REFLECTIVE ROAD DEVICE

Abstract

A reflective road device includes a translucent body and a reflective layer. The translucent body is made of a tempered transparent material and includes a base portion and a bump portion. The bump portion is integrally formed with the base portion with the bump portion being provided on the upper surface of the base portion. The area enclosed by the upper edge of the base portion is larger than the area enclosed by the lower edge of the bump portion. The bump portion is provided with an oval arc at the lower edge in an incident direction of light emitted from a light source. The reflective layer is provided on the outside surface of the base portion of the translucent body whereby the light emitted by the light source enters the translucent body through the bump portion and is reflected by the reflective layer and emitted by the translucent body toward the light source.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims the benefits of the TW patent application serial no. 106204741, filed on Apr. 6, 2017, and the TW patent application serial no. 106115921, filed on May 15, 2017, all of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a reflective road device, especially a reflective road device with advantages of high strength, abrasion resistance, weatherability as well as higher reflective brightness.

BACKGROUND

Reflective devices are necessary safety facilities for road segmentation and warning and provide reflective effects for reminding drivers of road condition and traveling route resulted in a significant impact on traffic safety. Setting of reflective road devices on the road can reflect light to warn drivers to pay attention to traffic conditions to avoid accidents.

Traditional raised pavement markers (plastic reflective devices with plastic or aluminum alloy shells) have several disadvantages such as low strength, being easy to be broken, easy to be scratched, easy to accumulate dirt and dust and easy to fall off and so on. Also, the life span is very short and it needs a lot of money for maintenance and repair. Edges and corners of the shell would even often puncture tires, resulting in car accidents. Therefore, it results in huge burden in manpower and budget for road maintenance units and the road quality has been unable to be upgraded and driving safety cannot be granted in an uncomplicated way.

Furthermore, there are conventional 360° glass reflective devices 4, as shown in FIG. 11, having advantages of high strength, abrasion resistance, weatherability and aging resistance. Its curved convex part has a reflective function, and can achieve 360° reflection in horizontal, but the conventional 360° glass reflective devices 4 are also known as having the shortcomings of lacking enough reflective brightness.

According to the above, it is an urgent need in the art to provide a reflective device having high strength, abrasion resistance, weatherability and higher reflective brightness.

SUMMARY

One object of the present invention is directed to providing a reflective road device having high strength, abrasion resistance, weatherability and higher reflective brightness.

In one embodiment of the present invention, a reflective road device includes a translucent body and a reflective layer. The translucent body is made of a tempered transparent material and has a base portion and a bump portion. The bump portion is integrally formed with the base portion and the bump portion is provided on the upper surface of the base portion. The area enclosed by an upper edge of the base portion is larger than the area enclosed by the lower edge of the bump portion. The bump portion is provided with a non-circular, oval arc at the lower edge in an incident direction of light emitted from a light source. The reflective layer is provided on an outside surface of the base portion of the translucent body whereby the light emitted from the light source enters the translucent body through the bump portion and is reflected by the reflective layer and emitted toward the light source via the translucent body.

Another object of the present invention is directed to providing a less susceptible reflective road device.

In another embodiment of the present invention, a reflective road device further comprises a base mount having a groove at the upper surface of the base mount, wherein the base mount has two guide rails extending parallelly in the incident direction of the light, and the translucent body is disposed in the groove.

The foregoing aspects and the accompanying advantages of this invention will become more readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view schematically showing an upper surface of a reflective road device of one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2-1 is a top view of the reflective road device of one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2-2 is a top view of the reflective road device of another one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view schematically showing a lower surface of the reflective road device of one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic side view of the reflective road device of one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view schematically showing an upper surface of a reflective road device of another one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic side view showing the light reflection inside the reflective road device of one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view schematically showing an upper surface of a reflective road device of still another one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view schematically showing two assembled reflective road devices of still another one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating a measurement of reflection intensity of the reflective road device of one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a graph illustrating the reflection intensity measurement data of the reflective road device of one embodiment of the present invention with a conventional 360° reflective road device; and

FIG. 11 is a perspective view schematically showing a conventional 360° reflective road device.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIGS. 1-4, in one embodiment, a reflective road device including a translucent body 1 and a reflective layer 13 is provided. The translucent body 1 is made of tempered transparent material and includes a base portion 10 and a bump portion 11. The bump portion 11 is provided on the upper surface of the base portion 10, and the area enclosed by the upper edge of the base portion 10 is larger than the area enclosed by the lower edge of the bump portion 11. The base portion 10 is integrally formed with the bump portion 11. The bump portion 11 has a major axis aa′ and a minor axis bb′, and the major axis aa′ is positioned in the incident direction of light emitted from a light source such as a car lamp and the bump portion 11 is provided with a non-circular, oval arc 11e at the lower edge in the direction of the major axis aa′.

The bump portion 11 may be formed to be a vault, which is an arched uplift. The bump portion 11 may also be formed to be a truncated vault, i.e. the uppermost surface of the bump portion 11 is a flat surface. It should be noted that the above-mentioned shapes are merely illustrative and are not so limited.

Referring to FIG. 2-1, the lower edge of the bump portion 11 has an oval shape or an oval-like shape; that is, the bump portion 11 preferably has a major axis aa′ and a minor axis bb′. A ratio of the length of the minor axis bb′ to the length of the major axis aa′ may range from 0.5 to 0.99, preferably from 0.7 to 0.99, and most preferably from 0.9 to 0.99.

It should be noted that the shape of the bump portion 11 of the present invention is not necessarily limited by the length of the major and minor axis. The spirit of the present invention is directed to the shape change of the incident surface into oval arc at the lower edge of the bump portion to achieve a directional increase of the reflected light, such that users in the same direction with the light source may sense more brightness of the reflective road device. As an example, referring to FIG. 2-2, in another one embodiment, although the length of the minor axis bb′ is intentionally increased, so that the length of the minor axis bb′ exceeds the length of aa′, the embodiment should still fall within the scope of the invention.

Referring to FIG. 2-1, preferably, the contour of the bump portion 11 is shaped to be like a half capsule which has a lower edge resembling a rectangle in the middle and resembling two half ellipses at both sides, respectively. It should be noted that the rectangle or the half ellipse described herein is not limited to be perfectly rectangular or perfectly ellipse. For example, the lower edge of the rectangle on the side surface 11f in the minor axis direction may be straight linear or slightly curved.

In one embodiment, the directionality of light reflected by the reflective road device may be determined by adjusting the shape of the side surface 11f of the bump portion 11. As an example, the lower edge of the side surface 11f may be straight linear such that the reflective road device has stronger directionality for the reflected light, namely the light may be all reflected toward the direction of the light source; therefore, it can be used for relatively straight roads such as highways. The lower edge of the side surface 11f may also be curved such that the reflective road device has weaker directionality for the reflected light, namely the light may be partly reflected toward the light source direction and partly reflected toward the side directions; therefore, it can be used for relatively curved roads such as mountain roads.

Adaptation of the major axis of the bump portion 11 being positioned in the incident direction of the incident light and the bump portion 11 having oval or oval-like arc 11e at the lower edge in the direction of the incident axis of the incident light achieves entrance of the incident light through the bump portion 11 and increases proportion of the light reflected towards the incident axis of the incident light after the incident light enters the translucent body 1.

In one embodiment, as required, a pattern or a small protrusion may be formed on the upper surface and the side surface 11f of the bump portion 11 to increase frictional force thereby creating an anti-skidding effect and thus contributing to the construction. In detail, the inconvenience for gripping the conventionally dome-shaped road reflective devices increases difficulties in road construction. As to the present invention, however, the construction worker can easily control the translucent body 1 of the reflective road device by holding the side surface 11f of the bump portion 11 due to the increased frictional force during construction to achieve precise alignment of the direction identification mark 101, thereby improving quality of mounting the reflective road device during construction and increasing reflection intensity of the reflected light.

The area of upper surface of the base portion 10 is larger than that of the lower surface of the base portion 10, i.e. the base portion 10 has a reversed truncated cone (circular truncated cone) shape. It should be noted that the side surface of the base portion 10 and the bump portion 11 of the translucent body 1 of the present invention may be non-spherical based on optically design or may be shape-modified during manufacturing and construction. It should be thus understood that the shapes described herein are for ease of understanding and should not be rigidly limited by their geometric definition.

The construction procedure of the reflective road device may include drilling the road surface, mounting the reflective road device into the borehole, and then adding the adhesive for fixing. Before mounting the reflective device, it is easier to construct using the round hole drilling. As shown in FIG. 5, in another one embodiment, the upper edge of the base portion 10 may be designed to be circular for ease of construction. But it is not thus limited. In one embodiment, an axis in the incident direction of the incident light may be defined as an optical axis of the base portion and another axis being opposite to the optical axis may be defined as a side axis of the base portion. The ratio of the side axis to the optical axis may range from 0.8 to 1.2, preferably from 0.9 to 1.1. Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, in one embodiment, the upper edge of the base portion 10 may be designed to have different shapes in consideration of optical reflection and refraction requirements of the bump portion 11. In the embodiment where the base portion 10 has non-circular upper edge, the reflective device may further include a cylindrical shell (not shown) to cover the translucent body 1 and facilitate construction. The upper edge of the base portion 10 and the lower edge of the bump portion 11 are set along the ground, and it is understood that, after the construction is completed, the bump portion 11 is generally located on the ground and the base portion 10 is buried in the ground.

In one embodiment, a plurality of patterns or small protrusions may be formed on the upper surface of the base portion 10 for increasing frictional force, thereby creating an anti-skidding effect.

In another embodiment, a direction identification mark 101 may be provided on the upper surface of the base portion 10 for indicating the incident direction of the incident light. The direction identification mark 101 may commonly include patterns (such as arrows), texts, digits, symbols and so on.

Referring to FIG. 3, in one embodiment, the lower surface of the base portion 10 has a recessed portion 12. The recessed portion 12 helps to increase the cooling rate of the translucent body 1 in manufacturing the translucent body 1 and which enhances the overall strength of the translucent body 1 and increases the specific surface area of the translucent body 1. Due to the enhancement of the overall strength of the translucent body 1, the translucent body 1 has better shape setting and is not easily deformed.

Preferably, the recessed portion 12 has more than one ladder ring structures 121 to reflect the light refracted by the bump portion 11 and/or the base portion 10. Although a plurality of ladder ring structures 121 are illustrated on the recessed portion 12, the number of the ladder ring structures 121 is only illustrative for the description of the embodiments and may be increased or decreased based on various applications.

The translucent body 1 may be made of tempered transparent material, such as glass, polycarbonate (PC), polymethyl methacrylate (Acrylic) and so on. Preferably, the translucent body 1 is made of tempered glass. Furthermore, the rate of cooling the translucent body 1 may be increased in manufacturing the translucent body 1 to enhance the overall strength of the translucent body 1 such that the translucent body 1 has a better shape setting and is not easily deformed. Also, the colorant may be added as required to obtain colored glass of diverse colors.

Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 6, the translucent body 1 can be set in the road, and the reflective layer 13 may be provided on an outside surface of the base portion 10 of the translucent body 1, including the outer wall of the base portion 10, the lower surface of the base portion 10, and the outer wall of the recessed portion 12 or the ladder ring structures 121 whereby the light emitted by the light source enters the translucent body 1 through the bump portion 11 and is reflected by the reflective layer 13 and emitted toward the light source via the translucent body 1. Further, referring to FIG. 6, the recessed portion 12 also has a reflective function whereby the outside light projected onto the translucent body 1 may be refracted to the recessed portion 12 and the ladder ring structures 121 of lower surface and then reflected by the recessed portion 12 and the ladder ring structures 121 to increase the light reflection effect of translucent body 1.

It should be noted that the angle and distance between the incident surface of the bump portion 11 and the reflective layer 13 may be adjusted based on the characters of the material selected for the translucent body 1. For example, the shape of the bump portion 11 and the angle and distance between the translucent body 1 and reflective layer 13 may be adjusted based on the refractive index of the selected material. It is well known that the refractive index of the glass is about 1.52, the refractive index of the polycarbonate is about 1.58, and the refractive index of the polymethyl methacrylate is about 1.48.

In one embodiment, the translucent body 1 of the reflective road device may be colored as desired. As an example, the translucent body 1 of the reflective road device may be embedded for indication of a one-way street by reflecting white light in the direction of permitted passage and reflecting red light in the reverse direction to indicate the prohibited passage. In one embodiment, the implementation of the colored reflective road device can be achieved by setting a thin layer of transparent red glass (or a transparent dyed film) at one half of the base portion 10 of the translucent body 1 while the other half is not dyed. After an aluminum reflective layer is sprayed on the base portion 10 of the translucent body 1, the finished product having half-red and half-white is obtained. The other possible color combinations of the reflective road device may be half-red and half-yellow, or half-yellow and half-white, or half-red and half-yellow.

FIG. 6 simply describes the light reflection path of the reflective road device in one embodiment of the present invention, wherein the parallel light beam from the car enters the upper surface of the base portion 10 and the bump portion 11, focuses on the reflective layer 13 at the bottom of the reflective road device including the outer wall of the base portion 10 and the recessed portion 12 and ladder ring structures 121, and then is reflected to the top portion of the reflective road device, and finally becomes a parallel beam back to a driver's eyes. There is a small included angle between the car lamp and the human eyes when viewed from the reflective road device. The larger the distance between the car lamp and the reflective device (100 meters, 200 meters, etc.) is, the smaller the included angle (about 0.4 degrees in general test standard) is; the shorter the distance between the car lamp and the reflective device is, the larger the included angle (about 2 degrees in general test standard) is. These changes of the included angle are still within the spirit of the present invention without departing from the scope of the present invention.

In comparison with the conventional 360° reflective device having 360° evenly distributed reflective brightness in the same horizontal level, the disclosed translucent body 1 may concentrate the reflected light within a horizontally effective reflection angle span centralized in the direction of the incident light on the road (the direction pointed by the arrow on the mark), as the angle 0° axis, to greatly enhance the reflective brightness. The disclosed reflective road device is such manufactured that the concentration of the reflected light of the translucent body 1 may be increased when the horizontally effective reflection angle span becomes smaller. In other words, the smaller the effective reflection angle span is, the higher the reflective brightness is. The horizontally effective reflection angle span centralized in the light incident direction may be but not limited to ±20°, ±15°, ±10°, 5°, ±2°. As an example, the horizontally effective reflection angle span may be±20° to obtain a reflective road device of generic type, where the reflective brightness within the horizontally effective reflection angle span can be higher than or close to that of the conventional 360° reflective road device. And a wider range of the horizontally effective reflection angle span is therefore achieved. As another example, the horizontally effective reflection angle span may be ±5° to obtain a reflective road device of brightness enhancement type, where the reflective brightness can be greatly improved. This type has smaller horizontally effective reflection angle span and would be suitable for straight roads such as highways.

In the abovementioned embodiments, the reflective brightness of the reflective road device is measured according to the CNS (Chinese National Standard) 13762. As shown in FIG. 9, a light source A with a projecting aperture smaller than 26 mm in diameter and a photoreceptor B with effective detection area smaller than 26 mm in diameter shall be used. The distance d from the window of the photoreceptor B to the specimen center C shall be adjusted to be more than 15.0 m. The light source shall be equivalent to the CIE standard illuminant A (Color temperature 2856 K) to comply with comparative visual sensitivity of standard observer. In addition, the incident light on the specimen center C shall be as uniform as possible. During measurement, the entrance angle shall be set at 0.5°, and the corresponding observation angle shall be 0.4°. The photoreceptor B is firstly placed at the position of the specimen center C as shown in FIG. 9 with its detecting window facing the light source A.

As shown in FIG. 5, the reflective road device in one embodiment is made of an acrylic having a refractive index of 1.48 while the conventional 360° reflective device is made of tempered glass having refractive index of 1.52. To facilitate comparison of the measurement of the reflective brightness of the disclosed reflective road device with that of the conventional 360° reflective device, a sample of the conventional 360° reflective device to be measured is redesigned to be made of an acrylic having a refractive index of 1.48. FIG. 10 shows the measured brightness data of the comparison. While the conventional 360° reflective device has evenly distributed level of reflection (102 to 120 MCD/LX) at various horizontally reflection angles, the disclosed reflective road device has the effect of concentrating the reflected light within the horizontally effective reflection angle span by reaching 315 MCD/LX at 0° angle axis, which is much higher than the brightness (105 MCD/LX) of the conventional 360° reflective device at 0° angle axis, and has similar brightness (80 to 86 MCD/LX) as the conventional 360° reflective device at ±10°.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a less susceptible reflective device. Referring to FIG. 7, in one embodiment, the reflective road device may further comprise a base mount 2 having a groove 22 formed at the upper surface of the base mount 2. The base mount 2 has two guide rails 21a and 21b extending parallelly in the light incident direction. The translucent body 1 may be disposed in the groove 22. The groove 22 may be disposed in the concave arc 26 at the upper surface of the base mount 2 such that the tip of the bump portion 11 of the translucent body 1 is slightly lower than the top of the upper surface of the base mount 2 and that the reflective device is less susceptible to damage and has long life span, resulting in better reflective effect.

In one embodiment, the base mount 2 may be installed in the snowfield so that the guide rails 21a and 21b are slightly protruding from the snowfield surface. Both ends of each of the guide rails 21a and 21b are fornied with an oblique surface 24, and each of guide rails 21a and 21b is provided with a stepped portion 25. When a snow removal machine passes through the base mount 2 for snow shoveling, the snow removal machine would conveniently slide on the guide rails 21a and 21b via the oblique surface 24 without causing direct damage to the bump portion 11 of the translucent body 1, so that the reflective device would be less susceptible to damage.

Referring to FIG. 8, the number of the grooves 22 and/or the translucent body 1 is not limited herein. Preferably, the base mount 2 may further includes at least one rib 23, the base mount 2 may have a plurality of grooves 22 disposed between the rib 23 and the guide rails 21a and 21b, and the translucent bodies 1 are disposed correspondingly in the grooves 22. The number of the rib 23 or the groove 22 may be even increased to accommodate more translucent bodies 1 and thus increase the reflective brightness.

While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, a specific example thereof has been shown in the drawings and is herein described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the invention is not to be limited to the particular form disclosed, but to the contrary, the invention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A reflective road device, comprising:

a translucent body made of a tempered transparent material and provided with a base portion and a bump portion integrally formed with the base portion and provided on an upper surface of the base portion, wherein an area enclosed by an upper edge of the base portion is larger than an area enclosed by a lower edge of the bump portion, a side surface of the bump portion is non-spherical, and the bump portion has a major axis and a minor axis with the major axis being positioned in an incident direction of a light emitted from a light source, and a ratio of length of the minor axis to length of the major axis ranging from 0.5 to 0.99, and the lower edge in the direction of the major axis is formed to be elliptical, and

a reflective layer provided on an outside surface of the base portion of the translucent body whereby the light emitted from the light source enters the translucent body through the bump portion and is reflected by the reflective layer and emitted toward the light source via the translucent body, wherein the light emitted from the light source focuses on the reflective layer, and the non-spherical side surface of the bump portion and the elliptical lower edge enable concentration of the light reflected by the reflective layer within a horizontally effective reflection angle span centralized in the major axis serving as 0° angle such that a reflective brightness of the light reflected by the reflective layer reaches a maximum at the major axis, and the horizontally effective reflection angle span is ±20°.

2. (canceled)

3. The reflective road device as claimed in claim 2, wherein the ratio of length of the minor axis to length of the major axis ranges from 0.7 to 0.99.

4. The reflective road device as claimed in claim 1, wherein an uppermost surface of the bump portion is flat.

5. The reflective road device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the translucent body is made of tempered glass.

6. The reflective road device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the translucent body is made of polymethyl methacrylate.

7. The reflective road device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the bump portion has a contour of a half capsule.

8. The reflective road device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the base portion has a shape of a reversed truncated cone.

9. The reflective road device as claimed in claim 1, wherein a lower surface of the base portion has a recessed portion.

10. The reflective road device as claimed in claim 9, wherein the recessed portion has a plurality of ladder ring structures.

11. The reflective road device as claimed in claim 1, wherein a direction identification mark is provided on the upper surface of the base portion for indicating the incident direction of the light.

12. The reflective road device as claimed in claim 1, wherein a plurality of small protrusions are formed on at least one of the upper surface of the base portion, an upper surface of the bump portion and the side surface of the bump portion to increase frictional force.

13. The reflective road device as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a base mount having a groove at an upper surface of the base mount, wherein the base mount has two guide rails extending parallelly in the incident direction of the light, and the translucent body is disposed in the groove.

14. The reflective road device as claimed in claim 13, wherein two oblique surfaces are respectively provided at two ends of the guide rails and a stepped portion is provided at a lower surface of each of the guide rails.

15. The reflective road device as claimed in claim 13, wherein the base mount further includes at least one rib and a plurality of grooves with the grooves being disposed between the rib and the guide rails.

16. (canceled)

17. The reflective road device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the horizontally effective reflection angle span ranges from ±2° to ±20°.