Fibers designed for light are available in two varieties: End-emitting, where light is directed through the fiber to the end, acting as a spotlight, and side-emitting, where light is scattered along the length of the fiber to create a “neon light” effect.

Fiber optic lights and fiber optic cable designed for communications is very similar, but the fibers used for lighting are often manufactured specifically for lighting applications, with larger cores and thinner claddings. The fibers themselves may be plastic or glass, though the intensity of the light source (illuminator) will have to be taken into consideration in the case of plastic, as it has a lower temperature tolerance than glass.

Fibers are bundled together and mounted at the output of the illuminator, which may be located away from the target illumination point of the light. This is useful in cases where an object should be illuminated, but not heated by the light source.

At Fiber Optics Assy we design and manufacture fiber optic illumination especially for your needs.