Description

ECE 70/-01 signs   (class 1 - 5)

Technical requirements :

UN / ECE R70: uniform conditions for approval of warning plates for heavy and long vehicles.  Controls design requirements, day colour, night colour, reflectance values, resistance to cleaning and chemicals, mechanical stability of the substrate. Allowed are the following five classes:

• Class 1: retro-reflective Yellow / fluorescent Red for trucks/trucks
• Class 2: retro-reflective Yellow / fluorescent Red for trailers / semi-trailers
• Class 3: retro-reflective Yellow / reflective Red for trucks/trucks
• Class 4: retro-reflective Yellow / reflective Red for trailers / semi-trailers
• Class 5: retro-reflective White / reflective Red with E approval for all vehicles       

(ECE 70 class 5 becomes ECE 104 class F if applied as a sticker  (= equivalent))

ECE-70 has been gradually introduced in Europe since the 1990s. It was then upgraded with ECE 70-01: the requirements for reflectivity were tightened so that the yellow matches the reflectivity class according to ECE104 standards. This Amendment 01 is already mandatory in some United Nations countries such as Italy and France. ECE 70-01 offers two choices of red-yellow signs : either the signs are reflective and fluorescent (RF) or fully reflective (RR) and in the latter case they then have  the highest reflectivity and visibility currently possible in retro-reflective film technology.

The ECE70-01 regulation is regularly updated and most recently in 2015 with a new physical modification of a new marking,  defined as Class 5 and relating to a red and white width sign, in accordance with Annex 12 of the Type Approval UN-ECE48 for heavy goods vehicles and trailers and in 2017 in accordance with Annex 6 of Type Approval UN-ECE86-01 for all agricultural vehicles.  As a next step, this same red and white panel could be applied as an adhesive product and with this, the definition ECE104 Class F was born:  A red and white film with E-approval.

In ECE 70-01, we talk about a micro-prismatic film. Here, small reflectors are used (microprisms) instead of glass beads. Because of the very specific geometry of these reflectors, the reflection becomes stronger and the board becomes more durable than before.