In the road markings industry, research and development in search of improved or new products is constant. After two years of R&D, Prosign, a subsidiary of Somaro (a Colas Group company) has launched OSTREA, a road marking which comes partly from the sea.

The spot-shaped ViziSpot system uses 3-4cm diameter spots with 3-4mm profile

The principles behind OSTREA were to reduce the use of hydrocarbon resources; substitute non-renewable resources; reduce the greenhouses gases and the heating temperature leading to gas savings for the applicator, and to ascertain the non-toxicity of the fumes when the product is heated.

Prosign decided to use specially processed crushed oyster shells from Brittany in France instead of calcium carbonate from quarries. This fully renewable calcium carbonate gave the name to the product, which also contains manufactured glass beads made from recycled glass. Indeed more than 60% of the product comes from renewable resources, and Prosign is looking for further improvement from a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA).

The compared LCAs of OSTREA and a traditional thermoplastic are said to show a 20% reduction for greenhouse gases, a 25% reduction in air acidification and a 30% reduction in primary energy consumption.

The right application combined with ViaTherm and the special glass beads gives the good result of the ViziSpot system

OSTREA is available in spray, extruded and screed versions.

ViziSpot system
Another new development comes from from Danish company LKF with its ViziSpot system, which has been developed as a marking system producing a constantly ''broken'' line. The system is a combination of equipment, thermoplastic material and drop-on beads to give a line with high functional values.

LKF says that the wet night values are "outstanding, but also skid resistance and Qd (day visibility) are high," and the line also has a rumble effect which can wake up sleepy drivers.

The newly developed machine will apply the ViaTherm thermoplastic material in regular dots spaced by a few millimetres.

The road marking appears as a continuous line when viewed from the car, but are in fact small ''spots'' spaced for rainwater to drain freely at the side, thereby allowing the vertical sides of all the small spots to reflect all the light unobstructed from the headlights, since no water film will form at these edges.

"The round shape of the small spots, working together as one unbroken line will reflect both the daylight and light from the headlights straight back to the driver, no matter what angle the light comes from," says the company.

"Thus, the line will be whiter during the day and more luminous at night. The drop-on beads safeguard the initial retroreflection. "The lines will be visible from day one, even on rainy nights: the beads on the brim of the round spots have the right angle for the approaching cars."

As extra wide edge lines, this system is said to be particularly advantageous as the spots are 3-4mm high and regularly spaced. When the car wheels pass the marking they will generate a gentle rumbling and ''whizzy'' sound inside the vehicle, which will also awaken a drowsy driver (people living close to the road are left fairly undisturbed).

The ViaTherm thermoplastic road marking material in the ViziSpot means that all the features of thermoplastic are retained in the new system with an additional elasticity for long life.

The drop-on beads will be worn over time, but ViziSpot will continue to be visible. The special thermoplastic ViaTherm contains high quality glass beads embedded in the material. The glass beads will appear one by one, when the material slowly wears down.

"The embedded beads are bigger and of higher quality than standard beads. Therefore, ViziSpot often shows improving retroreflection in the long run. For standard and thin layer materials like paint, retroreflection stops when the drop-on beads are worn out. ViziSpot will continue to reflect throughout its lifetime, which is up to three years and more depending on the traffic load," says LKF