Metalized Glass Bead Powder Specifications

1.Gray Reflective powder/Reflective Glass Beads

2.Appearance: silver gray

3.Made of glass beads materials

4.Widely used in traffic safety facilities

 Reflective powder 

Our silver powder is coated in grey aluminum which creates greater reflectivity. If you are interested in the brightest, most reflective product, the silver reflective powder is the way to go! This powder is grey in normal lighting and reflects a bright white color.

Reflective powder is made of microscopic glass bead materials. It is the key component of light-emitting materials such as reflective fabric, reflective film and reflective coating. It is characterized by its strong retroreflective effect – meaning that it returns light back to the light source.  A few  commercial applications include:  intestate or roadway safety signs, vehicle graphics, worker safety apparel and SOLAS films (Safety Of Life At Sea).

Features

Appearance: white, silver gray.

Refractive index: ND: 1.93 min, ND: 2.2 min or high-brightness silver gray

Non-transparency: 5% max

Application Method: Applied in coating, screen printing or spraying and so on.

Application Fields:

Reflective paint, reflective coating, reflective fabric, reflective leather, reflective film, clothing, road traffic and so on.

Usage:

Reflective powder can be added into the a medium to create reflective ink for use in  screen printing or brushing to fabric or other items. The reflection brightness changes along with the amount of powder that is exposed on the surface of the coating.

 

Reflective Paint versus Reflective Powder (click to shop)

In another article, I went over the advantages of reflective powder being sprinkle over wet paint and how the result is brighter than simply applying reflective paint to a surface.  The rock below is an example.  Reflective paint is on the left, and sprinkled retro reflective powder over clear paint are on the right.

So if the right side is brighter, and that is the goal, why would anyone ever use reflective paint over sprinkle on beads.  The answer is simple.  To sprinkle on beads, the surface has to be beneath the shaker or distribution system.  In other words, gravity is going to make the beads drop down to a surface that is covered with wet paint.  But what if you have a vertical surface, or a surface where you have to paint underneath, like a rock ledge.  The answer to this problem is reflective paint.  Premixed and ready to apply.  After shaking and stirring that is.

Some examples of things that reflective paint would work better than shake on bead are as follows.  Rock ledges, vertical walls, overhead beams, stair faces, curb faces, bollards, fence posts, telephone poles, ceilings of rooms or caves, trees for hunting trails, and more.  Basically, any surface that is not horizontal.  Let’s say you are trying to make a parking lot safer and night by marking objects with a band of reflective.  For parking lot logos such as space numbers, you would lay down a stencil, spray with paint, sprinkle reflective powder, and let it dry.  But for light posts or bollards you would switch to reflective paint.  Tape off a band with masking tape, paint your stripe, and remove the tape.

As you can see from the picture above, painting an object with reflective paint is easy if the surface is horizontal, vertical or even upside down.   And the result is very bright, but just not quite as bright as sprinkle on powder.

In summary, reflective paint is perfect for some surfaces, and reflective powder is perfect for others.  I recommend keeping a little of both.

Sprinkling Reflective Powder on Wet Paint (click to shop)

Reflective glass powder beads only reflect when light is able to strike the surface of the bead, enter, and be reflected back to the source.  To do this, beads need to be partially exposed above the surface of a clear of opaque binder. (paint)  Premixing beads in clear paint is effective, however, it is important that the coats be thin so that the beads are exposed to light.  Otherwise they will not reflect.

For the brightest reflectivity, we recommend the sprinkle on method.  This assures the brightest return of light and although it involves an extra step that reflective paint does not require, it is more foolproof.  To achieve retro reflectivity using the sprinkle or drop on method, simply apply a coat of paint to a surface, and then sprinkle on either silver or white retro reflective powder beads.  Once the paint dries, brush off any excess and put them back in a container for future use.

Using this method, you are assured of having the most beads exposed to incoming light and the fewest beads encapsulated by the coating.  This in turn will create the most retro reflective surface possible.  In the picture below, the right side of the rock was made reflective using the sprinkle on wet paint method, and the left side is standard reflective paint.  As you can see, the right side is brighter.

In summary, both reflective paint and sprinkle on powder beads create retro reflectivity.  However, because the sprinkle on method exposes more beads, it is the better method for max reflectivity.

Two Types of Reflective Powder (click to shop)

Reflective powder comes in two types, standard clear (white appearance) powder beads, and metalized powder beads (silver appearance). Both are considered a powder in that they are very small, at about .04 millimeters per bead. So in quantity, they become powder.

Standard non metalized beads (powder) have a white appearance, even though they are clear. Light passes into the bead, is bent, bounced, and returned to the source. Since these beads are clear all the way through, some light escapes and is not reflected. When mixed with clear, or sprinkled on to wet paint, these beads take on a white appearance. When reflecting they make a surface a bright white color.

Silver metalized beads (powder) are coated on one side with a silver mirror finish. This coating acts as a mirror and greatly increases the ability of the bead to reflect light with much less lost in the process. If you look closely at the silver garment trim that road workers wear, you can see that it has a silver appearance. This is because of the metalized beads. You will also note that the garment trim is incredibly bright when reflecting. Much brighter than standard beads. The reflectivity is white like the standard beads, only much more intense. They also can be mixed with a clear medium, or sprinkled on wet paint.

In the picture below, we show three types of beads, white (clear), silver (metalized) and airport beads (for comparison) As you can see, the silver colored metalized beads are brighter when reflecting, even though they appear darker in regular light.

Reflective Powder Versus Reflective Beads (click to shop)

Reflective beads and reflective powder are actually both made from glass spheres. So technically they the same thing. However, with reflective powder, the size of the bead is significantly smaller. The reason for the difference is application. Reflective powders are used for thinks like reflective tape, reflective garment trims, reflective paints, and reflective screen printing inks, where the spheres need to be microscopic. Reflective beads, which are much larger, are used for making highway and airport lines more visible at night. Two types of applications, two types of retro reflective spheres.

As a comparison, a basic reflective highway bead, the type used to make the lines on the interstate light up, is about .15 to .85 millimeters in diameter. About the size of the ball in a ball point pen, down to the size of a grain of sand. In fact, bags of either highway or airport beads are easily mistaken for sand. The reason larger beads are used for traffic paint applications is so that the beads sit up higher and reflective light coming in at sharp angles. (The picture below shows FAA Spec Airport Beads which are like Highway beads, only brighter.)

A bead or sphere in reflective powder is about .040 millimeters in size or roughly 1/4 the size of the smallest road bead. So in quantity, the smaller beads look and feel like a powder. So the advantage of this is the ability of reflective powder to mix with clear mediums to create reflective paint, stay in solution and pass through screens for screen printing applications, and lay down nice and thin for use in reflective tapes and garment trims. Reflective powder reflects well at angles and straight on. It is not used in traffic paints though since larger beads perform better for this application. (The picture below shows our reflective powder)

In summary, reflective powder is simply a collection of very small reflective beads or spheres which in volume resemble a powder. Unlike standard highway beads, the individual beads in reflective powder are not clearly visible, however, they reflect the same way the larger beads do. Lights enters the microscopic sphere, bounces and bends and then returns to the light source. Hence the term, retro reflective powder.