Stock material or miscellaneous articles – Structurally defined web or sheet – Including variation in thickness
Patent
1998-06-18
2000-07-04
Cole, Elizabeth M.
Stock material or miscellaneous articles
Structurally defined web or sheet
Including variation in thickness
428141, 428156, 362297, 362341, 362529, 362530, B32B 328
Patent
active
060836075
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a triangular-pyramidal cube-corner retroreflective sheet having a novel structure. More minutely, the present invention relates to a cube-corner retroreflective sheet in which triangular-pyramidal reflective elements having a novel structure are arranged in a close-packed state.
Still more minutely, the present invention relates to a cube-corner retroreflective sheet constituted with triangular-pyramidal cube-corner retroreflective elements (hereafter referred to as triangular-pyramidal reflective elements or merely, elements) useful for signs including traffic signs and construction work signs, license plates of automobiles and motorcycles, safety materials of clothing and life preservers, markings of signboards, and reflectors of visible-light, laser-beam, and infrared-ray reflective sensors.
Still more minutely, the present invention relates to a triangular-pyramidal cube-corner retroreflective sheet in which triangular-pyramidal cube-corner retroreflective elements protruded on one common base plane (X-X') are arranged on the base plane in a close-packed state so as to face each other by sharing one common base edge on the base plane (X-X') with each other, the base plane (X-X') is one common plane including a plurality of the base edges (x, x, . . . ) shared by the triangular-pyramidal retroreflective elements, two these triangular-pyramidal retroreflective elements facing each other form a pair of elements having the substantially same shape facing each other so as to be respectively substantially symmetric to planes (Y-Y', Y-Y', . . . ) vertical to the base plane including the common base edges (x, x, . . . ) on the base plane (X-X'), the triangular-pyramidal retroreflective elements are formed with substantially same pentagonal lateral faces (c.sub.1, c.sub.2) using the common base edges (x, x, . . . ) as one side and substantially same quadrangular lateral faces (a.sub.1, b.sub.1 ; a.sub.2, b.sub.2) substantially perpendicularly intersecting the face c.sub.1 or c.sub.2 using two upper sides of the face c.sub.1 or c.sub.2 using apexes (H.sub.1, H.sub.2) of the triangular-pyramidal retroreflective elements as starting points as one side respectively, sharing one of ridge lines of the triangular-pyramidal retroreflective elements and using the ridge line as one side and the height (h') from the apexes (H.sub.1, H.sub.2) of the triangular-pyramidal retroreflective elements up to the base plane (X-X') including the base edges (x, x, . . . ) of the pentagonal lateral faces (c.sub.1, c.sub.2) of the triangular-pyramidal retroreflective elements is substantially larger than the height (h) from the apexes (H.sub.1, H.sub.2) of the triangular-pyramidal retroreflective elements up to a substantially horizontal plane (virtual plane Z-Z') including base edges (z, w) of other lateral faces (a.sub.1, b.sub.1 ; a.sub.2, b.sub.2) of the triangular-pyramidal retroreflective elements.
BACKGROUND ART
A retroreflective sheet for reflecting incoming light toward a light source has been well known so far and the sheet using its retroreflective characteristic is widely used in the above fields. Particularly, a cube-corner retroreflective sheet using the retroreflective theory of a cube-corner retroreflective element such as a triangular-pyramidal reflective element is extremely superior to a conventional retroreflective sheet using a micro glass beads in retroreflectivity and its purpose has been expanded year by year because of its superior retroreflective performance.
However, though a conventionally-publicly-known triangular-pyramidal retroreflective element shows a preferable retroreflectivity when the angle formed between the optical axis of the element (axis passing through the apex of the triangular pyramid of the triangular-pyramidal retroreflective element equally separate from three faces constituting a triangular-pyramidal cube-corner retroreflective element and intersecting each other at an angle of 90.degree.) and an incident light (the angle is hereafter
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Adachi Keiji
Mimura Ikuo
Cole Elizabeth M.
Nippon Carbide Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Singh Arti R.
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