RUSCOE 983
JOINT SEALANT
206 S. 17th Avenue
Maildrop 075 R
Phoenix, Arizona 85007
The contents of this report reflect the views of the authors
who are responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the data
presented herein. The contents do not necessarily reflect the
official views or policies of the Arizona Department of Trans-portation
or the Federal Highways Administration. This report
does not constitute a standard, specification, or regulation.
Trade or manufacturer's names which may appear herein are
cited only because they are considered essential to the object-tives
of the report. The U. S. Government and the State of
Arizona do not endorse products or manufacturers.
PRODUCT EVALUATION
84-10
RUSCOE 983 JOINT SEALANT
JULY 10, 1986
PREPARED BY:
STEVEN L. TRITSCH
TIMOTHY M. WOLFE
84-10
F. TITLE AND SUBTITLE I 5. REPORT DATE
' TECHNICAL REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE
PRODUCT EVALUATION
RUSCOE 983 JOINT SEALANT
. REPORT NO. 2. GOVERNMENT ACCESSION NO.
July 10, 1986
6. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION CODE
3. RECIPIENT'S CATALOG NO.
' STEVEN L. TRITSCII
TII4OTHY M. WOLFE
1. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME AND ADDRESS
0. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT N(
10. WORK UNIT NO.
ARIZONA TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH CENTER
206 South 17th Avenue
Phoenix, Arizona 85007
2. SPONSORING AGENCY NAME AND ADDRESS
NONE
II. CONTRACT OR GRANT NO.
I3.TYPE OF REWRT B PERIOD CWEREI:
Final Report
(SAME AS ABOVE)
6. ABSTRACT
February, 1984 - July, 1986
14. SPONSORING AGENCY CODE
This report contains a product evaluation of Ruscoe's 983 j o i n t s e a l a n t .
Ruscoe 983 is an asphalt base single compound j o i n t sealant. It contains an
aluminum f o r t i f i e d adhesive and is designed for use on highway expansion j o i n t s ,
- b r i d g e j o i n t s , and random cracks i n both f l e x i b l e pavement and portland cement
concrete.
Two d i f f e r e n t test sections of Ruscoe 98.3 were placed i n Phoenix. One
section was placed to evaluate the s e a l a n t c a p a b i l i t y i n concrete j o i n t s . The
other t e s t section was asphalt cracks and asphalt to concrete j o i n t s . Both
s e c t i o n s were placed using tubes of sealant and a caulking gun.
The Ruscoe 983 j o i n t sealant did not perform s a t i s f a c t o r i l y i n any of the
apvlications. The s e a l a n t d i d n ' t adhere w e l l to e i t h e r concrete or asphalt.
Portions of the j o i n t sealant were comnletely torn out.
Based on f i e l d performance the Arizona Transportation Research Center
recommends not using Ruscoe 983 j o i n t sealant i n Arizona pavement.
7. KEY WORDS 1 18. DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT
I
3. SECURITY C U S S I F (of this report I 20. SECURITY CLASSIF. ( d this page ) 22. PRICE
NONE NONE
21. NO. OF W
10
PAGE
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
CONSTRUCTION REPORT . . . . . . . . . . 1
EVALUATION . . . . . . . . . . 4
RECOMMENDATIONS . . . . . . . . . . 5
APPENDIX
MAP . . . . . . . . . . . . A1
MATERIAL INFORMATION . B1
I. INTRODUCTION
Joint breakouts are becoming an ever increasing problem
along Arizona's Black Canyon Freeway (1-17). Spalling, cracking
and deflection at the joints has become the main form of pavement
damage. A number of companies have produced joint sealants in an
attempt to inhibit joint failures. Some of these sealants are
performing very well, while others have failed within a short
period of time. Currently there is a large amount of research
being done throughout the country in the area of joint failures.
Arizona is in the process of evaluating a number of test sections
utilizing different products.
W. J. Ruscoe Company produces an asphalt base single
compound joint sealant called Ruscoe 983. It has an aluminum
fortified adhesive and is silver in color. It becomes tack-free
in a few minutes and is non-hardening. It's uses include highway
expansion joints, bridge joints, and random cracks in both
flexible pavement and portland cement concrete.
11. CONSTRUCTION REPORT
W. J. Ruscoe Inc. demonstrated their product on February
14, 1984, at two locations in the Phoenix area. In attendance
were Don Cornelison, Bill Briscoe, Bob Crowley, Hike Sarsam, and
Brady Smithson of ADOT and Paul Nicholec of Ruscoe.
Both test sections were located at the 1-17 and Bell Road
overpass. The first location is in the southbound passing lane of
1-17, just south of the Bell Road overpass. The 1st and 3rd
joints south of the structure were sealed with Ruscoe 983. The
other test section is at the on-ramp of 1-17 S.B. from Bell
Road. The locations of both sections are shown in Figure 1.
The demonstration was performed by the Ruscoe
representative. Before application, joints were cleaned with
compressed air (Figure 2 ) . The joint and crack sealant was placed
by hand using caulking guns (Figure 3 and 4 ) . However the 1
sealer is available in 5 gallon buckets for application with
spray wands. Three different types of applications were
demonstrated: 1) concrete- concrete joints; 2 ) concrete- asphalt
joints; and 3)asphalt cracks.
SB N B
FIGURE 1 - LOCATION OF TEST SECTIONS
2
ASPHALT CRACKS I
I
I
-Ic
I
\--+J
I I BELL ROAD
CONCRETE- CONCRETE
I - I
3 . . t .
I
I
I
A l
t
N
the traffic. The concrete-asphalt joint was also not holding up
well. There was no adhesion between the concrete and the sealant.
The concrete joints on the mainline were in poor shape. Portions
of the sealant had been completely torn out.
A final evaluation on April 7, 1986, confirmed that all
three types of applications were performing poorly (Figure 5 ) .
FIGURE 5 - POORLY PERFORMING JOINT SEALER
IV. RECOMMENDATIONS
The Arizona Transportation Research Center recommends not
using Ruscoe 983 as a joint sealant or crack filler due to its
poor performance in the above mentioned field tests. The sealant
did not hold up well under traffic and exhibited poor bonding
capabilities. No further evaluation will be performed on this
product.
4 8 5 K E N M O R E B O U L E V A R D . A K R O N . O H I O 4 4 3 0 1 T E L E P H O N E 2 1 6 / 2 5 3 - 8 1 4 8
INTERIM RFPORT 42
T e c . b i c a 1 Information On :
PERMANENT SEALER
HIGHWAY JOINT SEALANT
DESCRIPTION
PERMANENT SEALER Highway J o i n t S e a l a n t is a one part n i t r i l e rubber m a t e r i a l
based on an aluminum f o r t i f i e d a d h e s i v e formula i n c o r p o r a t i n g the p r o t e c t i v e and
.- e l a s t i c q u a l i t i e s o f the s y n t h e t i c elastomer. The product does n o t r e q u i r e a
primer and can be a p p l i e d a t r e l a t i v e l y low temperatures and skin over to form
a p r o t e c t i v e s e a l .
PERMANENT SEALER r e a d i l y e x t r u d e s over a wide temperature range and c u r e s to
produce a d u r a b l e , tough, f l e x i b l e , a d h e s i v e rubber j o i n t s e a l . The product is
w e a t h e r p r o o f , s e l f c l e a n i n g and h a s e x c e l l e n t aging q u a l i t i e s .
Because o f its a d h e s i v e c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s and e x c e l l e n t e x t e n s i o n / c o m p r e s s i o n
r e c o v e r y , PERMANENT SEALER High'day J o i n t S e a l a n t g i v e s o u t s t a d i n q performance
in highway expansion j o i n t and b r i d g e j o i n t s in which extreme movement o c c u r s .
.-
Highway J o i n t S e a l a n t can a l s o be used a s a s e a l a n t in random c r a c k s in b o t h
f l e x i b l e pavement and Portland cement concrete.
29 Fluid Oz. C a r t r i d g e s
5-Gallon P a i l s
55-Gallon Nonreturnable Drums
