Reflective tape

Reflective tape is a special tape fastened to clothes, vehicles, traffic signs to improve their visibilityin night light conditions. You could see her on the vests of road workers (they are often worn by cyclists), the clothes of firefighters. Light falling on such a tape is reflected towards its source with minimal scattering, which makes R materials clearly visible. This is especially true if the lighting is moving, that is, from car headlights, flashlights, searchlights on helicopters.

Principle of operation and characteristics of reflective tape

Regular surfaces scatter and absorb a ray of light incident on them. A good analogy is a stream of water. If you splash onto clothes in a closet (just don’t ask why this is done, let's say stress can be relieved;), then some of the water will be absorbed immediately, which corresponds to the absorption of light, and the rest will scatter in all directions. To light reflected without loss, you need to make the surface smooth. This is how the mirror works, but in this case the beam will return to the source only if the angle is close to the straight line.

So that the light always reflects in the right direction, many microscopic balls are applied to the material, reflecting from the inner surface. This technology was developed by 3M. Sometimes instead of balls in reflective tapes, other forms are used: funnels, prisms.

The main characteristic of the film is the reflection coefficient - the larger it is, the better the rays are reflected.

Applications for reflective tape

Work clothes

Reflective tape is especially important at construction sites where work can go in the dark, and the lighting is produced by the headlights of construction equipment or a searchlight on the crane's boom.

Road safety

The clothing of road workers must be equipped with retroreflective elements, since people work in the vicinity of fast moving cars and should be clearly visible.

Traffic signs, temporary fences and barriers and barriers are pasted with reflective film.

Firefighters, rescuers

In the conditions of liquidation of natural or man-made disasters, rescuers can move randomly, visibility can be impaired by dust and smoke, and work can be carried out round the clock. Therefore, firefighters' clothing is equipped with reflective tapes.

Other uses

R materials, though in the form of adhesive films and plastic blocks, we often see on cars, bicycles, motorcycles. The goal is the same - designation of dimensions, increasing noticeability.

Recently, reflective coatings and linings are widely used in design.