Reflector Craft Projects

/ reflector basics

If you were to wear a small mirror instead of a funflector safety reflector on your jacket, the light from the cars would reflect back all over the road, trees and buildings, instead of to the driver as is the case with safety reflectors. In our last blog post we described how safety reflectors (retroreflectors) works. To better understand, a craft project to make a model of a retroreflector might help. This is what you need:

  • 2-3 empty cereal boxes
  • ruler
  • marker
  • scissors or knife
  • aluminum foil
  • 3 pipe cleaners or thin drinking straws in different colors
  • 5 twist ties

And this is how you do it:

Measure the same distance on the three sides from one corner and connect with a line to cut along.
Measure the same distance on the three sides from one corner and connect with a line to cut along.

Cut off the corner. Make sure all three sides are the same length.
Cut off the corner. Make sure all three sides are the same length.
Cover the surface of one corner with aluminum foil. This shows two beams of light going in and coming out in the same direction. The flat piece shows how the light falls on a regular mirror and reflects out in the opposite direction.
Cover the surface of one corner prism with aluminum foil. Make holes to attach pipe cleaner (or drinking straw) with twist ties representing light beams. The left shows two beams of light going in and coming out in the same direction thanks to the three sides of the prism. The flat piece shows how the light falls on a regular mirror and instead reflects out in the opposite direction.
Cut 6 more corners and tape them together along along the side. You will need three pairs.
Cut 6 more corners and tape them together along along the side. You will need three pairs.
Tape three pairs together into a hexagon.
Tape three pairs together into a hexagon.
You can see here how the reflective material has a hexagonal pattern of micro prisms! Photo taken with a smartphone.
You can see here how the reflective material has a hexagonal pattern of micro prisms! Photo taken with a smartphone.
This is the backside of the prismatic hexagon. If you cut a funflector reflector open, you can feel how rough the backside of the reflective material is. Here you can see why.
This is the backside of the prismatic hexagon. If you cut a funflector reflector open, you can feel how rough the backside of the reflective material is. Here you can see why.

Have fun doing this yourself and please tag any social media posts with #retroreflector-craft! We would love to see and highlight your projects!
The funflector team
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