Geração de microesferas vítreas a partir de garrafas de vidro de diferentes cores e avaliação da retrorrefletividade

Abstract

Pavement marking is an essential tool for highways, as it allows the visualization of the road even in adverse weather and lighting conditions. Thus, for this high visibility to be possible, the marks must be retroreflective. Therefore, seeking the retroreflection property, glass beads (microspheres) have been used in addition to horizontal pavement markings materials. Among the several types, the I-B type, according to the norm NBR 16184:2021, has a diameter of around 150μm and is embedded in the ink before the application. According to NBR 16184:2021, the glass beads must be clean, clear, and colorless to use in pavement markings. In this sense, this work aims to analyze the effect of the glass beads’ color concerning retroreflectivity. More specifically, glass beads were produced using the horizontal flame method and recycled bottle glasses in the following colors: colorless, blue, green, and brown. The glass beads were produced and optimized independently for each color and retroreflectivity measurements were performed for comparison purposes. The results show that color positively affects retroreflectivity, with brown-colored glass beads having the best results.