TECHNOLOGY FOCUS More than meets the eye
The company now has more than 20,000 cameras deployed around the globe
Driving road safety through innovation
We know the company 3M is well known for its signage and reflective sheeting, but not so much about their involvement in ITS. So we asked the General Manager of its Traffic Safety and Security Division, Simon Copeman to explain its innovation in the sector
E
ver since the first fully-reflective traffic sign was installed in the US city of Minneapolis, Minnesota,
in 1939, 3M innovation has been making roadways around the world safer. Developed by the company, the very
first sign sheeting, Scotchlite Reflective Material, was based on adhering tiny glass beads to a reflective backing. This year, 3M is celebrating the 75th anniver- sary of reflective sheeting and honour- ing its legacy of traffic safety technology development that today includes high performance materials and comprehen- sive solutions. Over its three-quarters of a century
in the traffic safety industry, it has dem- onstrated that reflective sheeting was only the beginning of its capabilities. Subsequent innovations included Cen- terlite Pavement Marking Material, first
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explored in 1937 and introduced in 1946, which finally gave drivers a centre line material more clearly visible than paint. In the 1950s, the company’s creations
included wide-angle, flat-top sheeting for improved visibility, and Reflecto-Lite sheeting for license plates. The 1970s saw the introduction of
High Intensity Grade Reflective Sheet- ing, offering increased durability and three times the brightness of previous materials. The late 80s brought Diamond Grade
Reflective Sheeting, which raised the standard for brightness with its pris- matic, micro-replicated optics. Today, this material has evolved into Diamond Grade DG3 Reflective Sheeting — with ’full cube’ technology that produces a material that is nearly twice as bright as other types of prismatic sign sheeting.
smarthighways.net
Additional innovations in recent decades have included durable fluorescent tech- nology for warning signs; the 3M Marker Series 290 Reflecting Road Stud; Stamark Road Marking Tape and high visibility vehicle safety markings.
ANPR The latest additions to 3M’s roadway safety solutions are next-generation ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Rec- ognition) integrated camera and soft- ware systems. In 2012 the firm entered the global Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) market with the purchase of Fed- eral Signal Technology Group (FSTech). The FSTech deal covered technologies
from five business units including Idris (vehicle detection and classification) and PIPS (fixed and mobile automatic num- ber plate recognition). The other areas
Vol 2 No 1 smartHIGHWAYS
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