Improving Visibility With Reflective Tape

Take a look around you and you'll see how reflective tape has worked it's way into society and every day environments

. Not only is it used heavily in the garment industry among professional workers but fashion designers are using it for clothing labels to enhance overall visibility and attraction. Beyond garments, reflective tape has found its way into professional work environments, vehicles, roadways and more. The purpose is to promote visibility and safety, but how does reflective tape do that? How does it send light directly back to the source?

An Example of Retro-Reflective Tape in Action

A great way to describe how the stuff works is with a scenario - two people are on opposites sides of a street. At the end of the street is a worker with a professional safety vest covered in reflective tape. The person on the right side of the street, using a flashlight, shines it down on the worker. Even in regular light conditions the vest will reflect the light back to the source, but the flash of light will only be visible to the one with the flashlight.

Generally the person on the other side of the road doesn't see the flash because their line of sight isn't in the return path or the angle of the light being reflected back. If the person on the left side of the road were to shine their own light however, they would see that light return to them. This works because the tape is covered in either glass beads or small prisms that return the light to its source, even if there are multiple sources of light.

Reflective Tape Design

While there are two different designs for reflective tape - glass bead and prisms - the glass beads are the more common of the design method. This reflect tape contains a layer of microscopic glass beads in the outer layer, held in place by transparent bonding agent. Beneath that layer are various layers of transparent film that containing pigment and metallic flakes designed to promote light refraction. At the very bottom is the moldable cushion layer and adhesive backing for application (or general backing for sew-on application).

Reflective tape is so effective because of this innovation design. It is one of the most effective ways to enhance visibility and promote safety. Not only can the reflective tape and other reflective materials handle light at sharp angles but it can also handle uncountable sources from various directions, maximizing visibility for the wearer.

Understanding Angles

The important thing to remember with reflective tape is that everything is dependent on angles when it comes to visibility. When you're far away from the reflective material, it's relatively easy for the eyes to pickup the reflection due to angle and the distance. As you move closer, the variance in the angle makes it harder for the eye to detect that reflection. The closer you get, the closer the light source needs to be to the human eye to see the light from the reflective tape.

by: carl e gonzalez

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