WJ has purchased the ThermoPrint truck to eliminate the need to apply thermoplastic road markings by hand.

ThermoPrint scanners can read existing markings and automatically match them to programmed designs, allowing workers to lay them from the safety of the cab.

It has been developed by Norwegian road marking machine manufacturer Trysil Maskin, which held a demonstration in London for WJ last June (pictured below). Trysil calls it the trafficprinter. WJ is the first UK customer.

The vehicle has already been trialled on local authority roads and there are now plans for trials on the strategic road network.

Currently, for thermoplastic road markings such as letters, numbers, arrows and other symbols, the process is completed via hand moulds. WJ’s new technology has all road symbols used on the UK network programmed into its operating system.

Not only is it safer, it also quicker, the company says.

Martin Webb, chief operations officer at WJ Group, said: “A key concern for us is working on live carriageways where we are exposed to live traffic and potentially dangerous driving and incursions into our working space, and so we wanted to find a way to remove our teams from harm’s way. ThermoPrint has been designed to eliminate this risk of operatives being hit by any traffic, as well as reducing the manual handling risks they face. We believe we have a machine that delivers on these ambitions.”

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