Outdoor surface marking 3D thermoplastic printer - for printing 'invisible' electronics and surface coding 'tags' for machine reading (by cars, and smartphones used by partially blind/sighted)

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Surface Markings applied to asphalt give facilities owners ability to construct safety, education, and advertising in prime locations, leading to global opportunities in playgrounds, car parks, road safety markings. A $50bn industry, employing 250,000 people. Current systems typically apply as thermoplastic bonded to surface using a naked flame. This gives variable results, is unsafe, and banned in underground applications /confined spaces. This project develops the worlds 1st outdoor ground marking 3D printer system capable of printing ultrathin markings; which can be 3D print-coated/embedded with machine readable electronics (tags). Tags will be readable by 1bn cars and 0.28bn partially sighted pedestrians, enabling them to ‘see’ curb edges, road markings, etc. Key challenges are, speed of heating, material choice,effectiveness of 3D printed electronics. A demonstrator system will be built to show the system in operation.