| BRIFEN WRSF Moving Ahead |
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| Written by BRIFEN Australia | |
BRIFEN WRSF Moving AheadBrifen Wire Rope Safety Barrier (WRSB) is a well-established product with an impeccable 40-year history of development and performance. Depending on the job specification, Brifen offers fences to suit a range of situations: Brifen EN1317 TB32 fence (suits specifications in NSW for 1,500kg vehicle) Brifen NCHRP350 TL3 fence (suits specifications in all states for 2,000kg vehicle) Brifen NCHRP350 TL4 fence (suits specifications in all states for 8,000kg truck) Brifen EN1317 H1 fence (suits specifications for 10,000kg truck) Brifen fences have been involved in road safety in Australia since 1991. Now a new generation of Brifen fence is being developed to meet new specifications and more demanding requirements for wire rope barriers from road authorities in the US and Europe. The FHWA in the USA withdrew NCHRP350 and moved on to MASH08 on 1 January 2009 with a 2-year transition period to 31 December 2010. All safety fence products will need to be retested in order to meet the new standards. Most will need to be redesigned to meet the MASH08 requirements. Brifen has started on that road already with extensive computer modelling of the post-rope interaction completed; full scale crash testing has started on several post designs to verify the computer simulations. Once a final design has been chosen the development trials and the final testing will be carried out before end of year. Most wire rope fences are adequate for containment and redirection of wayward vehicles in ideal situations such flat straight roads with wide medians. Brifen excels at both containment and low deflection performance in more critical and restricted locations. Brifen’s mechanical advantage is gained through the unique interweaving of the ropes between the posts. It is this interweaving of the ropes that has given Brifen the benefit of increased post-rope interaction that enables the more efficient dissipation of energy from the impacting vehicle. The MASH08 requirements are for heavier vehicles for all test levels, and for a more logical set of impact angles in the tests. At the same time the MASH08 standard set out guidelines of the fence to be tested such that all fences will be tested in a uniform method and manner. These new fences are primarily for the US market, which is a significantly larger market than the Australian market. It will be another 12 months before the approved fence designs are available for submission to Ausralian road authorities. For further information on the Brifen fence systems contact Paul Hansen of Brifen Australia 02-9631-8833 or fax 02-9688-4503. Web site is www.brifen.com.au. |
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| Last Updated ( Sunday, 03 January 2010 ) |
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