Dermasfalt® is a unique high-performance paving product that has proven to outlast by far any conventional paving materials resisting extreme conditions, where regular asphalt or conventional paving techniques do not provide durable results or are inefficient.

Due to its unique characteristics as a paving material when applied as a wearing surface, such as extreme aging resistance to fatigue by action of the elements, high cohesion power, zero porosity, and extremely high adherence to any surface, Dermasfalt has been mostly employed for surfacing critical pavement areas, where conventional paving materials and techniques repeatedly fail. It has been largely employed as a failproof anti-skid wearing surface material for thin layer paving on long orthotropic steel bridge decks, specified and applied to all main large metal bridge decks in Brazil during the past three decades, with complete success and proven durability.

Dermasfalt may be briefly described as a product obtained through chemical reactions at high temperatures where long-chain polymers from asphalt such as maltenes and asphaltenes crack and react to form new complex metal polymers, containing promoting agents, special fillers, and additional ingredients to form a unique “Hot-Melt” mastic-like material.

Dermasfalt is applied directly onto the road surface or bare metal deck in liquid form at high temperature by special equipment, which puts down a layer that averages from ¼” to 3/8″ thickness at a rate of 120 feet per minute. The surface of the new pavement may incorporate additional top aggregates such as natural magmatic hardened aggregates or even harder grit materials, such as sintered aluminum oxide, which provides incomparable anti-skid road wearing surfaces and ensures extremely high durability (30 years) even under high volume heavy traffic.

Dermasfalt was originally developed and first manufactured and patented in Brazil by his inventor Dr. Domingos Loricchio, who extensively researched on new polymeric surfacing technologies for many years. The product was first applied in 1982 on the Avaré Bridge located 200 miles from Sao Paulo in Brazil.

Incomparable durability and proven reliability have been the main qualities of the product, which has been employed as a thin layer-wearing surface material on many steel bridge decks throughout Brazil with remarkable results. Some of the main works in Brazil are the Presidente Juscelino Kubitscheck de Oliveira steel bridge in Brasilia, DF, the Third Bridge of Vitoria, ES, the Viaduto Reinaldo de Oliveira in Osasco, SP, the Pedro Ivo Campos bridge in Florianópolis, SC and many other steel deck bridges from north to south throughout Brazil.

Metal bridge decks over 600 feet long have been covered with Dermasfalt applied directly over the bare steel plate with no need for primers or expansion joints. These jobs have a proven life expectancy of over 30 years of service, even under constant heavy traffic.

Dermax holds the exclusive rights and patents for Dermasfalt’s product line and is currently the sole manufacturer and contractor who fabricates the product and installs it on all construction sites, for insured quality and guaranteed durability, which currently is 10 years of service for bridges and roads applications, however, the product is expected to last from 20 to 30 years on the road, depending on specific traffic and site conditions.

Dermasfalt has also been employed in repairs at airport tracks, bridges, and tunnels for repairing or resurfacing old cracked asphalt or concrete pavements, molten at high temperatures in liquid form, it deep penetrates cracks by gravity providing not only sealing but also mechanically binding loose pieces of old pavements, working as a pot-hole filling material and sealer, all in one single operation. The City of Sao Paulo in Brazil (CET) has approved the product for sealing magnetic cables fitted into the pavements for traffic control systems. The complex Rodovia Anchieta x Imigrantes, the main roads which connect the city of São Paulo and Santos in the state of SP in Brazil had most of the concrete pavements sealed with Dermasfalt CSF-250 with great permanent and durable results for a period over 10 years, where conventional rubberized asphalt sealers would come out in a matter of few months.