Light guide/light pipe systems.

Foremost Electronics is now offering its British customers flexible light guide/light pipe systems from the long established manufacturer Mentor.

Alan Vincent, Sales Director of Foremost, comments, “Many applications require LED illumination for control and HMI purposes on ergonomically designed products which require complex assembly. Flexible light guides allow designers to illuminate control panels or surfaces without a fixed connection to host PCBs. Flexible light guides are also growing in popularity for aesthetic illumination of control panels, POS, signs, architectural features and public displays for which a flexible light pipe is an elegant solution.”

These flexible light guide / light pipe systems offer an elegant and cost-efficient solution for many opto-electronic design challenges - not least for a minor design change during a product mid-life-cycle face-lift. The most popular versions are designed for use with SMD TOP LEDS. These light guides push-fit into a Polycarbonate housing that is mounted on the PCB with two press-in lugs. As standard, a transparent lens is supplied for use at the visible end. Alternative coloured lenses are available, as are custom lengths. Mentor offers other flexible solutions for SMD and THT LEDs with 1000 μm, 2000 μm and 3000 μm fibres.

They also offers a range of flexible "M-Tube" light guides / light pipes. Unlike conventional light guides, these are designed to emit homogenous light along their entire length (up to 2M). They are ideal for cosmetic illumination of large control panels and have a myriad of other uses limited only by imagination!

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