Retroreflective materials and articles incorporating near-ideal total internal retroreflective elements
AssigneeVergence Automation, Inc.
InventorJames E. Retterath
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Retroreflective materials and articles are enabled that increase the retroreflectivity of reflective materials or articles for roadway, automotive, and safety purposes by incorporating retroreflective elements that exhibit near-ideal Total Internal Reflection (TIR).
Claims18
A retroreflective material for creating roadway markers having a near-ideal retroreflectivity, the retroreflective material comprising:
- a mesh made of a flexible compound;
- and
- a plurality of discrete retroreflective elements made of a rigid material retained within the mesh in an array pattern that defines an incident material surface, each retroreflective element formed of one or more cube corner elements with at least some of the cube corner elements having an apex axis having an orientation generally tilted relative to a normal of the incident material surface and each retroreflective element includes at least a front surface exposed to the incident material surface having a tilted surface normal angle of between about 2 degrees and 8 degrees relative to the normal of the incident material surface,
- wherein each of the plurality of discrete retroreflective elements is configured to produce a near-ideal total internal reflection (TIR) when the retroreflective material is installed on a roadway.
A retroreflective element comprising a cube corner element having at least one incident surface exposed to incident radiation and having a cube corner apex axis with an orientation generally tilted relative to a normal of the incident surface, wherein the element comprises at least about 10 percentage by weight TiO2, and wherein the element has an index of refraction of at least 2.3.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.