How to identify Chinese glass road studs

2020/12/25

Recently, suspected made-in-China glass road studs are found on the double yellow line on the Wufeng Bridge in Wufeng Township, Hsinchu County. As shown in the photos below, some of the glass road studs have fractured protruding parts, and others have faded color. Hereunder are further explanations:

1. Hemisphere rupture: When non-tempered or not-well-tempered glass road studs are installed on the road, the protruding hemisphere could get fractured and lose their reflectivity for being run over by cars. Furthermore, the broken glass road studs could endanger road users. (Please refer to the ball impact video.)

2. Color fading: Chinese yellow glass road studs are all "bottom painted" products. The said products are made of transparent glass road studs with yellow paint on the bottom to make the reflection look yellow. Only that the color of this kind of painted glass road studs would fade in 6 - 12 months after installation due to being irradiated by ultraviolet rays of the Sun. As a result, those faded glass road studs would look white or transparent, as shown in the photo.

According to Taiwan domestic traffic laws, glass road studs on double yellow lines should be yellow ones. The fractured and faded glass road studs have lost their function, and vehicles may accidentally cross the double yellow lines at night and cause collisions.

At present, there are still some Chinese glass road studs on roads in some remote areas. The most commonly seen trademarks are T, H, W, 3W, big star, small star, etc. There are even glass road studs without any logos on the roads. Since there is already a national standard CNS13762 for glass road studs, all the glass road studs used in local projects should meet the national standard.

However, very few domestic construction factories secretly import low-quality made-in-China products from unknown sources and fake them as MIT products with certificates issued by Taiwan factories. This act would endanger the lives of all drivers. Moreover, the said domestic construction factories were suspected of forging documents.