ZERO VELOCITY BEAD DISPENSER

1. A device for dispensing reflective particles at zero velocity from a forwardly moving vehicle painting a line on a road surface, comprising:

a frame mounted to the vehicle;

a motor mounted on the frame and having a drive shaft;

a drive roller rotatably mounted on the frame and being rotatably driven by the motor drive shaft;

an idler roller rotatably mounted on the frame; and

a nip point between the rollers;

a particle gun on the vehicle to direct the reflective particles into the nip point of the rollers for discharge in a rearward direction at a velocity substantially equal to the forward velocity of the vehicle so that the particles are dispensed onto the painted line at substantially zero velocity.

2. The device of claim 1 further comprising a chute between the gun and the rollers to direct the particles into the nip point.

3. The device of claim 1 further comprising a controller to monitor the velocity of the vehicle and automatically adjust the speed of the motor to match the velocity of the truck.

4. The device of claim 1 further comprising a speed sensor to sense the forward speed of the vehicle and send a voltage signal to the motor to adjust the speed of the drive shaft, and thus the speed of the rollers.

5. The device of claim 1 wherein the rollers have axes which are offset with respect to one another.

6. The device of claim 1 wherein the rollers each have axes, and the idler roller axis is forwardly from the driver roller axis.

7. The device of claim 1 wherein the rollers discharge the particles downwardly.

8. An improved road paint striper vehicle, comprising:

a nozzle to paint a line on a road while the vehicle moves with a forward velocity;

a vessel containing reflective particles;

first and second closely spaced pair of rollers adapted to receive particles from the vessel and discharge the particles with a rearward velocity onto the painted line; and

the forward and rearward velocities being substantially equal.

9. The vehicle of claim 8 further comprising an electric motor connected to one of the rollers to rotate the rollers.

10. The vehicle of claim 9 further comprising a speed sensor to sense the speed of the vehicle and being operatively connected to the motor to vary the motor speed to correspond to the vehicle speed.

11. The vehicle of claim 8 further comprising a chute to direct particles from the vessel to a nip point between the rollers.

12. The vehicle of claim 8 wherein the second roller is positioned forwardly of the first roller.

13. The vehicle of claim 8 wherein the first roller is above the second roller to define a substantially horizontal nip point between the rollers.

14. The vehicle of claim 8 wherein the rollers discharge the particles in a downward direction.

15. A method of applying a reflective line onto a road, comprising:

driving a paint striper truck forwardly while spraying a line of paint onto the road;

directing reflective particles through a pair of rotating rollers to discharge the beads in a rearward and downward direction onto the line of paint; and

substantially matching the forward velocity of the truck with the rearward velocity of the particles so that the particles hit the paint with substantially zero horizontal velocity.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising sensing the speed of the truck and adjusting the rotational speed of the rollers to maintain zero horizontal velocity for the particles.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising adjusting the rotational speed of the rollers to correspond to the speed of the truck.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein the particles are discharged into the paint without rolling.

19. The method of claim 15 wherein one roller drives the other roller.

20. The method of claim 15 wherein the particles are delivered to a nip point between the rollers via a chute.