Safety Device For Motorcyclists

Italian groups collaborate to develop safety barriers for motorcyclists made with recycled rubber from end-of-life tires

ANAS (Group FS), an Italian architectural design and engineering firm, has developed a new safety device made with rubber recycled from end-of-life tires (ELTs) in collaboration with the Department of Industrial Engineering of the Università degli Studi of the city of Florence.  The other partners of the project were Ecopneus and Proge Plast Srl.

Ecopneus is dedicated to the promotion and the development of new applications and markets for rubber recycled from ELTs. Proge Plast Srl, instead, is a company whose core business focuses on the engineering and development of products made with polymers and rubber materials.

“This device was designed to assure greater safety for motorcyclists and it complies with the need of making the road infrastructure more sustainable and performing at the same time,” the project partners said.

The prototype was tested in a test field certified in accordance with UNI CENT TS 17342, and obtained excellent results, for a new prototype of an eco-friendly safety device that protects motorcyclists in the event of an accident.

Since the first tests were carried out, the prototype has achieved excellent results, achieving performance characteristics of maximum safety in cases of impact with the motorcyclist’s body and capable of limiting serious injuries, also adapting to tight curve radii.

The ANAS Ecofriendly D.s.m.U Project, (D.s.m.U being an acronym for Universal Motorcyclists’ Safety Device) provides for a structure that offers maximum safety performance for motorcyclists thanks to the combination of  design and the use of the rubber compound recycled from ELTs for its construction.  The device ensures multiple advantages: it is flexible and modular and adaptable to the different radii of curvature of the road. It is also easy to install thanks to a system that locks it onto the road barrier posts, assuring road continuity. It does not require maintenance or renovation following a motorcyclist’s impact thanks to the elasticity conferred by the recycled rubber which allows the device to return to its original shape.

The Anas research activity continues with the validation of the new prototype installed on discontinuous road barriers according to the tests of the EN 1317 standard.

© Scrap Tire News, April 2023