Claims
- 1. A retroreflective structure comprising:
- a) a substrate;
- b) a layer of transparent prisms attached to said substrate the prisms having facet sides and a window side, the window side abutting the substrate, and wherein the prisms are free-standing on the substrate such that upon removal of the substrate the individual prisms are no longer attached to anything and are free to be dispersed;
- c) a reflective layer formed on the facet sides of the prisms.
- 2. The structure of claim 1 wherein the substrate is formed of a fabric reinforced with plastic.
- 3. The structure of claim 1 wherein the structure is provided with a transparent protective cover over the window side and is attached to a tarpaulin with the substrate removed and the window side facing outwardly.
- 4. The structure of claim 2 wherein the structure is formed into a tape.
- 5. The structure of claim 1 wherein the prisms are cast in a transparent plastic material.
- 6. The structure of claim 1 wherein the prisms are temporarily bonded to the substrate with a release adhesive.
- 7. The structure of claim 1 wherein the reflective layer is a metal layer.
- 8. The structure of claim 1 wherein the prisms are microprisms.
- 9. An array of free-standing microprisms having a window side and a facet side; the microprisms being attached on the window side to a releasable coating formed on a substrate and a reflective coating formed on the facet side; the microprisms, to the extent the coating is released from the substrate, being free and not attached to anything.
- 10. An array of free-standing microprisms having a window side and a facet side; the facet side being coated with a reflective coating and an adhesive formed on the coating and a substrate attached to the adhesive.
- 11. An array of free-standing microprisms having a window side and a facet side; the facet side being coated with a reflective coating and a light transparent adhesive formed on the coating with an opaque substrate attached to the adhesive leaving the window side exposed to incident light.
- 12. A flexible retroreflective structure having transparent prisms which are relatively free to move, the structure comprising:
- a) a substrate;
- b) a layer of transparent prisms having a facet side and window side formed on said substrate, wherein the facet side of the prisms is adhered to the substrate; and
- c) a reflective layer formed on the facet side of the transparent prism; and wherein d) the transparent prisms form an exposed array of freestanding prisms.
RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is a division of co-pending application Ser. No. 08/596,805 filed Feb. 5, 1996 pending, which is a continuation application of U.S. Ser. No. 08/578,973 pending, filed Dec. 27, 1995, which is a continuation-in-part application of U.S. Ser. No. 08/088,252, filed Jul. 7, 1993 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,637,173 which is a continuation application claiming priority to U.S. Ser. No. 08/018,766, filed Feb. 17, 1993, now abandoned.
US Referenced Citations (2)
Number |
Name |
Date |
Kind |
5229882 |
Rowland |
Jul 1993 |
|
5300263 |
Hoopman et al. |
Apr 1994 |
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Divisions (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
596805 |
Feb 1996 |
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Continuations (2)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
578973 |
Dec 1995 |
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Parent |
18766 |
Feb 1993 |
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Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
88252 |
Jul 1993 |
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