One of the most common enquiries we get at COMPANY) is “How can I make my design more visible?” 24-hour on-the-road commercial vehicles, emergency fleets and those that are just after a little daytime sparkle or night-time shine can all benefit from understanding the broad advantages and certain limitations of reflective vinyl, or reflective print media (RPM). To further investigate this question, we spoke to our materials expert and production supervisor, David.
What is reflective vinyl?
“Reflective vinyl has a layer of glass beads that reflect the light from vehicle lights and other sources, followed by a thick, clear gloss film on top… it is great for an extra ‘pop’, and stands out well against everything around it.”
As mentioned above, there are many reasons, practical and commercial, for making your vehicle stand out from the rest. The process behind the making of reflective vinyl gives it its unique properties, using advanced reflective technologies and cutting-edge production techniques. Developments in reflective vinyl also mean that it can be used in almost all the applications that regular vinyl wrapping materials can, as it can be wrapped on all but the most extreme of shapes with little to no bruising.
Where do you see the most demand for reflective vinyl?
“It is most commonly used within the emergency services, and is essential for industries that require fleets on the road 24 hours a day, such as highway maintenance and vehicle recovery.”
‘High conspicuity livery’, as it is referred to in the emergency services, has several significant benefits, including:
- Block fluorescent colours make the vehicle appear larger and, therefore, more visible.
- The human eye is particularly effective at identifying flashing and reflected light in its peripheral vision.
- Fluorescent colours provide the strongest contrast with the greys, blacks and whites most commonly found in the typical road environment.
Whilst these elements are essential in environments with a high volume of traffic, they can also be used for commercial and personal liveries. One look at our work with reflective vinyl in the past will evidence just how effective this high impact media can be in getting your vehicle, and therefore your brand noticed.
What projects have you completed using reflective vinyl?
“We have worked with local company Harke Electrical, the Team Redmist drift British Drift Championship 2017 team and we also installed reflective elements onto the 3M & Spandex ‘Cool Cars’ competition-winning Rolling Stone Ligier JS P2-Hondas for Extreme Speed Motorsports at 2015’s24 Hours of Le Mans.”
Far from being limited to high conspicuity block colours on emergency vehicles, our team of experienced designers and installers can incorporate reflective vinyl into a wide range of designs, adding glistening detail to more complicated concepts, or ensuring whole panels are visible in potentially hazardous environments.
What ‘go-to’ brands are the most trusted by the team?
“3M Scotchlite 780mC is the only reflective that is intended to be printed on, but we will also print on Oralite 5200, 5300 and 5400 materials if the application isn’t too extreme in the way of curves.”
As a 3M Authorised Vehicle Wrapper, you won’t find a better place to install 3M’s unique, printable vinyl, which can be fully customised to any design and fitted to the majority of common surfaces, including simple curves, compound curves, concave surfaces, corrugations and flat surfaces both riveted and unriveted. And with a durability of up to 9 years, wide retroreflective viewing angles and heat-recovery properties and an easy apply and remove micro-technology Comply™ Adhesive, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better material for your reflective requirements.
For all enquiries into reflective vinyl, other reflective media and advice on how to make your vehicles highly visible, safer and more noticeable, contact us to book a consultation.
Max Lawrence Writes 