All the safety products we sell, must be CE-certified. The requirements for pedestrian reflectors are stated in the EU personal safety directive. All C Me reflectors are CE-certified according to the EN13356 standard as there are no such safety standards in North America.
CE stands for Conformité Européenne, which is "European Conformity" in French. A product in one of the controlled products categories can not be sold legally in Europe unless it has passed the tests to receive the CE marking.
Quality reflectors work in the way that incoming light is broken three times inside the prisms of the reflector, before the light is then sent back to the eyes of the driver. A proper reflector must have enough reflecting surface area which is a minimum of 15cm2, and in the case of dangling reflectors, must be reflective on both sides as they are designed to hang down and twirl about. According to the standard, the minimum requirement for reflectivity is 400 C.I.L. (coefficient of luminous intensity, which is expressed as mcd/lx and is measured at various angles), basically, this means the measureable amount of light which is sent back to the drivers eyes. All of our reflectors exceed this.
Did you know that in addition to laboratory testing for reflectivity, that certfied safety reflectors must also be tested for the following:
As proof of the approval, the CE letters are engraved on our hard prism reflectors as well as printed on our standard packaging, this includes the slap wraps. Scientific testing takes place at third party authorized certification bodies. SWAG 'reflectors' do not have to meet any of these standards.
All reflectivity values are registered and saved, i.e. the reflectivity values of each production batch can be compared even many years later.
The high quality and excellent reflectivity of our pedestrian reflectors are the result of large and continuous product development. The reflector production process complies with the ISO9001 quality standard and the ISO14001 environmental standard.
Buyer be aware, some other brands of reflectors may look the same or similar, however, they are not all created equally and reflect the light back in the same manner. Some would not pass the requirement for reflectivity, making them much more of a toy than a safety item!
Hanging safety reflectors are designed to dangle about as you move. For optimum visibility the reflector should be attached on the side of the body that faces traffic. Most often the zipper pulls have a small hole in them which is where the reflector attachment can be secured. The side coat pocket is best as the reflector would then be seen from the front, the side and also from behind as you walk, run or cycle. They are not designed to be used as zipper pulls on the front of your jacket as they would be seen only from the front and would not be able to hang and dangle about as well.
A car traveling at a speed of 80 km/h moves 22 meters per second. The average reaction time is one second. The physical response takes another second. In this time the car has already traveled 44 meters. On average, a pedestrian without a reflector can be seen at a distance of 30 meters with low beam lights, this is even less for a cyclist as they are usually travelling towards the vechilce even faster. This leaves the driver with only 1.3 seconds of time to react and respond. With a our Pedestrian Reflectors you have a driver's attention from over 150 meters. This means that the driver has almost seven seconds to react and pass the pedestrian safely. That is a big difference!