Guidelines for everyone, or zebras and other stripes
DEGAROUTE®
Lane markings on roads and highways need to be very robust. Since the end of the 1980s, Degussa has supplied a group of reactive resins under the brand name DEGAROUTE® that act as bonding agents and ensure the longevity and durability of road markings.
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Degussa started work in the area of coating resins in the 1960s. The raw material was the versatile methylmethacrylate (MMA). The addition of fillers, pigments and glass beads, plus the use of peroxide as a curing agent, created a mass for laying that lasts for many years. Experts responsible for road markings called this mass “cold plastic,” as opposed to hot plastic, which had been developed a short time before. The pigmented systems turned out to be particularly suitable for road markings. In 1963 and 1964, the first test coatings were carried out on the area around the Degussa plant and at Frankfurt Airport. In 1975, three formulas for road markings 3 mm thick were licensed by the Federal Highway Research Institute. |
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In order to align the cold plastic’s durability with the resurfacing cycle and to increase economic efficiency, there followed the development of cold spray plastic, with a layer depth of 0.3 - 0.8 mm and the application technology in cooperation with manufacturers of road marking machines.
Over the years, Degussa has developed different variations for different purposes: for example in 1988, a new profiled DEGAROUTE® cold plastic marking compound was introduced.
The advantage: the markings have profiles that stand out above the otherwise smooth marking at regular intervals, which makes the lane markings more visible through headlights in dark and wet conditions. Furthermore, driving over them makes a noise, alerting the driver to possible unintentional lane crossing. Road markings of this kind are known today as “Type II” markings. Low-noise versions are structural markings, called agglomerates, which have the advantage of being more resistant to snow ploughs and, owing to less material, are particularly economical.
The wide range of DEGAROUTE® resins is developed, produced and distributed by the Reactive Resins Product Line at Röhm GmbH & Co. KG, which is part of the Degussa Specialty Polymers Division.
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