Reflectors

It has been determined that the majority of road accidents (no matter if they involved motorcycles, cars, bicycles or maybe even heavy goods vehicles) take place during the night in circumstances of poor visibility, such as fog. It is therefore vital that any vehicle used on the road should be fitted with a type of reflector as an added visibility safety measure and it is a virtually near guarantee that there's a reflector to fit every make and model of motorcycle and car since in the majority of cases the reflectors for such vehicles are not made especially for particular models and makes and may very easily individually be attached or stuck on.

There's also several firms specialising in the manufacturing of plastic products that along with producing reflectors in a range of polymers (from standard ABS compounds to others such as PPS, DMC and ULTEM which may have a really high level of heat resistance) for a large selection of vehicles (manufactured using moulding or vacuuming production processes), also provide a re-metallising service for headlight reflectors of classic and modern cars alike. Companies such as these are often approached to produce suitable reflectors for a lot of various makes and models of cars that have not passed their M.O.T. tests.

For bikes in particular, reflectors are normally manufactured as a moulded tile of transparent plastic, with a smooth exterior surface (in order to allow light such as from an approaching car’s headlights to enter) whereas the back of the reflector takes the form of a range of angled spherical beads or micro-prisms. These reflectors make use of the principle of retroreflection to notify motorists towards the presence of the cyclist traveling on the road. Retroreflection happens when light is reflected back to the source with a minimum amount of light being scattered and lost in the surrounding area, making Retroreflectors the perfect materials for use in the manufacture of bicycle and car reflectors.

When light strikes the rear of a reflector such as this (meaning the surface housing the spherical beads and micro-prisms) it will do so at an angle that is greater than the ‘critical angle’ (the angle of incidence above which total internal reflection can take place). Total internal reflection in this instance means that (due to the orientation of the interior surfaces) the light is totally reflected back out via the front of the reflector in the direction it came from and instantly alerts the various other road users towards the existence of the other vehicle on the road.