Paints laboratory is one of the Central Laboratory Sections in MTRD headquarters. It deals with testing, research and advise on usage of road construction materials. After pavement construction up to surface dressing level, the next step is the installation of road furniture. This goes a long way in ensuring safety of all the road users is guaranteed once it’s completed.
Testing Services
- Hot applied thermoplastic paint – colour, luminance factor, softening pts, heat stability and matrix composition (binder & aggregate content)
- Road Signs/Reflective Sheeting – resistance to solvents, gloss, impact resistivity and general appearance.
- Glass beads/ ballotini – grading, moisture proof, flow properties, spherical shaping
- Road studs/cat eyes – compression strength, retro reflectivity, night visibility and
- Epoxy Resin – pot life, rotational cure time and hard cure time.
- Cold applied thermoplastic paint – Condition of paint is checked, luminance factor, hiding power, resistance to solvents and observations during application.
Monitoring and Evaluation
- Its recommend that before road marking starts, materials should be submitted for analysis to ascertain whether they meet the specifications.
- If positive, it’s necessary the team from materials to be invited to check the quality control and assurance whether it’s adhered to.
- An already road marked section can be evaluated to counter-check if it was properly done.
- A trial section is done with the team doing marking in order to ensure conformity to the required standards.
Some of the dimensions that are normally checked and evaluated include:-
- Surface preparation
- Paint preparation
- Thickness – (3 to 6) mm
- Width – Approx. 100 mm
- Retro reflectivity
- Mounting of road studs
- Erection of road signs
- General appearance of the road marking