Riding a bicycle or electric scooter at night can be particularly dangerous. But the French SME Olikrom has found the solution by offering photoluminescent paints that everyone is snapping up.
These paints are causing a stir, and the applications could become much more varied in the future.
A paint to enhance road safety
How can the safety of road users who travel by bicycle or electric scooter be improved? This is the question asked by J.
ean-François Létard, former director of research at the Institute of Condensed Matter Chemistry in Bordeaux. It was by wishing to answer questions, and others, that the former academic founded Olikrom. If photoluminescence is known, it remained to develop a product applicable to the road and able to withstand the ravages of time and weather conditions.
Used for the first time in Pessac to mark out a cycle path, the paint earned Olikrom a nomination for the Road Safety Innovation Prize in 2020. Since then, many municipalities (Brest, Annecy, etc.) have ordered this paint, capable of to be seen at 80 meters and to remain visible for 10 hours. This marking, which does not exempt users from wearing a high-visibility vest at night, from having
reflectors, position lights or even a bell, allows everyone to have better visibility in little or poorly lit areas.
“We remain the most environmentally friendly solution currently available. The life cycle analysis of our paint compared to all other lighting solutions shows that in overall impact, 1 km of public lighting by luminous masts is equivalent to 184 kilometers of photoluminescent route,” said J
Jean-Francois Letard.
Many possible applications
Apart from the production of this floor marking paint, which also includes pedestrian crossings, the company is growing. 19 people work full time to satisfy more than 70 customers in Europe, Africa or Canada. Concerned about working in an ethical way, the SME only works on projects that stick with the ecological, security or economic challenges that the world encounters. A choice that has not prevented Olikrom from growing by 14% per year since 2014, and even 30% in 2021.
For Airbus, Olikrom has developed a paint that reacts to pressure, making it possible to identify deformations in the cabin of an aircraft more quickly. At the same time, and while protecting industrial secrecy, J
ean-François Létard is already talking about the future. With entirely synthetic crystals, he asks us to imagine gas pipes turning blue in the event of a leak or even roofs changing color depending on the sunshine. Enough to save energy, and even refresh the streets lacking shaded areas.
Source : French Culture
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