History in The Making – Bituminous Pavement Marker Adhesive
By Gino Zagni
One day sometime in 1986 I received a telephone call from Ari Madden the Chief Scientific Officer of VicRoads. I knew Ari quite well through various meetings and conferences over the years and more recently of course through my thermoplastic development. Ari explained that they were experiencing a lot of issues with the application of the raised pavement markers on the road through the use of an epoxy that was used to adhere the markers to the pavement causing some workers to suffer with dermatitis, a type of skin complaint known as eczema. Some workers suffered more than others and what they found was that it created a lot of loss time through worker’s going of sick, some for a lengthy period and on returning to work the mere smell of the product would flare the eczema again. VicRoads had some very special machinery specially designed so that the two-part mixture could be mechanically mixed without man handling. Ari said he was investigating the possibility of the use of a different type of adhesive that was not a danger to one health and that he was inviting some 8 different companies to come up with something that he could trial. The situation was that I was one of the chosen companies and we were given a period of nine weeks to present something to him that only his people could handle and trial. The trial was to be also given nine weeks of testing and all presenters of the material were not permitted to attend or be given the name of the location of the test site.
I now had a new challenge, which immediately in my mind was to be of a hot melt type of material, which I was most experienced with. Having made several formulations and with limited testing equipment none of which was designed for testing adhesion to the road presented another challenge. I imagined people in the surrounding area of my factory must have wondered what I was up to when having placed something on the road and then accelerating the car to spin the wheel over some strange looking object.
Having finally made my choice of my preferred formulation, I drove down to the VicRoads laboratory and presented it to Ari Madden. Ari still would not divulge the test site or when they were ready to trial the various submissions. I gave Ari the sample plus a tin and instructions on how to heat the material and pour it onto the road and immediately place the raised pavement marker onto the molten adhesive. He duly thanked me for participating in the trial and said he would keep me informed. After a number of weeks, I hadn’t heard anything on how the trial was progressing and so I gave Ari a call on the telephone for an update only to be told that that the test site was now in progress.
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I gave the test site about three weeks into the trial before giving Ari a call. Ari said, “Gino – four samples have already failed.” (After a pause) But Gino yours is still working” Following another period of about three weeks the news was. “Gino there are now only two that are performing.” (The pause this time seemed much longer than the last one, enough to give you time to think well that all over with) “But Gino yours is still working.”
I had not heard from Ari following the completion of the nine weeks and so I waited until about the twelfth week before contacting him to see if they had come to any conclusion. Although I was now very confident of winning this contest, I needed confirmation before I could continue with any further developments. I was extremely happy when he finally advised me that the “Zaganite” material had performed the best.
It must have been around six months and still no word from VicRoads wanting to buy my material. It turned out that Ari had carried out his adhesive development and had given it the thumbs up and it was now up to the regional engineers if they wanted to use it.
With the good news that my adhesive scored well I then sat down with Ivan my Engineer and explained what I thought was required and designed what I considered to be the best suited for the application of the adhesive. My first trial took place in Sydney around 1986-87 being my first choice due to the good relationship I had with the Department of Main Roads in Yennora as I had been supplying them with my thermoplastic and they were very keen to proceed with a demonstration. Together with my son Robert we arrived at the Main Roads Depot in Yennora around 9:00 pm where all their Line marking activities were situated. The chosen site was the famous Harbour Bridge. The overall response we received was really outstanding. They wanted more.
There was no point in waiting around for a decision from VicRoads, I now had the advantage of knowing that VicRoads following an extensive trial preferred my material and as such I could share those test results.
Due to the reception, we achieved in Sydney I decided that I would undertake a tour and visit as many Main roads Depots in the various States as possible. With a little trailer pulled behind my car I set off from Melbourne and would stop by every regional Main Roads Depot in all States and performed a demonstration.
With the introduction and our success in the Australian and Asian market with our innovated thermoplastic, I took the opportunity introducing the adhesive in New Zealand, Middle East & Asia.
Today through Traffic Management Systems, I am happy to once again reintroduce a great product.
