The description of the quality of the
plastic road studs produced last year by the General Office of the Ministry of Transportation is as follow.
They have carried out spot check on the road studs and delineators of 8 traffic safety facility manufacturers, and the total number of the samples were 114, and the qualification rate of the samples are 24.6%, among which the qualification rate of the delineator is 0% and that of the road studs is 66.7%. The main problems for the unqualified products are the pressure resistance performance, shock resistance performance, the coefficient of luminous intensity and the identification of products cannot meet the standards. The total qualification rate of 24.6% is not ideal, which also reflects the severe quality problems existing in the production of the road studs of our country.
All those have shown the anxious and dissatisfactory toward the current condition of the road studs of our country. Is not it meaningless to
install the road studs with that short service time on the road?
The road studs we refer here is mainly applied on the roads, which are also called road studs. It can be fixed on the ground to play the role of the marked lines on the road, which can also be applied on the expressways or other paths to mark the central lines, lane lines and the edge lines. The road studs can also be used to mark the curves, ramp entrance, the diversion lines or other dangerous sections, which are usually used together with the marked lines on the ground. The road stud is a traffic safety facility, which can warn the drivers through its illumination.
The
road stud is an imported object, which is imported from abroad. The name of raised pavement marker is always called by Americans, and the name of road stud is the English or European way, which means the stud fixed on the ground to show its shape.
In the national standard of our country this kind of traffic safety facility uses the American way of Raised Pavement Marker.
Under this circumstance, it will be good for us to go to America to see how the Americans understand and use the road studs. Although the road stud industry has development for almost 20 years in China, the application number of our country is far more less than that in America. In south America, California and Texas, the round road studs are widely applied on the expressways, and almost all the lanes are divided by this road studs. It has the characteristics of good visibility, cheap and durable, especially when there is water pooling after raining, the road studs can even be seen clearly. In order to make up the disadvantage of non-luminance, the road studs with LEDs are produced to increase the visibility at night. The road studs can not only be applied on the expressways, but country lanes. Where there are traffic vehicles, there are road studs.
The drivers of American have already formed the habit of driving with the marked lines in the daytime, and with the road studs at night, which means that the road studs are the separate lines at night, and it plays the equal role of the marked lines, so the Americans are adorable about the road studs, which should be learned by drivers of our country.
What did the Ministry of Transportation of America do to make the road studs popular among all the Americans? And what are the differences between the management system of China and America?
A. Standard of the road studs of those two countries
The standard applied for road studs in America is ASTM4280, and the standard we make takes the ASTM4280 as reference, and some of the items are exceed the American standard, such as the require on the pressure resistance exceeds that of America for the severe overload condition in China; and the revise of the standard of the road studs can keep up with the time.
B. Testing of the road studs of the two countries
1. China:
The testing of the road studs of China only focuses on the sending samples, and they are only responsible for the quality of the samples and the products of the same parcel. When they carry out testing on the factory, they will test the working condition of the machines, and the management system of the factory. They will issue certifications for those qualified factories.
2. .America:
The quality testing method of America can be divided into two types: on the sample testing, which is almost the same with that of China, and the other is the field testing, which is quite different with that of China. The road studs should be tested on the roads whose vehicle flow rate is about 35000 times, which can test the practical condition of the road studs.
Field testing:
- How to choose the testing sections?
There are several point should be paid more attention when choosing the testing sections. 1.Other vehicles can driving in this section freely; 2. During testing period, there is no maintenance on the testing section; 3. The flow rate should be about 35000 times, and the certain number of road studs should be installed on the ground.
- Testing method
The testing time is 2 years, and the observation should be carried out every half year. The observation should focus on the shell of the raised pavement marker, surface of the reflector, and the inside of the reflector. The observation result can be divided into five degrees: extremely good just like the new (5), good with small scorings (4), middle with evident defects, but can work (3), bad with severe damages (2), awful, which cannot work (1). And the luminous intensity should be tested later.
If assimilate the road as a person, the raised pavement marker like a pill, which can guarantee the safety and health of the road. before the pill go into market, it should be tested in the laboratory, and take a long time to observe it, and then it can go into market. The installation experiments of the road studs of America just like the clinic test of the pill, which is the most important link that we need of the testing of our country.
There are a large number of perfect raised pavement marker manufacturers in China, the testing method of America focuses on the application condition of the road studs, which is a good way to test the production equipments and factories. And the testing method of China cannot no the practical working condition of the products in site. Both of those two testing methods have their advantages and disadvantages. It will be better to combine them together to carry out the quality testing of the road studs, which can guarantee the safety of the drivers and pedestrians.
