Melting kettles for use on vehicles for continuous processing of material for applying lines, stripes, bitumen, crack sealant or the like. The kettles disclosed herein provide heat transfer by use of oil jacketed tanks. A coil may be placed along a lower section for heat transfer through a burner for heating recirculated oil. A coil may be placed in a lower section and an upper section for heating an oil jacket, as well as heat transfer from the entire circumference of a coil placed in the upper section. An upper coil can be fluidly coupled to a lower coil and positioned within the chamber a spaced apart distance from the interior wall of the melter kettle. A mixer system rotates paddles to cause continuous transfer of material around the upper coil. The melter kettle is cylindrical, but can be corrugated to increase heatable surface area.

A surface marking devices for heating and applying thermoplastic material. The surface marking device is comprised of laterally disposed oil-jacketed melting kettles having a rotatable auger extending from a first end to a second end; the first end having an open inlet for receipt of particulate thermoplastic marking material in a non-molten state. The second end coupled to a thermo pump for transfer of the thermoplastic marking material in a molten state to a sprayer, extrusion die, or an auxiliary vehicle for subsequent application. Retro-reflective glass beads can be added to the molten state during the spraying step.

A surface marking devices for heating and applying thermoplastic material. The surface marking device is comprised of laterally disposed oil-jacketed melting kettles having a rotatable auger extending from a first end to a second end; the first end having an open inlet for receipt of particulate thermoplastic marking material in a non-molten state. The second end coupled to a thermo pump for transfer of the thermoplastic marking material in a molten state to a sprayer, extrusion die, or an auxiliary vehicle for subsequent application. Retro-reflective glass beads can be added to the molten state during the spraying step.

Reflective luminescent markings on a road or sign surface are formed by applying onto the surface a base material which is liquid in an initial state for application and sets or cures to form a solid layer after application where the base material contains a fine/medium filler material of glass ground from recycled materials in a rotary mill. Coarse material from the grinder is separated out and supplied as a separate material to be applied onto the surface of the layer of base material and fine ground glass. The base material is connected or impregnated with a luminescent material such as photo luminescent 2 4 6 trichlorophenyl in a binder such as polyurea.

This invention provides a convenient method of forming and applying a thermoplastic material for roadway markings, comprising: obtaining individual components of a thermoplastic composite material suitable for roadway markings; mixing and heating the individual components to produce a fully compounded form of the thermoplastic composite material; solidifying and prilling the fully compounded form of the thermoplastic composite material to produce a plurality of thermoplastic prills; on a marking vehicle or mobile apparatus, introducing the thermoplastic prills to an on-board melter to produce a liquid phase of the thermoplastic prills; and applying the liquid phase of the thermoplastic prills to a roadway, thereby marking the roadway. Compositions and systems are also described. Surprisingly, prills melt in approximately half the time as the powder/granular form. Also, the melter can be operated at lower temperature, leading to less discoloration of material.

This invention provides a convenient method of forming and applying a thermoplastic material for roadway markings, comprising: obtaining individual components of a thermoplastic composite material suitable for roadway markings; mixing and heating the individual components to produce a fully compounded form of the thermoplastic composite material; solidifying and prilling the fully compounded form of the thermoplastic composite material to produce a plurality of thermoplastic prills; on a marking vehicle or mobile apparatus, introducing the thermoplastic prills to an on-board melter to produce a liquid phase of the thermoplastic prills; and applying the liquid phase of the thermoplastic prills to a roadway, thereby marking the roadway. Compositions and systems are also described. Surprisingly, prills melt in approximately half the time as the powder/granular form. Also, the melter can be operated at lower temperature, leading to less discoloration of material.

Disclosed are various embodiments for a contrast road marking apparatus that can apply contrasting thermoplastic markings to a roadway in a single pass. The contrast road marking apparatus includes two or more ribbon guns configured to apply a first thermoplastic marking to a roadway location and a second thermoplastic marking, which comprises a color that contrasts with a color of the first thermoplastic marking, to another roadway location. The resulting contrast road marking has no visible or substantially negligible overlap or gap between the individual thermoplastic markings.

Disclosed are various embodiments for a contrast road marking apparatus that can apply contrasting thermoplastic markings to a roadway in a single pass. The contrast road marking apparatus includes two or more ribbon guns configured to apply a first thermoplastic marking to a roadway location and a second thermoplastic marking, which comprises a color that contrasts with a color of the first thermoplastic marking, to another roadway location. The resulting contrast road marking has no visible or substantially negligible overlap or gap between the individual thermoplastic markings.

A method for applying a high friction surface roadway treatment and composition used therein is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of: providing a binder composition, comprising: 10-99.9 wt. % of a resin; 0.1-70 wt. % of an elastomer; heating the binder composition to a sufficient temperature to obtain a molten binder composition; applying a layer of the molten binder composition; and applying a layer comprising aggregate having a nominal maximum size of at least 1 mm, and an embedment depth of at least 30% in the molten binder composition layer. The resin is selected from hydrocarbon resins, alkyd resins, rosin resins, rosin esters, and combinations thereof.

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for laying paint indicia on a road surface, whereby the paint indicia includes magnetic elements that can be detected by at least one sensor to provide binary signals for transmission of information to a vehicle communicatively coupled to the at least one sensor. The transmission of information can be carried out regardless of a speed of the vehicle. Furthermore, the transmission of information can be carried out under all weather/visibility/road conditions.