SolarBright’s studs send ice warning to drivers

A new smart road stud from New Zealand-based company SolarBright can warn drivers of potentially icy roads and will soon be able to alert traffic management centres and maintenance depots of the treacherous conditions. Once installed in the road the solar-powered studs monitor humidity and temperature and if the temperature drops to 4°C or below the blue LEDs in the stud start to flash to alert drivers of the possibility of ice formation.
March 26, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
SolarBright’s snow-plough resistant and standard and ice warning studs
A new smart road stud from New Zealand-based company 7618 Solar Bright can warn drivers of potentially icy roads and will soon be able to alert traffic management centres and maintenance depots of the treacherous conditions.

Once installed in the road the solar-powered studs monitor humidity and temperature and if the temperature drops to 4°C or below the blue LEDs in the stud start to flash to alert drivers of the possibility of ice formation. There are two versions of the stud – a direct replacement for the standard reflective stud (and around twice the price) and a snow-plough resistant version which is set into a core drilled hole.

With the additional space available in the show-plough version, the company is trialing a communications system that will send a signal to the traffic control centre when it is activated to inform the maintenance department about where gritters need to be deployed.

The snow-plough version will run for 700 hours on the battery pack while the standard version will run for 400 hours. As the system remains dormant for most of the year the battery pack will last for five to seven years.

While the products is yet to be type-approved, on-road trials of the technology are underway in New Zealand and the system has been installed in car parks, airports and other off-road facilities around the world.
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