I’m sure we have all had the chance to drive down a newly paved stretch of road which has just received its lane markings in yellow and white paint. While you are driving you can’t help but notice that the lines on the road almost seem to glow as if they were back-lit by some lighting source embedded within the paved surface because it is so bright. The lane markings are made in such a highly reflective way to insure visibility during heavy rain and fog conditions.

In a manner of speaking, the source of the light is embedded within the painted surface itself. When these lines are painted, the paint actually has thousands of small glass beads mixed in with the paint as it is applied to the road. Glass beads have the physical property that they can refract and reflect light back to its source, your headlights. And so the glowing effect is achieved.

What does this have to do with EXAIR? Our 2″ Heavy Duty Line Vac Model 150200 is used to replenish the glass bead hopper on the painting truck from a larger bulk holding tank on another truck. Plenty of compressed air is available on the bulk truck as a 185 CFM compressor is also on board. So, it made perfect sense to be able to use the conveyor. The hopper on the paint truck can easily be re-loaded with about 300 lbs. of bead in less than 10 minutes time. Before, the implementation of the Heavy Duty Line Vac, the customer had to purchase their glass bead in 40 lb. bags and load the hopper manually. A process that took every bit of 1/2 hour with all the climbing and handling of the bags. Model 150200 2″ Heavy Duty Line Vac was selected for its highest available conveying capacity and also for its ability to resist abrasion from product running through the inside and from regular handling during use on the road.

With the new set up, the feed truck can easily pull up along side the painting vehicle, throw the hose into the hopper, turn on the compressed air and it is that easy. No more bags to deal with, no more spillage, no more risking operators climbing up and down from the feed hopper to load it.

Neal Raker
Application Engineer
nealraker@exair.com