Line marking in winter is never an easy task to undertake. Road salt is spread across the highway networks making it extremely difficult to apply markings without washing the salt away, which itself brings all sorts of other issues. In addition to the highway road salt, many distribution centres and public car park areas also apply salt to avoid ice forming and presenting slip risks to all road users. Road salt leaves a greasy barrier on the surface restricting the adhesion of line marking materials, therefore it must be removed before applying any markings to avoid the risk of delaminating.

Most line marking materials require the surface temperature to be a minimum of +5°C so pre-heating of the substrate is necessary to ensure successful adhesion. This requires gas, diesel or a combination of fuels which as we know has had a massive hike in costs in recent months.

Our internal WareHouse UV line marking operation is not however affected by such difficulties and throughout January, we have been delivering line marking within chilled and freezer warehouse chambers, at times working in active freezers with an air temperature of -26°C!

The UV coating has a unique adhesion quality which means that provided the surface is clean, dry and well prepared, it can be applied – regardless of temperature. The other amazing feature with the system is that it will not cure until it is penetrated by an Ultra Violet light.

To ensure the correct penetration of UV light, QMS have invested in four self-propelled UV machines together with a few hand-held machines for awkward areas.

After fully preparing the substrate via recovered shot-blasting, the area to be marked is masked with a UV resistant masking tape before roller applying the markings to specific dimensions. After rolling out the material, the UV machine is set to a specific speed and our trained operatives guide the equipment along the area to be cured.

Then, (and this it the good bit) as soon as the light has passed and the masking tape removed, the marking is immediately available for use by pedestrians and forklifts! Not in ten minutes, half-an-hour or longer, instantly. How cool is that?

Throughout January, we installed a phenomenal 12,500m of warehouse markings and over 100 STOP symbols within various industrial warehouses in all temperatures throughout England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

Our WareHouseUV solution offers the installation of RapidShield and SolidLux which each have their beneficial attributes depending on the location to be marked.

Internal Warehouse Markings are not restricted to winter installations, our crews are fully equipped to deliver projects throughout the United Kingdom all-year-round.