We work with mirror factories and source mirrors for the consumer product segment. These mirrors are not your “average” run-of-the-mill mirrors. They are unique.
Mirrors have been around for a long time, but today the mirrors that you can use are quite different from mirrors that your parents used to buy. These mirrors use new process, new materials and new systems making them robust, have a longer life, integrates with other systems, and are very beautiful.
Lets look at some of the kinds of mirrors that we can supply.
Flat Mirrors
A flat mirror is a reflective mirror that you have probably used a million times in the past. They comes in all sorts of sizes and shapes. They are so common that the primary differentiation is in the mirror shape and the mirror frame.
Some notes:
Large circular mirrors. Used in a personal vanity, these mirrors make the woman the center of her world. And as such, these types of mirrors were the preferred mirror style in woman’s vanities over a hundred years ago.
Heirloom Decorative frames. When you go into fine quality furniture stores you will encounter large mirrors with strong and robust frames. The cheaper versions will have plastic of metal frames, but the more expensive will have real wood frames and substance. They may or may not have a beveled edge. The beveled edge adds appearance value to the mirror.
Curved mirrors
These kinds of mirrors are a small product segment. Curved mirrors come in two basic flavors: convex and concave.
Convex. A convex mirror, which bulges outward, reflects at a wider angle near its edges than at its center, creating a slightly distorted image that’s smaller than actual size. Convex mirrors have many uses. The smaller size of the images means that you can see more with these surfaces, hence their use in safety mirrors. (This is why your passenger side mirror says that objects are closer than they appear.)
Some department stores have reportedly placed convex mirrors in their dressing rooms. Why? Slight bends at the top and bottom make you look taller and thinner.
Concave or converging mirrors curve inward like a spoon (the side that holds soup). This gives these mirrors the ability to create an image when their curvature bounces light to a specific area in front of them. This area is called the focal point. From far away, objects will seem upside down, but as you get closer and pass the focal point, the image flips and magnifies. Concave mirrors are used in everything from shaving mirrors to lighting the Olympic torch.
Non-reversing mirrors
Patents for non-reversing mirrors go back as far as 1887, when John Derby created one by placing two mirrors perpendicular to each other. A non-reversing mirror allows you to see something as though you were looking directly at it, instead of its mirrored image.
This is most commonly depicted when you have a t-shirt on in front of a mirror and cannot read it. These are most likely seen in museums or homes where it becomes a conversational centerpiece.
Two-way mirrors
These mirrors are made by coating one side of a sheet of glass with a very thin, very lightly reflective material.
When the coated side faces a lighted room, some of the light reflects and some goes into a dark room behind the mirror, making it possible to see into the lighted room but not out. (If you’ve ever watched an interrogation scene on a police show, you’ve seen one of these mirrors.) Glass is also a mildly reflective material — this is the same reason that seeing outside at night is difficult if you turn on the lights in your house.
But these two way mirrors have other functions. They can be used to display information as well…
For the best effect, the light on the front and back of the mirror have to have the correct ratio. The optimal ratio needs to be at least 1:2. That means the light in front of the mirror needs to be two times stronger than the light coming from the other side. For best results, the ratio should be 1:6.
The two way mirror is created by putting a thin layer of aluminum on glass that has a gray tint. The aluminum is attached to the glass using heat, so it’s more resistant to scratches or rips than the mirror film.
Smart Mirror
A smart mirror presents the information on a two-way mirror. The most popular option is getting a plastic mirror, most often made from plexiglass. It’s a cheap option that’s easy to manufacture.
Another option is getting a real glass mirror. This is a little bit more expensive, but if you can afford it, it looks much better than the plastic ones. The guys at our factories are professionals and offer incredibly high quality glass that is suitable for magic mirror making.
Lighted Mirrors
A lighted mirror is pretty much what the name says. It is a mirror that has an internal light source. While these mirrors have been around for years, it’s really just in the last few years that the mirrors have evolved with internal LED lighting systems and energy efficient operation. Thus moving them off the ladies dressing tables and into the living rooms of the world.
If you were to ask me what the direction mirrors are heading towards, I would say that it is in the direction of smart and lighted mirrors. Or in other words, lighting that changes with the ambience that you want to portray. So if you are planning to go out to a dimly lit restaurant, or whether you are going to be in a well lit classroom, the mirror can replicate the lighting for that environment and show you exactly how you will look there.
Conclusion
We at Smoking Lion work with factories to provide the best possible solutions to the needs of our clients. We source, select, manufacture, and produce the agreed upon products, then check for quality all prior to us shipping and handling the logistics involved. We also provide design assistance, testing, DFM and other services as needed. If you have questions or concerns about pollution, child labor, or other issues and compliance, we would be happy to provide auditing services for your operations.
