IMCRC backs manufacture of impact absorbing traffic light

A new research collaboration backed by the Innovative Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre is developing traffic lights that absorb kinetic energy during a collision.

With $100,000 in funding from IMCRC, road safety manufacturing company Impact Absorbing Systems (IAS) is collaborating with University of South Australia (UniSA) STEM to re-engineer the ubiquitous traffic light.

The $640,000 project aims to significantly reduce the risk of collision related injury to vehicle occupants and pedestrians using an energy absorbing traffic light (EATL) design.

IAS is contributing $100,000 to the project.

The innovative energy transfer mechanism is currently used commercially in IAS’s Australian made energy absorbing bollards (EAB), and will also minimise damage to traffic lights themselves, lowering replacement costs.

Over the next 12 months, IAS and UniSA STEM will optimise the existing EAB design to better suit the shape, length, size and location of common traffic lights.

Operating out of UniSA’s Testlab and engineering design facilities, the team will use advanced manufacturing techniques, materials testing and computational modelling to build and test various EATL designs, delivering a world first product that complies with road safety standards.

Smart sensors will be built into the design, to monitor the state and performance of the system and enable councils to perform preventative maintenance.

The outcome will be a world-first product that meets road safety standards and those of the Department of Infrastructure and Transportation and local councils.

IAS’s Grad Zivkovic said: “Our collaboration will revolutionise current traffic light design.

“By leveraging the university’s R&D capabilities, we will develop a practical and effective solution that has the potential to improve road safety worldwide.”

Picture: IMCRC

Subscribe to our free @AuManufacturing newsletter here.