Swallowing up noise, putting an end to graffiti
The world's first transparent noise barrier with PLEXIGLAS SOUNDSTOP® Anti-Graffiti
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A clear view and protection against graffiti - from now on, at the A59 Highway taggers will have no option to scrawl the noise barriers.
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Drivers on the A59 highway can enjoy clear views and local residents can look forward to less road traffic noise – at least around the harbor bridge in Duisburg. That’s because the world’s first transparent acrylic glass noise barrier with long-lasting graffiti-repellent coating was installed in early June this year. 1,200 m2 of PLEXIGLAS SOUNDSTOP® with anti-graffiti protection now skirt the bridge, making life difficult for taggers.
The nightmare of graffiti
Graffiti is a nightmare for homeowners, communities and public transit authorities. Removing graffiti is time-consuming, which is what makes it so expensive. Paint-resistant anti-graffiti coatings on the walls of houses or on train and subway carriages have recently been able to provide some relief. But a graffiti-resistant noise barrier made of PLEXIGLAS® – that's something new. Dr. Gerd Jonas, Marketing Manager for the global noise-abatement market in the Plexiglas Business Unit at Degussa AG, rightly sings the praises of PLEXIGLAS SOUNDSTOP® Anti Graffiti: "For this bridge, the city authorities were looking for a sound-insulation material that remains highly transparent and translucent for many years while providing effective protection against the graffiti that seems constantly to afflict the bridge's concrete surfaces. PLEXIGLAS SOUNDSTOP® Anti Graffiti provides precisely that protection, even after 10 years."
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| The acrylic glass noise barrier PLEXIGLAS SOUNDSTOP® offers explicit, particularly aesthetical advantages compared to conventional noise barriers. |
Anti Graffiti: repellent, transparent, long-lasting
PLEXIGLAS SOUNDSTOP® GS CC Anti Graffiti is a new development in the familiar and proven PLEXIGLAS SOUNDSTOP® range of products for sound insulation and consists of a long-lasting, transparent, paint-repellent coating. The coating is applied to both sides of the material and makes the surfaces more scratch-resistant. It is this that makes the product the world's only transparent acrylic glass product for noise barriers with anti-graffiti properties that remain effective for many years.
The anti-graffiti coating is effective at preventing paint from adhering to the material: as with a Teflon pan, no foreign body can adhere to the surface finish – and the color from the paint simply fades into droplets. High-pressure cleaning equipment is all that is needed to remove the rest. It is even possible to clean the surfaces with a high-pressure cleaner or the kind of graffiti remover readily available in stores weeks after the paint was applied, and even frequent cleaning does not lessen the anti-graffiti effect. Taggers will have no option but to give up in frustration.
Global application in the fight against graffiti
PLEXIGLAS SOUNDSTOP® Anti Graffiti, having so many useful features, could well see worldwide application in the near future – wherever Plexiglas noise barriers are in place: for example, more than 100,000 m2 of transparent noise protection skirt Italy's new high-speed rail lines, like the one from Rome to Naples. Here, passengers have an unobstructed view of the sun-drenched landscape. View and esthetics are also important considerations for highways and expressways, especially in large cities. Walls made of PLEXIGLAS SOUNDSTOP® can be found in Niedernhausen (Frankfurt am Main) on the A3 highway going to Cologne, as well as in Berlin, in Tsuruoka in northern Japan, at Lake Como and in Australia – across more than 30 countries in all. Even the rail line to the new Lantau Airport in Hong Kong is shielded by a transparent tunnel. A few months ago, Hong Kong also released a three-kilometer-long section of highway enclosed in PLEXIGLAS SOUNDSTOP® – with a surface of 65,000 m2, this is the largest continuous noise barrier on earth.