Night-visibility on wet roads

Wet or rainy conditions represent one of the main safety concerns for drivers causing many fatal crashes around the world. From the road marking perspective the challenging part is attaining good visibility upon water film building up on the road. In night conditions, glass beads are the elements that enable visibility through the phenomenon called retroreflectivity.
Retroreflection (R) under vehicle headlamp illumination is the ability of a road marking to reflect light back in the direction driver’s vision angle, rendering its visibility in night. Retroreflection is classified according to the weather conditions – dry (RL), wet (RW) and rain (RR).

As profiled agglomerate marking structure assures water drainage and remains optically accessible for headlights by its texture. The properly selected glass beads drop-on system enables maximal retroreflectivity back to the driver in all weather conditions.

In general, we can divide structured agglomerate road markings into markings, for which different application techniques are used. Regular agglomerate markings are known also as multi-dot or spot-flex system. Irregular agglomerate is applied with a spiked roller. Irrespectively of type, different machine options can be adopted in both cases, i.e. with a bellow pump, an extruder system, a pressurized container or a screed box system.

Our recommendation

To assure excellent night visibility in dry, wet, or rainy conditions and achieve maximal durability, Helios proposes application of agglomerate cold plastic SIGNODUR STRUKTURAL. Renewal or maintenance is done by applying a thin layer of cold spray plastic SIGNODUR KSP upon existing agglomerate marking. This material combination offers highest degree of visibility in all weather conditions – day or night – and represents the best option according to the life-cycle assessments.