TUSTIN, Calif.—Tire recycler Quantum Group Inc. has acquired Modified Asphalt Technologies—a privately held Mesa, Ariz.-based crumb rubber modified asphalt paving specialist—and merged the firms' operations.
In a joint release, Quantum CEO Ehrenfried Liebich and MAT President Jeffery R. Smith said Quantum had acquired 100 percent of MAT's stock in a move that will position the California firm to assume a major role in the $160 million asphalt rubber paving industry.
"They are one of only two or three companies that are really trying to diversify to a full circle of recycled rubber products," Mr. Smith said. "What MAT brought to Quantum was the rubber-to-asphalt technology that (Quantum) didn't have."
QMAX, Quantum's asphalt paving subsidiary, researches and quantifies new crumb rubber transfer technology to use scrap tires in roadway paving.
Quantum also owns and operates QEST, a subsidiary that, without using chemicals or additives, changes rubber tires into a new, vulcanizable material it calls Revulcon. QEST's "supercollider" technology breaks down 5-millimeter crumb rubber into superfine 40-80 mesh sizes which then can be reprocessed back into the manufacturing of tires, Quantum said.
Quantum has ongoing tire recycling projects in the U.S., South America, Europe, China and the Middle East.
Formed in 1993, MAT has been a consultant to Quantum "in every phase of the industry—from lab design to hot mix and project design, and on to inspection and equipment manufacture," Mr. Smith said.
Mr. Smith will stay on as president of MAT and be based in Arizona. A participant in the industry since 1976, he served as president of the Rubber Pavements Association from 1996 to 1999.