Planned obsolescence has become rife in our industry. This involves intentionally designing products to wear out or become obsolete within a relatively short time so you return time and time again to buy more.
IMPACT RESISTANCE
Have you ever stopped to wonder why bollards aren't impact resistant? This not only makes the bollards dangerous and often extremely unsightly, but with hundreds of thousands of bollards impacted around the country every year, it creates an enormous amount of landfill.
QUALITY MATERIALS
To make matters worse, in the past few years we've seen a massive increase in poor quality imported bollards that rust out and corrode in no time- they are so bad that the Australian government issued a warning about imported steel. Not only are these bollards dangerous, they are drastically increasing landfill. N.B. Importers buy these bollards for around ten dollars (as opposed to Aussie bollards costing $100 + to manufacture) and on-sell them for Australian prices. Always ask if the bollard and the steel is locally manufactured as there's a reason they are so cheap.
SURFACE MOUNT
When a Surface mount bollard is hit, it is not the bollard that stops a vehicle because the energy is directed to the weakest point, which is usually the weld or the base plate, which bends or (if the base plate is strong enough- the concrete anchors are ripped from the pavement) and either way a vehicle will drive through unabated and they are costly to replace.
Warning: Despite some referring to these as ram raid bollards, standard surface mounted bollards will not stop a vehicle and provide no protection to pedestrians.
IN-GROUND
People think making the bollard stronger will reduce damage but if a bollard embedded in concrete is hit, and the bollard is strong enough, the force is simply directed toward the footing and the footing is dislodged. Either way- there’s no good outcome and both the bollard and the expensive footings are sent to landfill and need replacing. The bigger the footing- the greater the waste.
If used in carparks- they cause major damage to vehicles and are extremely costly to constantly replace.
What most people don't realise is that the foundations are actually far more important than the bollard itself.
STOP PAYING TO REPEATEDLY REPLACE BOLLARDS & EXPENSIVE FOOTINGS You can now preserve expensive concrete footings for a lifetime (100 years +) Impact tested and in situ tested for more than two decades, Impact Recovery Bollards and ZERO WASTE Foundations are reusable impact after impact