how to make Plastic Optic Fibers with PMMA Acrylic

[oplaviti]

I want to produce Plasstic fiber optic cables for lighting applications .
i searched and found that I have to make them with PMMA Acrylic.
should I buy cast PMMA sheets?

then what? how can I make the cables such as End-point fiber optic or Side-glow fiber cables with it?
should I heat the PMMA? at what temperature?

please help me .

[DaveW]

Fiber-optic cables are hollow. You probably won't be able to make them yourself.

Have you considered Flourescent Wire?

-Dave

[tybrenis]

Yeah.. making them yourself will call for lots of large, expensive industrial machining. You'll spend thousands before you make a single cable. Just buy some. Or, find an alternative, such as EL wire, as Dave mentioned above.

[oplaviti]

the price of machine does not matter.
we actually want to produce these cables in our country.
and i think we'll just need an extrusion machine, and PMMA material.

is this enough?

[DaveW]

Umm...i'm not sure there's anyone on these forums with that kind of expertise. And the machine will cost a lot of money, but how much, i'm not sure.

You'll be better of contacting a University Physics/Engineering Lecturer or reasearch student with your questions.

-Dave

[oplaviti]

thank you very much.
but dont you know any one like the ones you mentioned, whom i can talk to?

[DaveW]

Yes. My Physics Optics Lecturer at Glasgow University was Henry Ward if i'm right.

Here's some web-resources... (http://www.physics.gla.ac.uk/p1/optics1.html)

and his e-mail is h.ward@physics.gla.ac.uk.

Good luck!

-Dave

[tybrenis]

Good luck with your quest,

you will need an extrusion machine. However, PMMA is very tricky to get to the right molten viscosity, so it will prove to be tricky - if money isn't a problem, higher a plastics professional to do this work for you. I have worked around extrusion machines and that is somedangerous stuff - they take small pellets of plastic and melt them down to be extruded. They are pushed through the extruder in whatever shape necessary, and fall into a stream of water, cooling the plastic. They then continue down the belt until a worker gets them off the line.

Only do this if you have ample space - like a warehouse sized machine shop. You will also need employees to work it, and high voltages to run the equipment. You'll want a loading dock where you can receive pallets of raw material. The machine itself will cost tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars and will need to be inspected regularly... there are probably safety codes in your area about shops like this.

This would certainly intimidate me - only do this if you are a fabricator with lots of money and lots of demand for extrusion. I recomend finding other uses for this machine in order to pay off the debt from it... you could offer an extrusion service to customers.

Good luck!