HISTORY OF MMA 

(METHYL METHACRYLATE)

Originally used in Canada in the late 1950's to provide LONGER LIFE to road markings and to allow for applications at LOWER TEMPERATURES than traffic paint. MMA began as an extruded material. Over time the application process has advanced into a SPRAY FORMULATION. First came the 1:1 system and now the end goal of 98:2 IS HERE!

STAGE 1
EXTRUDE MMA

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Advantages

  • More durable than traffic paint

  • Can be applied at low temperatures

  • While laborious and inefficient, this method is something most anyone can perform

DISAdvantages

  • Inefficient and slow, does not provide “pretty markings”

  • Massive amounts of waste, drives up cost

  • High profile on ground, susceptible to plow damage as a result

STAGE 2
1:1 SPRAY

stage2.jpg

Advantages

  • More efficient than the extrude application method which reduced waste and made application process faster

  • More detailed work made possible on applications that have more than simple rectangular stop bars and stencil arrows

  • Cost to customer could be brought down from extrude

  • Durability achieved at less mil thickness meant less plow damage

DISAdvantages

  • Still had considerable waste due to three part activation process

  • Machine was relatively complicated to use and resulted in down time

  • Lengthy learning curve

  • Mistakes in operation lead to considerable repair expense

STAGE 3
98:2 SPRAY

stage3.jpg

Advantages

  • Essentially zero waste

  • Increased speed + efficiency of application

  • Greatly reduced setup and teardown time

  • Liquid BPO is much safer than powder used in 1:1 and extrude

  • Greatly Improved reliability - user friendly

  • Faster, more reliable cure, even at low temperatures

  • TBL Durables has the only functioning 98:2 walk behind machine.