3M

3M Microreplication: In this Technology, It’s What’s on the Surface that Counts

Invisible to the naked eye, tiny microreplicated surfaces work behind the scenes, enhancing our everyday lives without receiving credit for their good deeds.

From keeping drivers safe on the roads, to simulating expensive windows, to getting a better grip on one’s golf game, 3M’s microreplication technology improves everyday things that we encounter during our day-to-day lives.

Microreplication is the creation of tiny, precisely shaped structures arrayed to dramatically alter the physical, chemical and optical properties of a surface. By manipulating these perfectly replicated structures, which range in size from nanometers to millimeters, 3M puts them to work in seemingly unobtrusive products.

One of 3M’s first applications in traffic safety, developed in the 1950s, is still used today to make road signs brighter and more visible. Known as 3M™ Scotchlite™ Diamond Grade™ Sheeting, each inch of the material contains thousands of microreplicated prisms that capture and reflect light at a greater efficiency than standard reflective products.

3M recently gave the technology a chartreuse makeover with the creation of 3M™ Scotchlite™ Durable Fluorescent Diamond Grade™ Sheeting, which now dots the landscape at pedestrian crossings and school zones. Microreplicated structures also gave birth to 3M™ Accentrim™ Tape, which, when applied to windows and mirrors, gives the illusion of Beveled glass without the cost or weightiness of the real thing. Accentrim tape uses 3M’s patented microreplication technology to transform glass in a way that bends the light as it passes through the glass, allowing it to appear like a handcrafted beveled product.

3M™ Tilted Mirror Film uses microreplication to reduce glare from transflective displays by tilting the image at a slight angle, in effect reflecting the glare out of viewing range. This produces clear, bright images for cell phones and other handheld electronics.

3M™ Optical Lighting Film, with 90-degree microreplicated prisms, is inserted inside hollow plastic tubes to transport and deliver light uniformly from the tube making unique retail and commercial lighting systems. Applications for the technology include illuminating airplane and movie theater walkways, aircraft maintenance facilities, exteriors of buildings, and swimming pools, to name a few.

Today, about half of 3M microreplication products are optical; the other half comprises nonoptical products, such as structured adhesives and abrasives, and mechanical fasteners that close diapers, to name a few.

For instance, 3M™ Controltac™ Positionable Film with Comply™ Performance, a structured, adhesive-backed film used in bus graphics for advertising, contains microreplicated protrusions and grooves that eliminate air bubbles when applied to a surface. Controltac™ Positionable Film with Comply™ Performance can also be used in auto, motorcycle and RV decals.

One of the most exciting and revolutionary nonoptical applications enables fluids to move or flow across a microreplicated surface structured to contain minute channels or gutters. Through capillary action, the fluids can even move vertically, similar to how trees take up water. Known as 3M’s microfluidics technology, it has the potential to play an important role in biomedical products.

3M has also recently invented 3M™ Greptile™ Gripping Material – a new-to-the-world gripping surface that has numerous potential applications, from helping to improve the grippability of a golf club to bettering a speed skater’s performance to reducing a driver’s hand slippage on race car steering wheels. The soft, flexible material, which performs in wet and dry environments, consists of a high-friction surface and coordinating backing comprising thousands of microscopic “gripping fingers.” It can give users a competitive edge with a secure grip allowing for maximum performance and minimal effort. The backing can be sewn, adhered to or wrapped on almost anything. Potential applications for this material include performance sports equipment, tool/equipment handl

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3M
3M Europe
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B-1831 Diegem
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+32 2 722 45 50

info@​mmm.com

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Notes for editors

Editorial enquiries

Nathalie Chaimbault
EMG

+31 164 317 021

nchaimbault@​emg.nl

 

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