OL-1200 Anti-Dew Protects Overhead Signs in the UK

As a part of a major motorway improvement project in the UK, Limelight Signs, a leading UK road traffic sign manufacturer specializing in the design and manufacture of permanent and temporary road signage, was approached to design and manufacture the highway overhead signs as well as more than one hundred directional signs for placement on the highway M56. M56 serves the Cheshire and Greater Manchester areas of England.

Linda Andersen, Marketing Coordinator Reflective Solutions Europe, Middle East, Africa

November 2, 2023

The specification for the overhead signs on the M56 included a dew-resistant protective overlay. Studies have shown that water droplets on signs scatter light rather than sending it back to the source/driver, which can temporarily reduce the retroreflective performance of a traffic sign by up to 87%.

The challenge with dew-resistant overlays is that many products available have a relatively short lifespan (5 to 7 years), reducing the overall warranted life of the traffic sign. Limelight Signs needed to source an R3C class reflective sheeting and a premium dew-resistant overlay, which would not compromise the warranted lifespan of the sign.

As a long-term distributor for Avery Dennison and a specialist in reflective materials for traffic signage in the UK, Lakeside Ltd was able to offer advice and find the right combination of quality products to meet the specifications required for this project together with Limelight Signs.

Avery Dennison T-11500 OmniCube™ is an R3C class omnidirectional micro prismatic film incorporating tiles of full-cube micro prisms arranged in multiple orientations. The full-cube design offers 100% light return, typically twice as much as traditional prismatic sheeting. These impressive statistics make Avery Dennison T 11500 OmniCube™ one of the most efficient retroreflective materials. T-11500 OmniCube™ is also approved for use on the TrafficJet™ digital reflective sign printer, which Limelight Signs uses to create CE-approved traffic signs.

When it came to the dew-resistant overlay required for the project, they chose Avery Dennison OL-1200 Anti-Dew dew-resistant overlay film. OL-1200 Anti-Dew has hydrophilic properties, meaning when droplets or beads of dew form on the face of the sign, the moisture is drawn across the sheeting, creating a film of water. This enables light to enter and return on the same plane (i.e., retroreflect) back to the source/driver, ensuring that the sign function is always legible.

Avery Dennison developed OL-1200 Anti-Dew to have dew-resistant properties that will match the lifespan of the reflective sheeting. This means that in contrast to the typical 5-7-year lifespan of many dew-resistant overlays, OL-1200 offers 10-year dew-resistant properties and 12-year UV protection, ensuring that materials continue to provide exceptional performance throughout the sign's life.

These signs were made possible by LimeLight Signs and Lakeside Group in the UK.

Read more about how to protect your signs with Avery Dennison protective overlay films and hear from TrafficJet owners from around the world on how they improve their sign production process and finished signs with Avery Dennison and the TrafficJet Print System.

OL-1200 Anti-Dew Protects Overhead Signs in the UK

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