What Are Traffic Cones Made Of?

Overview

• Traffic cones must endure constant exposure to vehicles, impacts, and harsh weather while remaining visible and stable.
• From flexible, UV-resistant plastics to heavy-duty rubber, each material is carefully selected to deliver strength, durability, and high visibility.
• Modern manufacturing methods, such as large part injection molding, further enhance their performance by ensuring uniform thickness and density, preventing weak points, and extending their lifespan, making them reliable tools for maintaining road safety.

A traffic cone is one of the most common objects you’ll encounter when traveling on the road, serving as a simple yet essential tool for guiding vehicles and keeping both motorists and pedestrians safe.

Because these cones must withstand constant exposure to heavy traffic, impacts, and harsh weather, the materials used to make them play a critical role in their performance and durability.

One of the most reliable methods for producing high-quality traffic cones is large-part injection molding, which creates strong, uniform, and long-lasting products. In this article, we will explore what traffic cones are made of, the key materials involved, and how the right manufacturing process ensures their safety and effectiveness.

Common Materials

Traffic cones are typically made from plastic and rubber, two materials chosen for their durability, flexibility, and ability to withstand heavy outdoor use. Both play a key role in ensuring cones remain stable, visible, and reliable under constant exposure to vehicles, pedestrians, and varying weather conditions.

In the following sections, we’ll take a closer look at each material and why they are the preferred choice for manufacturing long-lasting traffic cones.

Plastic

Plastic is widely used for traffic cones due to its balance of flexibility, durability, and weather resistance. It bends instead of cracking on impact, retains its shape in extreme temperatures, and remains lightweight for easy transport. Cost-effective and long-lasting, plastic cones are ideal for large-scale use—and many options are recyclable, supporting sustainability goals.

Types of Plastic Used in Traffic Cones:

• PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride): Highly flexible and impact-resistant, PVC offers excellent color retention for high visibility.
• PE (Polyethylene): Lightweight and space-saving, easy to stack and recycle, offers good weather resistance.
• EVA (Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate): Flexible, biodegradable, and maintains color and shape well; less common but environmentally friendly.

Rubber

Rubber traffic cones are valued for their weight, stability, and durability. Their heavier base keeps them upright in windy areas, highways, or high-traffic zones, while their flexible composition absorbs impact without cracking.

Designed for long-term outdoor use, rubber cones are a reliable, reusable choice for demanding road and industrial applications.

Key Properties That Make These Materials Ideal

Both rubber and plastic offer unique characteristics that make them perfectly suited for manufacturing durable, reliable traffic cones. These properties ensure the cones can withstand demanding road conditions while maintaining safety and visibility for drivers and pedestrians.

Weather Resistance

Traffic cones must endure everything from scorching summer heat to freezing winter temperatures. Plastic excels in weather resistance, retaining its shape and color even under prolonged UV exposure, heavy rain, or snow.

Rubber also performs well outdoors, but plastic tends to resist fading and warping more effectively over time, making it the preferred choice for regions with extreme seasonal changes. This resistance prevents cracking, brittleness, and color loss, ensuring the cones remain functional and visible year-round.

High Visibility with Bright Pigments

Traffic cones are designed to capture attention instantly, which is why manufacturers use bright pigments such as fluorescent orange, lime green, or yellow. These vivid colors remain highly visible during daylight and are often paired with reflective collars to enhance nighttime visibility.

Plastic is particularly effective at locking in these pigments, ensuring the color stays vibrant despite continuous exposure to sunlight and harsh weather. Rubber can also be colored, but it may require additional coatings to achieve the same brilliance as plastic. For busy roads and work zones, this high visibility is essential to alert drivers from a distance, prevent accidents, and guide traffic safely in low-light conditions or during inclement weather.

Flexibility to Absorb Impacts Without Cracking

Unexpected impacts from passing vehicles to construction equipment are common in high-traffic environments. Plastic offers exceptional flexibility, allowing cones to bend or compress under pressure and then return to their original shape without cracking.

Rubber also absorbs shocks effectively, but is generally heavier, which can make it harder to transport in bulk. The ability of plastic cones to absorb impacts means fewer replacements are needed, translating to significant cost savings for large projects.

Their durability also reduces downtime caused by damaged equipment, ensuring uninterrupted safety on highways, parking lots, and construction sites while keeping long-term operational costs manageable.

How Richfields’ Large Part Injection Molding Creates Durable Traffic Cones

At Richfields, we specialize in large part injection molding to create traffic cones that meet the highest standards of road safety and durability. Using precision-engineered molds and advanced injection technology, we heat high-quality plastic materials until they melt and inject them into carefully designed molds.

Unlike other manufacturing methods, our injection molding process creates cones with consistent material thickness and density, eliminating weak points that can lead to cracks or deformation. This uniformity ensures every cone maintains the same high level of durability, even when exposed to heavy impacts, constant handling, or extreme weather conditions.

Key Takeaway

Understanding what traffic cones are made of is vital to appreciating how they maintain visibility, stability, and durability in challenging environments. From flexible plastics to heavy-duty rubber, these materials are carefully chosen to deliver maximum safety and performance on the road.

At Richfields, we specialize in large part injection molding to produce durable, customizable, and eco-friendly traffic cones that meet the highest safety standards. Contact us today to discuss your traffic cone requirements and learn how our advanced injection molding services can support your road safety projects.