Mar-Bal invests in detectable warning surfaces safety product lines

Mar-Bal, Inc., of Chagrin Falls, OH, recently acquired all of the assets of both AlertTile (including AlertCast) and Detectable Warning Systems (including RediMat). The businesses acquired by Mar-Bal will now be branded under the umbrella brand of Detectable Warning Systems (DWS) as part of the Mar-Bal proprietary family of products.

Mar-Bal has put a stewardship plan in place for a growth trajectory into the US$60 million warning surfaces market — with a value-added focus on commitment to innovation and market advancement for the growth and benefits of composites.

Government accessibility guidelines that support handicapped communities are required for many environments, including hazardous vehicle ways, transit platform edges, reflecting pools, curb and wheelchair ramps.

These detectable warning surfaces, also called truncated domes, are tactile indicators and tactile pavers that provide ‘cues’ to persons with vision impairments–alerting them that they’re walking into a hazardous vehicular area or change of grade. These are the products that comprise the broad scope of the DWS line–which are now a part of the proprietary product family of Mar-Bal, Inc. DWS is now one of the industry’s most complete lines of ADA compliant tactile warning surfaces, engineered for visually impaired pedestrians at a reasonable cost to contractors, distributors, states, and municipalities for a myriad of market applications including: health care-disability, rail-transport, architecture, infrastructure and composites-plastics.

Both AlertTile and Detectable Warning Systems have been pioneers in manufacturing and providing innovative and economical detectable warnings since the first installation for the Florida DOT in 1993.

In 2012 AlertTile president/owner Alex Munroe and DWS president/owner Mike Keels formed a strategic partnership enabling both companies access to the others’ product lines. Combining Redimat (flexible, glass filled polyurethane; peel & stick) with the AlerTile and AlertCast product lines gave each company two surface applied options and the industries’ best replacement cast-in place detectable warning.

With an existing customer/supplier relationship already in place with Mar-Bal, Munroe approached Mar-Bal principles about a potential acquisition of AlertTile / DWS. Ultimately, the acquisition would allow DWS total vertical integration with the composite tiles (AlertTile / AlertCast) and control over the other product lines Redimat and CastIron. On September 14, 2018 the acquisition was finalized.