In my older posts, I wrote about cars that change their colors in different vantage point. We need not wonder anymore for the new technologies we have right now nothing is impossible anymore…LOL. To my surprise, I’ve come across this article about a paint (or varnish I think)…some kind of intelligent paint that warns people.
Yes, it is an intelligent paint that warns drivers like me. It turns to dark pink when the temperatures drop. So from now on, when temperatures drop we do not have to guess (since it is very tricky to guess) about the condition of the roads outside. This paint could help us for it could give drivers clear icy warnings by turning themselves pink.
By the way, to make it straight- it is a varnish developed by researchers at French Company Eurovia that operates mainly in Europe and North America. It is a subsidiary of the VINCI Group that is a world leader in construction and maintenance of transport infrastructure.
“Improving road safety is a national priority in France. Infrastructure can be modified to help bring down the number of road accidents. Eurovia designs and provides an entire range of products, processes and techniques that significantly reduce the risk and impact of road accidents.”
Their offering for providing safety has a lot of extensive categories and one of which is providing visual warnings by means of road legibility by introducing appropriate road marking and road signs, developing of road markings and equipment that have high visibility at night and in rainy weather and use of colored surfacing like Viacolor and Agrevia.
Aside from the two colored surfacing, has now this varnish ( still under testing period) that can be applied to road surfaces to caution drivers of the situation of the road or condition. Although it still in its testing phase, researchers said that it can help to prevent ice-related vehicular accidents.
The varnish is actually made of polymer having a thermochromic pigment…. From the word itself it means it is related to temperature. It is the first time that this kind of varnish is used tone road temperatures. The same coating is also used to make bath thermometers and frozen food packaging that reacts to temperature change. It was tested last winter by the maker of it on different roads in France. They painted squares on the roads and observed how the varnish turned from normally transparent to dark pink when the temperature dropped below 1degree Celsius. But when it goes back to 2 degrees Celsius it goes back to being colorless. The tests have showed positive effects however the group (researchers) still has to work to optimize the final product. They have to improve the visibility of the coating and to make it lasts all the way through the summer when it is much exposed to ultraviolet rays. They still have to work on its UV stability and its accuracy.
The two most important challenges are improving the night visibility of the coating and ensuring it lasts throughout the summer months, when it would be exposed to higher levels of ultraviolet rays from the sun.
The advantage of this scheme said the project leader of it in the person of Thomas Devanne, is that the information is readily available in real time. You’ll see it when and where it is needed or it warns drivers as soon as the road becomes hazardous. He further added that it can be used anywhere that becomes icy in winter- it can be in roads, highways or even pavements to warn pedestrians to be careful in walking through icy lanes.
What a nice innovation to make our roads a safer one to travel on…right? Aside from the safety devices we have in our cars, we can count on this to make ourselves safe from accidents. I hope it would not turn as failure for I can see that it can really help us. Not just in France but also here in the US.
source: http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/motoring-tech
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