ECE/SAE Dual Functional SuperPin Plus Curved Reflex Reflector by Use of New Structured Corner Cubes

We propose and demonstrate, using optical experiments, a new reflex reflector structure called SuperPin Plus. The structure is composed of special pin groups with dihedral-angle offsets in corner cubes. One of the specular features brought by this new design is that it can comply with both the US SAE (US Society of Automotive Engineers) standard and the EU ECE (Economic Commission for Europe) standard, so that manufacturing costs of reflex reflector for both European and American automobile markets can be reduced. By using genetic algorithms for optimization, the angles and the positions of the pins, which are the building elements of corner cube reflectors, serve as the parameters to tune up the performance of the SuperPin Plus curved reflex reflector. Compared with conventional ECE flat regular retro-reflectors, we found that not only can we achieve a 41% higher retro-reflection efficiency with the ECE SuperPin Plus flat reflex reflector, but that SuperPin Plus can also act as a reflex reflector within SAE standards. In addition, we demonstrate that the retro-reflection efficiency is 30.5% higher (SAE standard) and 42.7% higher (ECE standard), and that a 32% increase in working area can be achieved if double pin groups are used to construct the corner cubes instead of a single pin arrangement, in a curved SuperPin Plus reflex reflector.

Optical and Reflective Characteristics Measurement and Focal Length Calculation of a Hollow Tetrahedral Corner and a Solid Highly Retroreflective Cubes

Corner cubes are one of the most important optical tools used in new optical devices and optical LIDAR. This paper compares two different designs of the hollow and solid tetrahedral corner cubes and determines the relation between the Retroreflection index and the surface quality N and the surface flatness ∆N and its effect on the focal length of the hollow and solid corner cube.

Enhancement of ECE SuperPin Curved Reflex Reflector by the Use of Double Pins with Corner Cubes

A new, highly efficient curved reflex reflector is proposed to meet the requirement of EU ECE (Economic Commission for Europe) regulations based on the commercial design provided by an automotive company which has been in mass production. We used double pins with corner cubes which served as the building element of a SuperPin curved retro-reflector to enhance reflectivity performance. Our experiment outcomes indicated 46% higher retro-reflection efficiency and 33% larger working areas compared with the commercial design.