MUNICIPAL SPOTLIGHT
Page 49
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BY ASHLEY TAYLOR AMIRTE, Assoc lost T
Painless Line Painting
AN interesting development in roadmarking technique has been evolved by Universal Highways Ltd. of Rowfant, Sussex. Under a licensing agreement with the Prismo Safety Corporation of America this company produces automatic highway-painting equipment and materials for use in Europe and the Commonwealth as well as at home. The latest mobile marking plant is based on a Ford D300 chassis with a 120 in. wheelbase.
The equipment not only provides power to enable the paint gun carriage to be moved to the offside or nearside of the vehicle but also feeds compressed air to a motor that pumps the quick-drying Niteline paint binder from a 30 gal. tank, through a heat exchanger, to the spray guns. At the rear is a control panel which regulates the feeding of the binder and at the same time channels the ballotini reflective agent to the spray gun carriage.
The Niteline appliance, using instantdrying Niteline reflectorized paint, is stated to line accurately at a speed of 25,000 ft. per hour and thus reduces to a minimum interference with the flow of traffic.
Trailer Tanker
COSTS of self-contained gully-emptiers are sometimes out of proportion to the amount of use that small local authorities can expect to obtain from them and, in order to cater for their needs in this connection, various trailer appliances are available. To these has been added a 450 gal. emptier, made by B. and S. Associates Ltd., of Sudbury, Suffolk, which is carried on a trailer chassis that can be towed by lorry or tractor.
Operated by p.t.o., or by a smalLindependent power unit, the vacuum pump has a
60 ft./min. capacity when handling thick mud or solids such as leaves or gravel. Obviously this machine will be of a particular interest in rural areas, and for this reason the discharge, which is through a 6 in. outlet, can be led to a distributor for spreading the contents on farmland. A gully-emptier of this design has recently been acquired by Halesworth UDC. The intention is to also produce a 700 gal. model in the future.
On the Boil
EVEN after highways have been cleared to some extent the problem of disposal of snow accumulations often still remains. It is a difficulty that sometimes can thwart the best efforts of snow-clearance gangs and, in order to provide a solution, thermal snow melters are now in use in substantial numbers in American towns. During the past winter they have also made their appearance on the Continent. The system was developed in the first instance by the Thermal Research Engineering Corporation, of the United States, but the melting appliances are now being manufactured at the plant of the Rolba associates in Germany, distribution in Britain being handled by Rolba Ltd., Charlwoods Road, East Grinstead, Sussex.
In effect, the essential component is an outsize trailer-mounted saucepan into which the snow is loaded by rotary plough or mechanical shovel. The snow is melted by a heating plant and the resulting water can be guided away into the sewers. The use of this system means that the water does not cover the road surface where during severe weather it may immediately re-freeze.
At first sight the thermal snow melter seems a fairly expensive piece of machinery but it has to be allowed that by its use the need for a whole fleet of tippers to remove the banked-up snow may well be obviated. The appliance has a capacity of 36 tons of snow per hour.