Abstract
Abstract The study investigates retroreflective fabrics’ efficiency from the point of view of the interaction of their visibility, thermo-physiological comfort properties, and durability (represented by physical-mechanical performance). The effect of the combination of two production technologies (reflective transfer films and screen printing method) and two reflector covering sizes (25% and 85%) was examined. Technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method was used to determine the best solution considering the abovementioned tested categories of properties. Retroreflective performance was in congruence with the used design coverage factor of the tested pattern. It was found that retroreflection of the tested pattern produced using screen printing technology was significantly lower than retroreflection of an identical pattern made by a transfer film. On the contrary, in terms of thermo-physiological comfort and physical-mechanical performance of the tested samples, screen printing technology shows significantly better results in almost all tested properties, especially in water vapor permeability, moisture management, and physical-mechanical performance. The solution for the abovementioned contradictory results can be achieved by using a combination of the advantages associated with each of these technology methods. Screen printing can be applied to specific regions of clothing that are exposed to extreme loading or sweating, and the transfer of film elements ensures high visibility with respect to the standards and biomotion principles that are deployed as prevalent benchmarks in the industry.
Highlights
Reduced visibility is a common cause of many tragic road traffic accidents
These results indicate that the quality of visibility is reduced for transfer film samples compared to screen printing samples
The first way dealt with examination of the thermophysiological behavior of the tested samples, as determined based on thermal transport, moisture management, and water vapor transport properties
Summary
Reduced visibility is a common cause of many tragic road traffic accidents. Pedestrians and cyclists are often victimized by these accidents because they are the weakest participants in road traffic and the most vulnerable ones [1]. Visibility can be increased by a suitable color of clothing and accessories made of fluorescent and reflective materials, thereby increasing the light contrast to the background and extending the distance from which a driver can see a pedestrian or a cyclist [1]. If retroreflective materials were used in clothing reflecting light from headlights of vehicles, they would aid the visibility of a person to the driver from a safe distance. This fact would potentially lead to fewer accidents between cars and pedestrians [5]. Expert studies often use biomotion as a means to increase the visibility of pedestrians and cyclists at night. Attention is paid to the effect of different levels of refractive blur and the driver’s age on nighttime pedestrian recognition; biomotion retroreflective clothing was found to be effective even under moderately degraded visibility conditions for both young and older drivers [14]
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