Corning has ignored my requests for a dev kit, but hopefully the purchasing power of Inventables can speak with a louder voice:
Also I’d be interested in unterminated bulk lengths of the material, and a bunch of other stuff, let me know if there’s interest in pursuing this and I’ll post my whole braindump about the possibilities and questions.
Interesting stuff. I already use a larger-diameter fiber for automotive applications. Info requested. Will report back.
Oh, I could come up with some uses for this stuff, for sure!
That stuff looks awesome. So it’s basically a fiber optic line but diffuses the light out along the entire length?
Looks like it. The ones that I use are laser-engraved to reflect light out at certain angles. This looks complete. It says they are glass, though. Maybe a marketing term. No response yet from them.
Well this would definitely be an interesting product to play around with!
It’s glass, the datasheets call out a 170-micron core diameter, 230 micron cladding, 900-micron jacket.
The effect is from deliberately-introduced “scattering sights” [sites], within the core. Their density can be controlled at manufacture, to control the magnitude of scattering per unit length. There’s no mention of the degree of back-scattering but I imagine this stuff must look hilarious/hellacious on an OTDR.
All the samples and documents talk about feeding the external light source from one end only, but I have a feeling that more even illumination could be achieved, where it’s practical, by feeding it from both ends. If I can get my hands on a sample I plan to try reconnectorizing the blunt end; I think it should work with normal OM1 connectors.
I can also envision situations where the light source might not be near the start of the Fibrance segment; I believe cheap 62.5-micron multimode fiber should couple efficiently into the Fibrance’s thicker core, but I can’t get Corning to confirm this. (Notably, coupling back out of the Fibrance material would not be very good, owing to the diameter mismatch.)
Mostly I want to get my hands on bulk lengths so I can try braided and twisted constructions, particularly for sequenced effects. We’ve all seen the 3-strand “flowing” EL wire, and I think that effect would look even cooler with thinner material.
(in slightly related news, i3detroit’s department of whackass experiments is accepting donations of tunable laser sources…)
Finally had a response from their Sales department. Lead to another question, so, I’m waiting again.
I got the impression that it was 3mm fiber. Now I need to go back in…
Looks like you can get a development kit here: http://www.ellumiglow.com/laser-wire
Heh! They never responded to me. I’d be wary of them.
Since we’re talking fiberoptic stuff, you have any use for some Buelher Fibramet PSA disks or mylar-backed sheet? I came across a cache of the stuff a while back, and I’ve got a heap larger than I can use in quite a long time. Most likely, more than I can use in a lifetime or two. lol
