An ecological road striping system

Project Information

ECOMARK

Grant agreement ID: 734328

DOI

10.3030/734328

Project closed

EC signature date 15 July 2016

Start date 1 August 2016

End date 30 November 2016

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

LARIUS SRL
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ECOMARK (An ecological road striping system)

Reporting period: 2016-08-01 to 2016-11-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Despite significant progress in reducing traffic accidents, more than 27,000 people die every year and a relevant amount of public money is spent on managing the consequences of these accidents. Improving horizontal road stripes would be one solution for enhancing road safety. Unfortunately the quality of road stripes in Europe is gradually decreasing due to a reduction in the funds available for maintaining it.

The goal of our project is to develop a new, fully electric road striper for outdoor use. The machine will be able to paint horizontal road stripes offering higher performance at a lower cost. The new machine will make the following possible:
- up to 50% lower cost of applying horizontal stripes, with benefits to the budgets of the agencies responsible for the stripes;
- ability to apply horizontal road stripes in urban centres at night, since the machine is fully electric and does not produce annoying noise;
- elimination of the negative effects on workers' health that are caused by the release of paint particles, vibration, noise and exhaust fumes.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The feasibility study allowed to identify, dimension and design all the road-striper components, included the batteries, and to understand the better configuration to be adopted to achieve the performance targets.

The freedom to operate analysis has determined that there are not patent documents that may restrict the freedom of implementation of the invention.

Different typologies of risks have been identified, analysed, ranked, and, for each of them, a mitigation measure has been proposed.

The business planning has allowed us to identify all the economic variables involved in our project and the required investments. The forecasts developed in the business plan are positive, therefore they encourage us to continue the project.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Our road-striper will be zero-emission and it can bring the following advantages:
- creation of self-cleaning horizontal road stripes with at least 50% longer durability than current stripes and with improved retroreflection;
- 50% decrease in the operator time required for applying the stripe, with consequent savings in operating costs;
- 90% reduction in the amount of energy necessary for operating the machines;
- road-striper noise level does not exceed 30 dB during operation (current road stripers reach and exceed 65 dB);
- total elimination of vibration.

road striper