Patent ID: 8465223

Claim:
An apparatus for forming highway striping including a base line and light reflective pavement markers spaced along the base line, comprising: a carrier for advancing along a highway surface in a forward direction, a liquid applicator mounted on said carrier configured to apply the base line of molten thermoplastic pavement marking on the highway surface as said carrier is moved along the highway surface in a forward direction, a dispenser for dispensing the pavement markers onto the base line, said dispenser positioned behind said liquid applicator, said dispenser including a hopper configured to hold a plurality of the pavement markers in an upwardly extending stack of the pavement markers, a chute positioned behind said liquid applicator and sloped downwardly beneath said hopper and extending rearwardly from the forward direction of movement of the carrier for receiving the pavement markers from said hopper and sliding the pavement markers under the influence of gravity down the rearward slope of said chute and toward said base line for application to the highway surface, and a pusher for moving the lowermost pavement marker in the stack of pavement markers from said hopper in a forward direction onto said chute, such that the pavement markers move on said sloped chute in a rearward direction from said liquid applicator and onto the base line of molten thermoplastic pavement marking as said carrier continues to move in a forward direction.