ARMORCAST PRODUCTS COMPANY

Established in1966, Armorcast Products Company has been supplying several utility industries with barriers, barricades and protective enclosures besides various other products that are as diverse as the vast number of industries the company serves.
Armorcast Products Company, based at North Hollywood, California, has three facilities spread over an area of 400,000 sq feet that houses the research, manufacturing and finishing units as well as the warehouses of the company. Armorcast Products Company has the following 10 related companies:

• M R Castings, Inc
• National Traffic Signs, Inc.
• Disability Devices Inc
• Vanguard Online
• Concast, Inc.
• Carson Industries LLC
• Batterson, Inc.
• Discount Directionals
• Smith-Midland Corporation
• United Safety Authority

MANUFACTURING CAPABILITIES
The Company uses several manufacturing techniques for the various products they manufacture. Using raw materials like plastic polymers, metals and fiber, resin, wood, foam and glass processes like compression molding, injection molding, rotational molding, open mold casting, continuous mold casting, spray up/ lay-up and metal fabrication are carried out at the facilities.

OVERVIEW OF SAFETY PRODUCTS
Armorcast Products Company sells their barriers and barricades under the brand name Guardian Safety Barriers. The following are the products manufactured and marketed as Guardian Products.
Guardian Safety Barricades and Barriers: The Company provides customized units with logos, special signs and reflective tapes. Two sizes of barricades are available in Safety Orange, Safety Yellow, Safety Red, Safety White, Military Green, Desert Tan and Concrete Gray colors. Several additional features like inset areas for barricade lights, stackable design and smooth surfaces for labels and company logos may be incorporated into the products. The empty barricades weigh 40 lbs and do not need rubber bases. Barricades and barriers can be ballasted either with water or with sand.

Gawk Screen / Glare Screen: Linear low density polyethylene is used to manufacture the glare screen for inhibiting headlight glare on roads. The glare screen consists of double walled individual units that can be placed on concrete K rails or Jersey barriers and secured using steel pipes that are passed through the slots on the glare screen into pre-drilled holes on the K rails or barriers. The glare screens are compliant with the specifications stipulated by NCHRP 350 AND MUTCD.

Guardian 350 highway barriers: These are portable water ballasted barriers that conform to NCHRP 350 TL-2 (vehicles at 43.5 mph speeds) and TL-3 (vehicles speeding at 62.1 mph) standards and is a longitudinal system that can use 33 barriers as per the minimum mandated linear requirement of 198 feet. The Guardian 350 highway barrier longitudinal system has been crash tested and was found to be compliant with both Test Levels, TL 2 and TL 3. A longitudinal barrier is defined by the Federal Highway Authority (FHWA) as “devise whose primary functions are to PREVENT VEHICULAR PENETRATION and to SAFELY REDIRECT an errant vehicle away from a roadside or median hazard."

RHINO BARRIERS

Rhino Barriers is a company that has a presence in both, The United States Of America and The United Kingdom, having been incorporated in the year 1999.The company started its business with the Rhino polyethylene barrier, its first product that was launched after extensive testing at the Motor Industry Research Association, MIRA based at UK. The US barrier manufacturing operations are carried out at a rotational molding plant at Indiana and the company has an international office based in UK.

Products manufactured by Rhino Barriers are widely used throughout the US and UK. This was made possible after the prototypes were tested and found to meet the required standards. The first test successfully carried out involved an 820 kg small car for the National Council Highway Research Program, NCHRP 350 TL2 in May 2001. The second part of the test criteria was met in February 2002, when the barrier was tested using a 2000 kg truck travelling at 70 mph. Having passed the NCHRP standards, the barriers were deployed after approval from the US department of Transport, Federal Highways. Meanwhile the company tested a 1500kg saloon car moving at 80mph to meet the UK and European standards. The test criteria as set out in BS/EN1317 parts 1 and 2 to N1-TB31, for crash cushions and barriers were successfully cleared in February 2002. The Highway authorities approved the usage of Rhino Barriers on Trunk Roads. Today the company supplies 50,000 barriers annually, after each unit is put through stringent quality control before it is cleared for shipping to destination.

PRODUCT RANGE
The barriers and barricades manufactured by Rhino Barriers find application in traffic management, construction industry, crowd control at events, at security check points and for force protection that combat terrorism.

STANDARD BARRIER:
Lightweight, durable and easily visible the standard Rhino barrier RB1- 1000 is made from modified polyethylene to withstand inclement weather conditions.
When fitted with the TL2 -350 deflection kit, foam filled impact strips and ballasted with water, these regular RBI-1000 barriers conform to NCHRP 350 TL1-TL2 and can be used on federal highways as they can withstand vehicular crashes with vehicles travelling up to 45 mph. Reflector strips for high visibility and the simple pin connectors that set up the barriers in conjunction with each other to provide a pivotal angle of 45 degrees.

DELINEATION BARRIERS
These barricades are a light-weight version of the standard barriers and are ideal for work zones at construction sites to bar vehicles or people from entering. Highly visible and durable, these barricades make segregation easy to provide safe working areas for workers, motorists and pedestrians.

OTHER PRODUCTS
Parking kerbs manufactured from 100% recycled tire rubbers embedded with reflective glass and tapes, Rhino barrier and barricade signages, sign holders, safety lights that can be fitted on to the barriers and barricades are some of the other products.

OFF THE WALL SAFETY

COMPANY BACKGROUND
Off The Wall Safety is a company that is actively engaged in designing, testing and manufacturing plastic barriers and barricades since 1993. The company started off on a winning note when the design for their very first product was awarded patent rights in 1995 and subsequently the company notched up 20 patents for new designs in a span of just 15 years. Off The Wall Safety is also the proud recipient of 2 industry awards, 2001 Innovator Award from IFEA and The Contractors Choice Award, which they received for work zone safety. The company has always interacted with its customers to go out of their way to understand and provide specific product designs according to the demands of the customers and in the pursuit for excellence, the company came up with award-winning innovative designs.

COMPANY HEADQUARTERS / STAFF
Off The Wall Safety are based at Utah, the physical address being, 423 South 600 West, Salt Lake City, Utah 84101. Mr. Marc Edward Christensen is the managing member and Mrs. Amy E Bowen is the Director of marketing. This private company is categorized under Safety Equipment and Supplies with an annual revenue of $ 1 to 2.5 million and employs 5-9 staff. OTW safety was formerly known as Off The Wall Products.

PRODUCTS
OTW Safety has plastic barriers and barricades that they market under the brand names of Smart Jersey Barriers, Smart Security Barriers, Smart Runway Barrier and Smart Crowd Control. Their products find application in force protection, facility and plant security, airports, roads and highways traffic control, crowd control and various other security checkpoints.

OTW SAFETY’S WHITE PAPER
The company is constantly researching and innovating to find enhanced safety solutions in various sectors. As a company that seeks to shoulder corporate social responsibility, OTW Safety has presented a white paper entitled “Work Zone Safety and the Challenge: Choosing Effective Safety over Familiar Products”. The white paper describes the safety barriers and barricades that are used in the road construction industry and the benefits of some new products like Longitudinal Channelizing Barricades or LCBs vis-a-vis the temporary concrete barriers.

Concrete barriers are an effective protection for road construction workers form errant traffic around work zones. However, according to the paper, the concrete barriers tend to transfer the energy of the crash to the vehicle and the occupants, thereby proving hazardous to vehicle drivers and co-passengers. Cones, delineator posts and orange barrels that are used to highlight a hazardous area, maybe knocked down, go unnoticed or may be ignored leading to accidents. Barrels do not contribute much towards checking irresponsible and careless drivers from driving into work zones. Folding barricades tend to create confusion for motorists as the demarcated areas are not clearly visible due to the wide gaps. The brightly colored LCBs are highly visible and stable when ballasted with water. These inexpensive plastic barriers are easy to more around and set up as work zones change. A driver crashing into an LCB is relatively safe than when crashing into concrete barriers.