Microprisms for paint application

David wrote in news:gasedt18- snipped-for-privacy@news-vip.optusnet.com.au:

Try a internet search on "cube corner prisms", instead. My search came back with a few dozen suppliers.

Regards, R. David Zopf Bomar Specialties Co.

Thanks mate,

shall do that. Having a bugger of a time. 3M were no help. Thought that cube corner prisms were ordinarily big and was following the terminology most used by traffic sign, safety clothes and retroreflective tape manufacturers. Seems also that some of the retroreflective technology is film or sheet based.

I recall there's an array of cube corner prisms on the moon that lasers on earth shoot at.

Regards

David Sydney

If I were a manufacturer of these basic retroreflective particles, I would NOT sell them to the public, but restrict the sales to more or less reputable manufacturing outfits.

It is amazing what the bad publicity from ordinary idiotic DIY buyers can do to your economic future.

By the way. Why did you think that the prisms would be better for your application?

Uncle Al some interesting info there, thanks.

jbuch:

Jbuch, you haven't added any knowledge only opinion. There's a few assumptions there; direct sales for non-listed product, no I expect not-legal issues/safety/cost of processing order etc; Bulk sales for established product vs samples - 'back in the old days' companies would be helpful, especially for school projects and start-up exploratory initiatives - ways to improve community profile; Some things start small - nothing to suggest not reputable; Referral to third party agent is an option; Referral to existing products that may be adaptable

- basic sales/liason skills.

It is amazing that large companies have such poor liaison skills/personnel. An assumption there re: idiocy. I don't think such large companies economic future is influence by such 'bad publicity' especially in light of larger economic issues or environmental issues.

I'm not sure they would be, but I would like to find out. It comes down to matters of directionality/scattering and orientation of prisms vs spheres. What do you know?

David

I researched this about 4 years ago, and was told that generally speaking, 3M restricts the sale of their retroreflective media to "qualified" purchasers...... You may still be able to buy some from specialty outlets who have managed to acquire stock.

Not all applications are best served by the highest directionality retroreflectors.

Perfect directionality would mean that because the automobile headlight hits the retroreflective media at a different angle than the line of sight of the driver's eyes, then the product would perform poorly as a "be seen" aid.

I would not sell to you as an individual, if I were in control of manufacturing these materials, because you haven't done your homework.

The sales of microprism retroreflectors are much smaller than microspheres such as what 3M sells.

I have quite a few articles of both of these media, and for my interests, the microprism is wanting.

I suggest that you buy some commerical products of each and become familiar with their strengths and limitations yourself.

And do the actual research, quite a bit of which can be done online. The telephone can get you an awful lot of inside information from experienced people.

We're done, I think.

Uncle Al -

Yes, and there's the surface coating and imperfections in that and the RI differential with encapsulating substance/surface coating. Retro-reflected luminance of 60% or so is claimed by one product manufacturer for their sheets. There are quite a few patents for sheet prism tech but I am yet to find anyone who produces loose true micro cube corners - 50-1500 micron of either internal reflection or silvered type. Of course with sheet prisms there isn't the difficulty of positioning but at the expense of limited conformability.

In my wanderings I re-discovered the fact that Stanley Kubrick shot The Dawn of Man scene in 2001 against a retro-reflective screen using a special projection camera.

David