New Photoluminescent (PL) Safety Paints Now Available

New Photoluminescent (PL) Safety Paints Now Available

Annapolis, MD (August 5, 2007) — DHi has just announced the availability of its new family of premium, high-quality photoluminescent (PL) safety paints.

  These breakthrough products can now provide a cost effective alternative to the tape-based safety solutions currently being used on stairs and stairwell landings in commercial and government buildings. DHi’s new paints can also be used in difficult building environments where adhesive-backed appliqué products prove unsuitable for wall application.

 

Photoluminescent paints currently available from DHi’s AfterGlow Direct web site include its new AfterGloTM brand High Performance Blue; AfterGloTM High Performance Green; and AfterGloTM Standard Green. “Our High Performance Green is currently being tested to qualify it under New York City’s stringent MEA requirements mandated under Local Law 26,” says Rich Martin, DHi's President and CEO, “DHi’s own internal tests show that the paint, which glows bright green in the dark, far exceeds New York’s exacting standards. And our High-Performance Blue will substantially meet these requirements as well,” he adds.

DHi’s AfterGlo Standard Green is a true one-coat solution, requiring no white base coat application. Although this economical paint glows in the dark with a greenish hue, it dries to substantially the same color as most off-white office door trims, according to Goldsby.

The other two paints in DHi’s current line require an initial white base coat before application, although neither formulation requires a sealing top coat. This is due to each paints’ innovative formulation which makes use of alkali earth aluminate and silicate PL crystals, according to DHi’s Chief Chemist Troy Tibbs.

“Strontium silicate, used in the High Performance Blue formulation, is unique as a commercially viable PL solution,” says Tibbs, “because it’s not hygroscopic. That means that the pigment will not degrade when it contacts water. This allows the alkali earth silicate pigments to be used with waterborne polymer paints.” All DHi’s PL paints require simple pigment mixing just prior to application, according to Tibbs.

DHi’s PL paints can be brushed or rolled directly on concrete, wood, metal, or painted surfaces and can be used on floors as well as vertical surfaces such as door trim. They are tough, abrasion-resistant acrylic polymer coatings that resist wear and tear. Application is simple, and when the job is done, it’s easy to clean both brushes and accidental spills with soap and water when the paint is still wet. When properly cured, all paints can be washed with standard household and institutional cleaners and a stiff bristle brush.

Unique in the new product line is the High Performance Blue. “It’s off-white in the daytime, but glows an attractive and unique violet-blue in low light situations,” says Goldsby.

Goldsby also feels that these unique premium PL paints will grow into additional applications such as factory floor markings, safety applications to machines with dangerous moving parts, and other safety applications that include demarcation. Novelty applications could include exterior painting of civil aircraft and even hot rods.

The High Performance Blue and Green paints may also have application in the custom home design arena where clients may appreciate elements or even entire walls coated with this paint to provide not only night-time safety without the use of electricity, but atmospherics as well. An application of this type was described in a recent issue of “Dwell,” a San Francisco-based architectural magazine that focuses on modernist building design.

Currently, the Standard Green is being tested in Jones County, North Carolina and in the city of Falls Church, Virginia for possible use on fire-hydrants due to the persistence of its glow and its imperviousness to water. Fire hydrants painted with Standard Green may be more immediately visible to fire crews arriving at fires in rural or low-light areas where the hydrants may be difficult to locate, costing valuable minutes that could be spent fighting a fire.

All three paints are also an excellent “green” solution, according to Goldsby. Since they charge with existing ambient light during the daytime or during working hours, they require no additional electricity and don’t need electric power to discharge, unlike standard safety and egress systems.

DHi is a world-class team of dedicated engineering professionals committed to developing and deploying innovative technologies to advance the national interest and improve the lives of all Americans.