Retroglo is a reflective yarn designed to increase nighttime safety. It is made of 3M Scotchlite Reflective Material and laminated to a

polyester Polyester is a category of polymers that contain the ester functional group in every repeat unit of their main chain. As a specific material, it most commonly refers to a type called polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Polyesters include natural ...

film for added strength. Retroglo is used for a wide variety of applications including

high-visibility clothing High-visibility clothing, sometimes shortened to hi vis or hi viz, is any clothing worn that is highly luminescent in its natural matt property or a color that is easily discernible from any background. It is most commonly worn on the torso and ...

for joggers, walkers, bicycle riders, and highway workers.Providence Business News-Clothing Made To Be Seen
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Characteristics

Retroglo is composed of 50,000 minute glass beads per square inch. The material is retroreflective, meaning it reflects light back to a light source, such as toward a car's headlights. The glass beads used in Retroglo are much smaller than the beads used in reflective

road surface marking Road surface marking is any kind of device or material that is used on a road surface in order to convey official information; they are commonly placed with road marking machines (also referred to as road marking equipment or pavement marking eq ...

paint used on highways. Retroglo can be woven, braided or knit into fabrics or into trim to be applied to fabric.Retroglo Product Data Sheet
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Construction

3M Scotchlite Reflective Material is

laminated Lamination is the technique/process of manufacturing a material in multiple layers, so that the composite material achieves improved strength, stability, sound insulation, appearance, or other properties from the use of the differing materia ...

in wide rolls on either one or both sides of a polyester film. The wide rolls are slit to narrow widths to make Retroglo yarns which have a rectangular cross section. The width, which has the retroreflective surface, is always wider than the thickness with standard widths of 1/69", 1/32",and 1/23". The breaking strength of Retroglo is 250 grams and yield point is 15-20 grams.

Composition

References

{{reflist Synthetic fibers