Is Cold Applied Plastic (MMA, CAP) worth the cost in road marking?

Well that depends, but we think it should be used more than it is, and our hypothesis is that the upfront cost puts businesses off. We will talk about cold applied plastic, MMA and CAP interchangeably - they are the same thing.

Where MMA really shines both from a performance stand point and also value for money, is in high traffic environments where the cost or inconvenience of remarking once a year in standard solvent borne or water-based traffic paint outweighs the initial investment. Places like shopping centres, supermarket coloured spaces like click and collect, restaurant drive throughs, road ways, high traffic pedestrian crossings etc.

CAP is applied approximately 10-20x thicker than standard paint, but is only 5 times as expensive. Now 5 times is a lot, but when you consider that cold applied plastic lasts 5 times as long, requires 1/5th as many revisits, 1/5th as many times that property manager needs to worry about it, schedule works, quotes etc the initial cost becomes less of an issue. Now if disruption is a factor, like a 24hr facility, drive through, roadway etc, we think CAP is a no brainer.

The other area where cold applied plastic excels is in the longevity of the colour. Because the product is applied so thickly, the depth of colour and the length of time it stays vibrant cannot be matched by other road marking products.

MMA comes in highly skid resistant finishes, and because the slip resistance is throughout the entire thickness of the coating, as it wears away it exposes more of the same anti-skid properties. This is why roading authorities and councils are using more and more of it.

Still unconvinced? Why not ask your line marker to apply some CAP as a tester during your next re-mark and see how it performs. Or go the whole hog and just trust in the advancement in coatings chemistry that CAP represents.

Visit our Cold Applied Plastic product page to find out more.