion of damaged areas, thus avoiding costly repairs and significant traffic restrictions.
We develop and use our own machines
Newly developed microwave equipment, especially the FT-3 patcher and the FF-9 furnace, has enabled us to carry out thousands of asphalt surface repairs, e.g. for the Road and Motorway Directorate or the TSK Praha.
Trouble-free emergency repairs of asphalt surfaces
Emergency repairs with heated mixture
Even repairing the road with a warm mixture heated in a microwave furnace and compacted into a pothole will last longer. It is fast and, due to its flexibility, also economically advantageous. However, this is only a temporary solution before the planned overhaul.
Fast repairs with microwave technology
Before a comprehensive repair of exposed roads, it is advisable to use a microwave patcher, which heats up the edges of potholes so that the warm mixture connects with the road surface completely without joints, which will significantly extend the service life of the road.
The most effective approach is regular monitoring of initial potholes and their preventive repairs. Our microwave system can do it quickly and to an impeccable standard which allows us to provide road managers with a three-year warranty on repairs done by our technology.
Why choose a microwave system for road repairs?
Seamless
Only microwave road repair technology ensures seamless bonding of the asphalt mixture. Suitable for a wide range of bagged asphalt mixtures according to specific needs.
Fast
The microwave heating of the pothole takes 30 minutes, the asphalt mixture is heated in the furnace in 10 minutes. There is no need for long and costly road closures.
All year round
Microwave repairs can be carried out all year round without any problems, even in winter down to minus 10 degrees Celsius.
With warranty
Thanks to its seamlessness and waterproofness, the repair is permanent, it brings the road almost to its original condition, and therefore it can be guaranteed for 3 years.
Economical
Timely and preventive pothole repairs cut road maintenance costs in half.
Sustainable
Microwave repairs reduce waste, produce significantly less CO2 and have no negative impact on health or the environment.
Frequently asked questions
Our global presence. The innovative FUTTEC microwave system, which we developed in cooperation with the Institute of Chemical Processes of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Brno University of Technology, is already patented in seventeen countries of the EU and we are currently in the process of finalising our patents in seven other countries around the world, including the USA, Japan and South Korea.
In addition, in April 2023, the Ministry of Transport of the Czech Republic issued new technical conditions that recognize our technology as an official road maintenance procedure.
Today, microwaves have a wider use than just the familiar heating of food. The principle of our patent is microwave radiation with a frequency of 2,450 MHz, which can gently heat a mixture of asphalt and aggregate to a controlled temperature of 120 to 160°C. The asphalt binder at the border of the undamaged roadway and the impact will thus soften, but will not be damaged.
Then a dosed bitumen mixture corresponding to the damaged part of the road, which is also heated using microwaves, is added to the slurry and everything is compacted. The result is a perfect seamless and durable pothole repair that restores the road to its original condition. FUTTEC® has also created its own special packaged asphalt mixture that is best suited for this type of repair.
They work on a fundamentally different principle. Infrared heaters used in infrared repairs can irreversibly damage the asphalt binder around the pothole by heating it to several hundred degrees Celsius. The overheated asphalt binder releases toxic fumes that can endanger the health of workers and negatively affect the environment.
The heated area is then mechanically raked by road workers, filled with often inhomogeneous recycled material, poured with asphalt binder, consolidated and compacted.
At first everything looks good, but after a while the areas with insufficient asphalt binder succumb to erosion and the pothole re-emerges. Unlike the patented FUTTEC® microwave technology, infrared technology – although often used on roads to repair potholes – is not an officially recognised road maintenance procedure approved by the Ministry of Transport.
The repair of the hole with microwave technology is seamless. During compaction, the replenished asphalt mixture naturally blends with the original roadway and thus closes the hole. There will be no leaky joint into which water can flow and further disrupt the road. Repairs with FUTTEC® technology therefore last much longer than repairs with other methods that use surface milling.
Repairing a pothole is quick, takes 30 minutes to 1 hour, and doesn’t require a road closure. This makes the whole process significantly cheaper and significantly increases the safety and flow of traffic: drivers do not have to stand in queues and look for detours.
The released CO2 emissions are much lower than with other commonly used technologies. Moreover, during the repair itself, material is not unnecessarily removed from around the hole, which therefore does not need to be removed and disposed of. It is not necessary to close the road, so there are no queues and kilometers of detours are not driven.
Microwave repair is completely safe if technological procedures are followed for crew members who move in the immediate vicinity of the microwave emitter. Nor does it have any negative effect on the surroundings. Occupational safety and the impact on the surrounding environment have been thoroughly assessed by the relevant state testing authorities and authorities, and their approval is available to all interested parties.
