A History Of Reflective Fabric Technology

Reflective Fabric has a number of uses from personal to commercial and industrial settings. The sew on application is only one design method, as reflective tape is also applied to various surfaces - including metal - using powerful and long lasting adhesives. It's a resource used in everything from cars, to marking buildings and poles as well as professional workers for the sake of improving visibility.

Although its used in many other areas, reflective tape has its own multi-billion dollar industry- high visibility clothing and personal protective equipment. Methods of applying the reflective tape range from sewing it on or by using a heat press with adhesive films that bond to the backing material found in most high visibility work ear.

Reflective fabrics entered the scene back in the early 20th century. The technology at that time was mainly utilized in retro-reflective backing material on roadways, automobiles and bikes. The reflectors of this period had small glass beads that captured the source light and then reflected it back in the direction of the light. As time progressed, changes in technology allowed for refinement of the production process. The beads were downsized which in turn created a more effective return of light in greater concentration. This downsize in the glass beads also gave the reflective technology the ability to be used in clothing.

Clothing can be covered in glass beads and results will happen; however, they wont be the kind most people are looking for. When light would hit these beads, it would refract and scatter but it likely wouldnt reflect- at least not in any great way. In order for this technology to be used efficiently on both clothing and vehicles, two types of reflective materials were created. These are adhesive reflective fabric and sew on reflective, each with multiple layers to gather light and reflect it. To make this technology effective, a base of PVC (which is a strong thermoplastic resin) is used and the small glass beads are embossed. They are then given multiple layers of metallic flake backing to reflect the light. This is similar to the coating found on the back of a mirror.

When glass beads are not used, manufacturers turn to microprisms when designing reflective tape. Microprisms are often favored because unlike glass beads, which are curved and only return about 30% of the light, they featured hard angles that return as much as 80% or more of light back toward the source. With any kind of reflective material, such as fire retardant reflective tape, the placement of microprisms is calculated carefully to offer the best coverage and return of light.

Sew on Vs. Adhesive - In any situation where a reflective tape uses adhesive backings, that bonding material is applied to the tape after the reflective material has been fully created. After the adhesive is applied, the reflective material is rolled up just like a big roll of tape. Depending on the industrial adhesive that is used, a manufacturer may have to line the tape with a non-stick paper backing to protect the lower layers of tape.

The more popular sew on reflective tape has no adhesive backing. This is delivered in large rolls to a manufacturer. During their production process they can either precut or load the rolls into machines which cut the necessary lengths for individual garment lines. Sew on widely accepted over adhesive for clothing, particular rescue gear, because adhesive bonds don't stand up well to weather and high temperatures (such as fires).