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)

应用于沥青的表面标记使设施所有者能够在黄金地段建造安全，教育和广告，从而在游乐场，停车场，道路安全标记方面带来全球机会。一个500亿美元的产业，雇佣了25万人。目前的系统通常是热塑性塑料，使用明火粘合在表面上。这是不安全的，并且在地下应用/密闭空间中禁止使用。该项目开发了世界上第一个能够打印超薄标记的户外地面标记3D打印机系统；可以3D打印涂层/嵌入机器可读电子设备（标签）。这些标签将被10亿辆汽车和2.8亿视力不全的行人阅读，使他们能够“看到”路缘、道路标记等。关键的挑战是，加热速度，材料选择，3D打印电子产品的有效性。将建立一个演示系统来展示系统的运行情况。

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.