What is Road Marking Machine?

Road marking machine is a kind of device specially used to delineate diverse traffic lines on blacktop or concrete surface in order to offer guidance and information to motorists and pedestrians. Regulation for parking and stopping can also be indicated by the traffic lanes. Line marking machines conduct their work through screeding, extruding, and spraying thermoplastic paints or cold solvent paints on to the pavement surface.

1. Concept of Road Marking Machine

Thermoplastic road marking machine

Road marking machine, herein means the aggregate of hand-push type machine, self-propelled type machine, sitting type machine, thermoplastic type machine and cold painting type machine, which is used to mark line on road. It is mainly used in car parks, avenues, streets, highway, etc. contributing to improve the convenience and safety of driving and walking.

2. Types of Road Marking Machines

Based on the different driving modes, which is also a typical classification principle, all the pavement stripe markers can be categorized into hand-push type(also called walk behind stripping machines), self-propelled type, driving-type, and truck-mounted type.

Based on the marking paint applied on paved roadways, all the road marking machines could fall into two major sorts, thermoplastic paint pavement marking machines and cold paint airless pavement marking machines.

Thermoplastic pavement marking machine is low-pressure air spraying machine with high-efficiency and flexibility. It can serve long distance and continuous line marking work. The spray thickness is adjustable and not effected by the old marking line. A hot melt kettle inside the machine plays a vital role in heating, melting, and stirring thermoplastic marking paints. The coating only needs a few minutes to harden after cooling fast from 200℃. Thermoplastic paints can be produced in any colour, but when it comes to the road marking, yellow and white are the most common colours.

Thermoplastic road marking machine

Cold paint or cold plastic airless pavement marking machine is a kind of airless cold and tow-component machine. Large capacity paint tank and glass beads bin make it suitable for long distance and continuous marking work. Cold solvent blacktop marking paint is made of modified acrylic resins, pigment filling and additive, generally used in city roads and common roads consisted of asphalt pavement and concrete road surface; it has excellent weather resistance, high toughness, strong wear resistance and adhesion, and it is not easy to peel off. The called cold here actually refers to the normal temperature, without a physical cooling course involved in. So, since no heating and melting course is needed, this kind of road marking machine, whether it's driving-type or truck-mounted, enjoys much more efficiency.

Cold paint or cold plastic airless pavement marking machine

Two-component line marking machine is a high-end marking equipment that has emerged in recent years. Unlike thermoplastic marking facility and cold paint airless pavement marking equipment which coat the road with paint film through physical drying methods such as temperature drop or solvent volatilization, the two-component marking is a new type of striping device that forms a coating film by internal chemical cross-linking.

Cold paint or cold plastic airless pavement marking machine

Based on the purposes of usage, in a broad sense, road line removal machines should be included in this scope. As opposed to the pavement striping devices, road line removal machines are specialized for clearing away the broken, stained and wrong marking lines. Removing existing road striping or pavement markings is a real challenge. It's not easy to remove the traffic markings without causing damage to or scar the road surface. Built-in powerful cutter or grinder is the best method for removing traffic paint, thermoplastic, epoxy coatings and other materials. With the depth adjuster device, the removal machines can accurately adjust and fix depth according to the needs.

road line removal machines

Road striping pre-heater, a specialized auxiliary machine, is matched with thermoplastic road marking machine. Its function lies in heating and melting thermoplastic paint, helps saving fuel energy and heating time, and improves the efficiency.

Road striping pre-heater

3. Components

A pavement marking machine is normally composed of engine, air compressor, paint bucket(kettle for heating and melting paint), spray gun, guide rod, controller, die shoe, dispenser and other devices. Driving carrier to provide power is also a must.

Engine

Most of roadway striping equipment adopt engine as the driving force, while some use battery or liquefied gas. The power range of the appliable engines is about 2.5HP to 20HP. Generally speaking, the better the engine, the better the performance of entire marker device. If adopting the battery as the driving force, the running time each charge shall not be less than 7 hours.

Air Compressor

Air compressor is also one of the main parts that affect the performance for the whole line marking machine, especially for those conducting spraying by air pressure. Overall, The bigger the emission of air compressor, the better the performance of marking equipment.

Paint Bucket

In terms of line making machine, paint bucket has two main functions. One is to carry the molten paint; the size of its capacity will affect the progress of operation. The other function is as a pressure vessel, which can become the driving force of the striping work. In this sense, the sealing, safety, corrosion resistance are the important properties that the user should be concerned.

Spray Gun

Using the hand-held spray gun not only allows you to freely use the template to paint various symbols, but also can work on walls, columns and other places other than the ground. Hand-held spray guns have gradually become the standard configuration of various marking equipment.

Cleaner

Some strip marking devices are equipped with an automatic cleaner, which can quickly clean the pipeline system after each end of work, your cleaning work can therefore save more than half of the time.

Glass Bead Spreader

The road maintenance company should also consider configuring the glass bead spreader as a standard configuration. The spreader can spray glass beads to make the marking construction fully meet the higher requirements.

Glass bead, a kind of colorless and transparent ball, has function of light refraction. Glass bead mixed in the coating or dispensed throughout the coating surface can reflect car light back to the driver's eyes, thus greatly improving the visibility of marking lines. The headlights flash on such marking lines can reflex back in parallel, so the driver could see the forward way clearly and the security is thus raised at night.

Glass bead

4. How Does Road Marking Machine Work?

First, put the paint into the thermal insulation bucket for melting, and then introduce the melted liquid thermoplastic paint into the marking hopper and keep it in a flowing status. When starting to draw the line, put the marking hopper on the road, leaving a certain gap between the marking hopper and the ground. When the marking machine moves straight forward at a constant speed, it will automatically delineate a neat marking line. The glass bead spreader can automatically and evenly spread a layer of reflective glass beads on the marking line.

Briefly, In terms of thermoplastic type machine, at first we need heating and mix the paint within the thermoplastic pre-heater, and then put the paint into the paint tank of thermoplastic type device, than we can drive this machine to mark line: Paint from the paint tank out, after crossed the marking shoes, ultimately falls on the road.

In terms of cold paint type machine, we needn’t heat and mix the paint. Only put the paint into paint tank of cold paint type machine, than we can drive this machine to mark line: Paint is pumped from the paint tank, after crossed the marking shoes, ultimately falls on the road.

5. Application of Road Marking Machine

These machines designed and manufactured by Asian Construction Equipment Group Co., Ltd. have been widely applied to many pavement construction. The quality of the construction reaches GB standard. It contribute to improve the convenience and safety for avenues, streets, highway, etc.