1. Field
The presently disclosed subject matter relates to a vehicle reflector and a reflex pin, and particularly relates to a vehicle reflector capable of obtaining a luminous intensity in an observation angle direction which is equivalent to or higher than certain conventional reflectors by setting an inclination angle of each of the first reflection surface to the third reflection surface, and by using a reflex pin in formation of the vehicle reflector.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of vehicle reflectors, an increase in the luminous intensity in the observation angle direction has been demanded. And, as one example of a reflector that may respond to such demand, a vehicle reflector is described in, for example, Japanese Patent No. 3340640.
Vehicle reflector 210 described in Japanese Patent No. 3340640 includes a plurality of retroreflection elements 211 for retroreflecting an incident ray Ray0 which is incident parallel with a reference axis AX in an observation angle θ direction as illustrated in FIG. 13 of the present application.
Each of the plurality of retroreflection elements 211 includes a first reflection surface 1, a second reflection surface 2 and a third reflection surface 3 which are adjacently disposed to form a corner portion of a substantially regular hexahedron (see FIGS. 14 and 15). Each of the reflection surfaces 1 to 3 is inclined by the same inclination angle with respect to the reference axis AX (see FIG. 14), and the second reflection surface 2 and the third reflection surface 3 are disposed at the positions which are rotated by the same rotation angles (120°+β=120°6′, 120°+γ=120°6′) with the reference axis AX as the center (see FIG. 15).
In the vehicle reflector 210 of the above described configuration, the ray Ray0 which is irradiated from a light source 230 and parallel with the reference axis AX is incident on a plurality of retroreflection elements 211 (the first to the third reflection surfaces 1 to 3), and is reflected in the direction of the observation angle θ by the action of the plurality of retroreflection elements 211 (the first to the third reflection surfaces 1 to 3). The reflection lights Ray1 to Ray3 which are reflected in the direction of the observation angle θ respectively gather at a point P1 at the uppermost portion and points P2 and P3 at both sides under the point P1 (see FIG. 13B, and FIG. 16), and therefore, the luminous intensity in the observation angle θ direction can be enhanced.