Nov 1 2010
Paint does not equal paint. The German company, Innoway GmbH, currently makes use of an intelligent high-tech-paint, which does not just look good, but also adds to reducing the accident rate in tunnels.
The applied material increases the light in the tube and, thorough a self-cleaning-effect, also ensures that it stays like that for many years. The first application in a large-scale project in traffic infrastructure took place in the tunnel at Ortisei in the Italian South Tyrol, which, after months of renovation, was reopened.
The entrance of the new painted tunnel at Ortisei in the Italian South Tyrol after renovation
Accident studies have revealed that the accident risk tremendously increases especially at the entrances and exits of tunnels – thus at the transition from artificial light to daylight. Therefore, the regulations for safety features have been significantly enhanced throughout the EU in recent years.
This has led to enormous costs for the operators though. Not just in Italy, where there is a combined tunnel length of 1160 km, measures have come into focus, which save cost but nevertheless help increase traffic safety.
HiTecCo by Innoway is an acrylic paint, which, in its final coat, is refined with a layer of titanium dioxide. Through this surface finishing the treated surfaces receive a perfectly smooth structure, to which dust, fats and exhaust fumes are unable to attach. Even more important though is the anti-microbial effect. A kind of dirt-catalyst is created. But not only ceilings and walls are cleaned, also the air filled with exhaust fumes.
A figure illustrates the effect: About 100 square meters of refined (treated) tunnel area is sufficient to significantly improve 25,000 cubic meters of air per day.
Necessary prerequisite for this though is the influence of UV-light, without which the physical self-cleaning process would not be initiated. Originally, direct solar radiation was necessary for this. Innoway, together with its industrial partners, has in the meantime improved the procedure so far that the light emitted by lamps and other illuminants is sufficient.
Subsequently, the agent, also used in semiconductor technology, unfolds its photo catalytic characteristics: Because of the radicalized surface organic pollutants, like e.g. mold and fungi, are decomposed and turned into harmless residues like e.g. carbon dioxide and water.
The HiTecCo-paint used by Innoway is able to reflect about 80 percent of incident light. If also the road surface is treated with the surface finishing, the asphalt does not absorb as much light. Thus lighting fixtures with significantly lower output can be used without decreasing the brightness. This way, conventional lamps save about 40 percent, modern LED-lamps even up to 70 percent in energy.
Innoway estimates that the operator can reduce the yearly management and maintenance costs for the tunnel by about 35 percent. For example, in a tunnel of medium length the tube would have to be completely cleaned and the walls repainted every six months. Otherwise the lighting conditions would be so strongly affected by dirt particles and exhaust fumes that the accident risk would significantly increase.