Low cost pavement marking materials based on plasticized sulfur

Pavement marking was made more cost effective by reducing the cost of the marking materials. A low cost marking material based on sulfur was developed. Elemental sulfur is a hard, brittle, crystalline material which, on heating, melts to a thin liquid that can be spray applied. If molten elemental sulfur is spray applied to the road as markings, it will on application solidify, crack and adhere poorly to the road. The first ten high speed trucks that ride over the markings will remove them. To make a useful sulfur based pavement marking material it was necessary to chemically modify (plasticize) the sulfur and mix it with fillers and pigments such that it had all of the characteristics desired of a pavement marking material. Yellow and white formulations were developed. For identification they were given the names YS-EIGHT and WS-EIGHT for the yellow and white formulations.