High-visibility vehicle markings significantly reduce accident risks as many industrial studies stated. Without them, the likelihood of a truck-car collision rises 30 times. By outlining the truck’s full size, these reflective tape or vehicle markings enable earlier detection by other drivers, giving them the necessary time to avoid traffic accidents.

We always want a reflective tape that delivers outstanding vehicle visibility, alerting more road users faster and earlier.

Retro-reflectivemarkings are used to increase the visibility and recognition for heavy

and long vehicles and their trailers. However, more applications to other vehicles are also becoming more important, such as cars, motor cycles, and even bikes.

Good quality reflective tapes must be highly reflective, weatherproof, self-adhesive tapes with excellent corrosion and solvent resistance. And it is composed of a UV stabilized acrylic front film with retroreflective system consisting of sealed cells of air backed microprisms that use total internal reflection.

The Different Grades of Choices

There are mainly several grades of reflective tapes manufactured and supplied worldwide as below listed:

Diamond Grade

High Intensity Prismatic Grade

High Intensity Grade

Engineer Grade Prismatic

Engineer Grade

Commercial Grade

The first, second and fourth listed grades have unique prismatic construction that provides an extra high level of reflectivity for demanding traffic control situations.

Among them, diamond grade conspicuity tape offers optimized retroreflective performance to make vehicles more visible for every driver than any other grades. Diamond grade reflective tape has unique construction with higher performance that returns more light in a larger cone of reflectivity, making the tape look brighter and making the roads safer for people. With the best retroreflectivity in the reflective material industry, diamond grade offers remarkable help in decreasing vehicle crashes and related costs as a result.

It is one of the most sustainable and efficient reflective sheeting materials on the market, with an expected outdoor lifespan of 10-12 years. It is meant to achieve the benefits of lower costs and fewer maintenance over time while effectively preventing accidents, death and serious injury.

Good Application Procedures

Make sure the surface or substrate temperature is 18-30°C andsurface must be oil, rust, dirt freeor any contamination which could affect the adhesion of the material.You canclean with IPA surface solution if need be. Freshly lacquered or painted surfaces should be completely cured. The compatibility of selected lacquers and paints should be tested by the user, prior to application of the reflective material. This step is important as the first step, to achieve the best performance for the adhesive.

Mark the places where the tape will be applied with pen or similar.

Remove liner or backing paper and align tape to guideline you marked and you can make some small adjustments, if need be, in this step.

You can use squeegee or similar board to apply pressure to the tape all over, which is to activate pressure sensitive adhesive. Otherwise, the adhesive may not reach its highest performance. It is suggested tocut between joints so to allow movement over time during its service life, which will prevent the tape from lifting unexpectedly.

The Standards of Conspicuity Tape

Qualified conspicuity tape should be independently tested and certificates of compliance to industrial standards, such as DOT-C2, ECE104 and AS/NZS 1906.1 Class 1A, among others, dependent on the different markets as applied.

The colors of same grade of reflective tape have different levels of reflectivity. Usually, white, yellow and fluorescent yellow green have the brightest performance, followed by orange, red, green and blue colors. Therefore, while they are mostly at the same price except fluorescent yellow green color at higher costs, you can choose your preferred color or the highest reflective performance or follow the traffic rules such as red/white are the more common used alternating colors in many countries.

Hope you find the above useful when you choose the right reflective tape for your vehicles and always test before bulk use to decide the suitability beforehand.