Skip to main content

Crash-friendly reinforced concrete signposts

FSP has bought the intellectual property rights for the Frangible Post System from 3M. It is now supplying the passive safety market with reinforced composite posts that will carry signs on motorways and other busy roads. The FSP product (as previously commercially developed and marketed by 3M) is designed to be strong enough to withstand turbulent weather conditions, but light and flexible enough to collapse on impact, protecting the driver and passengers and causing minimum damage to the vehicle.
February 23, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
FSP is supplying the passive safety market with reinforced composite posts to carry signs on motorways and other busy roads
1604 FSP has bought the intellectual property rights for the Frangible Post System from 152 3M.

It is now supplying the passive safety market with reinforced composite posts that will carry signs on motorways and other busy roads.

The FSP product (as previously commercially developed and marketed by 3M) is designed to be strong enough to withstand turbulent weather conditions, but light and flexible enough to collapse on impact, protecting the driver and passengers and causing minimum damage to the vehicle.

FSP says that it is estimated that collisions with roadside features (sign posts, lamp posts, trees and crash barriers) cause 15% of all road fatalities. Because these objects cannot always be removed from the roadside, the objective has been to provide solutions to reduce the consequences when hit.

"This is the principal behind 'passive safety,' a modern concept in roadside engineering that has the full support of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the backing of the 1441 UK Highways Agency, and increasing interest from many motoring/safety organisations," says FSP.

"The FSP passively safe 140mm diameter post was independantly certified at 777 TRL (Transport Research Laboratory) while owned by 3M and achieved the highest safety ranking awarded to any make of sign post to date achieving NE:3 status. The FSP 140mm post has been designed to meet the European standard for Passive Safety (EN12767)." FSP is now making significant investment in the development of a full range of alternate sized posts of the crash-friendly product to meet demand, and other posts (168mm and 219mm diameter) will be launched in mid-2010.

The company has appointed 3054 ASD metal services(part of Klockner) as its exclusive distributor in the UK and Ireland.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • The AFB20 (2) Roadside Safety Sub-committee urges more cooperation
    November 17, 2015
    The AFB20 (2) Roadside Safety Sub-committee on International Research Activities calls for closer cooperation between road authorities and the industry On 15 September 2015, the AFB20 (2) Roadside Safety Sub-committee on International Research Activities held its third European workshop in Istanbul, Turkey.
  • France a star in road safety
    September 3, 2012
    In the past, France had a poor road safety record. This has turned around to make the country a success story
  • New Zealand's bridges survive earthquake
    February 7, 2012
    How is it that New Zealand's recent large and destructive earthquake did so little damage to the bridges in the quake zone? Mary Searle investigates. The magnitude 7.1 earthquake that hit the Canterbury region in New Zealand at 4.35am on Saturday, 4 September was similar in size to the quake that shook Haiti in January. However, the damage in Canterbury was minimal in comparison. A key contributor to this was New Zealand's preparedness for such an event. Positioned on a major fault line, New Zealand has ear
  • Safety: 'roads a major factor'
    July 23, 2012
    Road infrastructure has a core role to play in improving road safety and accident statistics often understate this. Marco Mongiello reports Everybody agrees that road safety is a very important issue. In 2006 in the European Union (EU 25) there were 38,400 casualties and 1,700,000 road injuries, with a total cost of E160 billion. For most people there are no doubts: the driver's behaviour is to blame. However, "road infrastructure has a core role to play in improving road safety and this has been recognised