About High-Visibility clothing:

• High visibility clothes (also known as Reflective-wear) have become very essential for the protection of people working in poorly lit environments like mines, highways, airport runways, cyclist etc.
• In the dark, the high visibility clothing increases the ability to spot working and guiding personnel.

Product characteristics:

• There are broadly three types of high visibility clothing:
  1. Reflection materials which shine when struck by light
  2. Photo luminescent material which give yellow light in dark
  3. Fluorescent material which is more visible even during the day
• Photo luminescent materials soak up the artificial light and discharge green-yellow light in the darkness.
• Zinc Sulphide crystals which are not radioactive and non toxic pigments.
• Fluorescent materials convert energy from non-visible UV rays into visible. These are useful during daylight but offer little protection in the dark as they do not emit or reflect light.
• The high visibility clothing is available in two classes:
  1. Suits with plastic tapes
  2. Suits with glass beads – or retro-reflective tapes – these give visibility up to 600 meters.
• Retro-reflective tapes are based on the principle that if the incident rays of light fall on concave glass, the reflected rays travel back in the same direction. This enhances the visibility of the person wearing garments consisting of retro reflective tapes. The technology involves coating of highly reflective glass beads with density as much as 50,000 tiny glass beads per square inch light.

Ideal high visibility apparel should have the following characteristics

• Light weight
• Both day and night visibility.
• Air and moisture permeability to ensure wearer comfort
• Hemmed edges for durability and neatness

Raw materials:

• The fabric used for high visibility clothing is generally 120gsm fluorescent polyester tricot fabric material with reflective micro prison sheeting. The reflective tapes are typically 5 cm in width. Each piece of vest requires 1.2 to 1.5 square meters fabric.

Technology used:

• The technology involves coating of highly reflective glass beads with density as much as 50,000 tiny glass beads per square inch light.