Paint and Bead Durability Study: Fid-Bau Portal

Paint and Bead Durability Study

H. M. Cyrus

This study was undertaken to evaluate paint and bead durability in four areas: water emulsion paint performance, glass bead performance, application thickness of paint effectiveness, and cementitious pavement marking materials. A series of airport pavement markings were placed at the William J. Hughes Technical Center and Atlantic City International Airport, Atlantic City, New Jersey, for evaluation. Results from the testing showed that HD-21A Rohm and Haas water emulsion paint had the superior performance since it held the beads in place better; Type III (1.9 Index of Refraction (IOR)) airport beads had the best retro-reflectivity, initially and over time. All four new beads had higher retro-reflectivity than the 1.5 IOR highway bead but not as high as the 1.9 IOR Airport bead. The four new beads that were used in this study were 1.5 IOR Visibead A (L-511), 1.5 IOR Visibead B (L-511 Millennium), 1.5 IOR Megalux A (Airport and Highway High Quality and High Performance Drop-On), and 1.5 IOR Megalux B (Airport 'Beacon' High Quality and High Performance). The Lumimark cementitious pavement marking material was not evaluated because the concrete mixture was out of date, causing the concrete to flake. Even though it was not evaluated, immediately after installing this product, the beads sank into the cementitious material, causing very low retro-reflective readings. Therefore, the process still needs some refinement. The PermaStripe cementitious pavement marking material, which is being evaluated by the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Tyndall Air Force Base, is still under investigation and, therefore, is not ready for commercial application. At present, the PermaStripe product is hand applied with a squeegee. A paint hand-sprayer had been modified but is in the prototype stage. PermaStripe also needs to address the issue of very low retro-reflectivity readings.