Claims
- 1. A cube corner article, comprising:
a body layer having a structured surface comprising recessed faces and top surfaces, the recessed faces defining cube corner cavities; and a film of reflective material exposed selectively on the recessed faces of the structured surface.
- 2. The article of claim 1, wherein the film is substantially continuous.
- 3. The article of claim 2, further comprising:
a masking material disposed selectively on the top surfaces and covering the film.
- 4. The article of claim 3, wherein the masking material is diffusely reflective.
- 5. The article of claim 4, wherein the masking material is substantially white.
- 6. The article of claim 3, wherein the masking material is substantially opaque.
- 7. The article of claim 1, wherein the film is discontinuous.
- 8. The article of claim 7, wherein the film is substantially absent from at least some of the top surfaces.
- 9. The article of claim 8, wherein the film is substantially absent from all of the top surfaces, and the structured surface consists essentially of the recessed faces and the top surfaces.
- 10. The article of claim 8, wherein the body layer is exposed at the at least some of the top surfaces, the body layer comprising a diffusely reflective material.
- 11. The article of claim 7, wherein the body layer is transparent.
- 12. The article of claim 7, wherein the reflective material comprises silver.
- 13. The article of claim 1, wherein the structured surface comprises intersecting sets of parallel ridges.
- 14. The article of claim 13, wherein the ridges within at least one of the sets of parallel ridges have upper portions with differing transverse dimensions.
- 15. The article of claim 14, wherein the upper portions of ridges for at least two of the sets of parallel ridges have differing transverse dimensions.
- 16. The article of claim 1, wherein the cube corner cavities comprise cube corner cavities of differing aperture size.
- 17. The article of claim 1, further comprising:
a substantially transparent cover layer that covers the structured surface.
- 18. The article of claim 1, further comprising:
an adhesive applied to a rear surface of the body layer.
- 19. A cube corner article, comprising:
a body layer having a structured surface comprising recessed faces and top surfaces, the recessed faces defining cube corner cavities; wherein the recessed faces have a high specular reflectivity and at least some of the top surfaces have a low specular reflectivity.
- 20. The article of claim 19, wherein substantially all of the top surfaces have a low specular reflectivity, and wherein the structured surface consists essentially of the recessed faces and the top surfaces.
- 21. The article of claim 19, wherein the high specular reflectivity is provided by a film of reflective material disposed on the recessed faces.
- 22. The article of claim 21, wherein the film is discontinuous and is disposed selectively on the recessed faces.
- 23. The article of claim 21, wherein the film of reflective material covers both the recessed faces and the at least some of the top surfaces, the at least some of the top surfaces having a non-smooth surface finish.
- 24. The article of claim 23, wherein the at least some of the top surfaces have an average roughness of at least about 0.15 μm.
- 25. The article of claim 19, wherein the at least some of the top surfaces have an average roughness of at least about 0.15 μm.
- 26. The article of claim 19, wherein the top surfaces comprise substantially flat areas.
- 27. The article of claim 26, wherein the flat areas circumscribe an integral number of cube corner cavities.
- 28. The article of claim 27, wherein the integral number is one.
- 29. The article of claim 19, wherein the at least some of the top surfaces have a specular reflectivity of less than about 60%.
- 30. The article of claim 29, wherein the at least some of the top surfaces have a specular reflectivity of less than about 40%.
- 31. The article of claim 30, wherein the at least some of the top surfaces have a specular reflectivity of less than about 20%.
- 32. A method of making a cube corner article, comprising:
providing a body layer having a structured surface that includes recessed faces and top surfaces, the recessed faces defining cube corner cavities; forming a reflective film on at least the recessed faces of the structured surface; and treating the structured surface to selectively expose the reflective film on the recessed faces.
- 33. The method of claim 32, wherein the treating step is initiated before the forming step.
- 34. The method of claim 33, wherein the treating step comprises applying an adhesion-resistant material selectively to the top surfaces.
- 35. The method of claim 32, wherein the treating step is initiated after the forming step.
- 36. The method of claim 35, wherein the treating step comprises removing the reflective film from upper portions of the structured surface.
- 37. The method of claim 35, wherein the treating step comprises applying a masking material selectively to the top surfaces.
- 38. A method of making a cube corner article, comprising:
providing a body layer having a structured surface that includes recessed faces and top surfaces, the recessed faces defining cube corner cavities; forming a reflective film on at least the recessed faces of the structured surface; and treating the structured surface to impart a low specular reflectivity selectively to the top surfaces.
- 39. The method of claim 38, wherein the forming step comprises:
applying the reflective film substantially continuously to the structured surface.
- 40. The method of claim 39, wherein the treating step comprises removing upper portions of the structured surface to form the top surfaces.
- 41. The method of claim 40, wherein the removing step comprises bringing the structured surface into contact with an abrasive.
- 42. The method of claim 39, wherein the treating step comprises:
applying a masking material selectively to the top surfaces.
- 43. The method of claim 42, wherein the masking material is applied over portions of the reflective film.
- 44. The method of claim 39, wherein the treating step comprises:
selectively roughening the top surfaces to provide a non-smooth surface finish thereon.
- 45. The method of claim 44, wherein the providing step comprises preparing a mold used directly or indirectly to form the structured surface, the selectively roughening step comprising selectively roughening portions of the mold that correspond to the top surfaces.
- 46. The method of claim 44, wherein the selectively roughening step comprises contacting the top surfaces with an abrasive agent.
- 47. The method of claim 38, wherein the forming step comprises:
applying the reflective film discontinuously to the structured surface.
- 48. The method of claim 47, wherein the treating step comprises:
applying an adhesion-resistive material selectively to the top surfaces, prior to the applying the reflective film step.
- 49. A method of making a cube corner article, comprising:
providing a mold having recessed faces and top surfaces, the top surfaces being non-smooth; forming a body layer directly or indirectly from the mold, the body layer having a structured surface of faces arranged to form cube corner elements and intermediate surfaces between the cube corner elements; and forming a reflective film on the cube corner elements and the intermediate surfaces of the structured surface.
- 50. The method of claim 49, wherein the forming step forms a front-surface body layer, and wherein the faces are recessed to form cube corner cavities.
- 51. The method of claim 49, wherein the forming step forms a rear-surface body layer, and wherein the faces are arranged to form cube corner pyramids.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This patent application is a division of application Ser. No. 09/227,963, filed Jan. 11, 1999. The present invention relates to U.S. application Ser. No. 09/228,367, “Cube Corner Cavity Based Retroreflectors With Transparent Fill Material”, filed Jan. 11, 1999 and incorporated by reference.
Divisions (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09227963 |
Jan 1999 |
US |
Child |
09852161 |
May 2001 |
US |