Using HRM (Highly Reflective Materials) on a T-Shirt

[Editor’s note, this is a special guest post from Darren who works with Adafruit on our badges, shirts, packaging and more! -pt]

All work and no play makes AMBRO a dull bunch, that’s why today in celebration of “The Avengers” coming out in theaters, we decided to make a cool new T-Shirt today.  Most of the time that we’re using HRM “Highly Reflective Material” we’re helping to save lives and keep people safe.  Firemen and Women, Police and EMS crews use reflective material on their jackets and uniforms to help keep them safe at night.  The material that we use is 200+ candle power and can be seen up to 2 miles away!

Normally, we’re doing boring stuff like CAD cutting it into strips for horizontal and vertical bars to attach to vests and jackets.  But not today!!!  Today we cut an Arc Reactor and put it in the center of a black ladies T-Shirt.  The photos that you see here have no photoshopping or special effects, there are no batteries, no wires etc … what you see is simply produced by the flash of the camera.

We’re using Micro-Prismatic Reflective Material to produce this effect.  Simply put, it’s a bunch of microscopic prisms all lined up on a polymer.  In the photo, the picture on the far left is taken in daylight with no flash.  The middle photo is taken in daylight with a flash and the picture on the far right is taken in a pitch black room with a flash.

Hopefully this will give some of you DIYers some ideas.  Maybe celebrities who are looking to avoid paparazzi could have a new fashion weapon!


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