Tehran to Equip Highways with Home-Made Cat-Eye Lights
“The previous generation of cat’s eyes was usually made of metal, which, in addition to being heavy, were easily stolen and had a limited lifespan. In the new design, these parts have been replaced with polymers like polycarbonate; a material that, in addition to being high in strength and impact resistance, has better performance in reflecting and transmitting light due to its transparency. This change has minimized the risk of theft and made the part more durable in harsh environmental conditions,” said Saber Qazipour, the project manager of the company.
According to him, polycarbonate has also replaced cast iron and metal parts in sectors such as water, sewage and telecommunications industries in recent years and has proven its effectiveness. “The use of this material in traffic equipment is an important innovation that, in addition to reducing maintenance costs, increases the safety factor of roads.”
Qazipour described one of the most prominent innovations of this product as the use of a nano-based supercapacitor instead of a battery, and said, “This technology has settled the perennial problem of reducing the efficiency of batteries at high temperatures.”
A cat-eye or road stud is a retroreflective safety device used in road marking and was the first of a range of raised pavement markers.
The cat-eye, when illuminated by the lights of an approaching car, becomes very visible as a marker.
A key feature of the cat-eye is the flexible rubber dome which is occasionally deformed by the passage of traffic. A fixed rubber wiper cleans the surface of the reflectors as they sink below the surface of the road.
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