NEWS

Thermoplastic Rubber Innovation – A turning point for traffic safety business

MTEC (NSTDA) in collaboration with Tanattorn Co., Ltd. launched the “Thermoplastic Natural Rubber Traffic Cone”. Containing 30% natural rubber as its raw material, this innovation remarkably reduces the use of plastic while maintaining the durability of traffic cone for safety usage on roads.

The government has launched a policy to drive the economy through the BCG Economy Model, focusing on the use of “Green Materials” such as natural rubber which has gained a strong interest by the industrial sector. MTEC (NSTDA) brings forward the Thermoplastic Natural Rubber (TPNR) manufacturing technology, this in combination with Tanattorn Co., Ltd.’s expertise in traffic cone production introduced a special grade traffic cone into the market, as a replacement to the use of Ethylene Vinyl Acetate Copolymer (EVA).

Tanattorn Co., Ltd. is a private company with Mr. Wasuwat Bunwit as its Managing Director. The Company saw an opportunity to increase product’s efficiency and decrease production cost through the use of natural rubber which could be molded into any desired shapes, modified to have a bright orange colour, together with being recyclable.

Mr. Wasuwat forecast a continuous growth in the traffic safety market with non-stopping needs for traffic safety products including traffic cones, water barriers and sign boards from the continual expansion of roads in Thailand. There are numerous private companies within Thailand providing different kinds of traffic safety products to the Department of Highways, with Tanattorn Co., Ltd. holding the majority of the market share. “Tanattorn Co., Ltd.’s strong point lies in us being both the manufacturer and the distributor” said Mr. Wasuwat. “We never stop improving. Tanattorn Co., Ltd. is known as the leader in inventing new traffic safety products. We thrive to give our customer the best we could offer and our R&D team has never failed to do so. Recently, with support from MTEC’s TPNR manufacturing technology, we proudly present the “natural rubber traffic cone”. A turning point for the traffic safety market which is now under trademarking process since TPNR is a confidential manufacturing process. With this being our first step, we plan to expand the use of natural rubber into other products as well, such as footpath and car stoppers”.

TPNR used to produce the natural rubber traffic cone is a mixture of natural rubber and plastic through twin-screw extruder with dynamic vulcanization technology. A natural rubber traffic cone will have a similar texture to that of rubber from having 30% of its raw material being natural rubber. The use of TPNR results in a remarkable resilience traffic cone, with an increase in weight of 0.2 kg per cone totaling to roughly 7 tons promoting a stronger grip to the road.

The introduction of natural rubber traffic cone received a positive feedback from users. Tanattorn Co., Ltd. is now increasing its manufacturing capacity to fulfill the demand for this new innovation, placing the company in a competitive spot in the market. This product is predicted to be fully launched and in use by the end of Songkran (April 2022), under full manufacturing capacity of roughly 300 pieces per day. Mr. Wasuwat added “the challenge of this market is to ensure safety on the road for everyone through high quality and competency traffic safety products. In order for this to happen, an up-to-date technology is necessary. With more than 30 years of experience, we promise to consistently deliver what is best.”