Clear Engineering Plastics Transparent (clear) engineering thermoplastics are used increasingly for medical, automotive, and architectural

products; windows, skylights, panels; compact disks, fiber-optics sleeves; lenses, reflectors, and light transmission pipes. ASTM D1003 (ISO 14782/13468), Haze and Luminous Transmittance of Transparent Plastics (Hazemeter or Spectrometer), describes optical properties of thermoplastics. Light pipes are used to transmit light from a light source to an outlet interfaced with a clear medium, usually air or water [9]. Light pipes are typically clear, solid, curved or bent plastic rods. The objective with light pipe design is to transmit the maximum amount of light. The distance x between the light pipe and the incident light is based on the design. One way to reduce the number of reflections and light path length is to design a convex entrance. Curved light pipes are designed with a maximum angle of bendradius of curvatureto avoid or minimize light loss. The maximum radius of curvature for LexanR polycarbonate, e.g., is 51. At angles below the maximum radius of curvature, there is light loss; and there is a minimum radius of curvature. To calculate the minimum radius of curvature [9], use where Rmin minimum radius of curvature, deg t diameter or thickness of light pipe, mm (in) np refractive index of light pipe 1.585 for Lexan polycarbonate na 1.00 for refractive index of air R t nn nn
pa pa

2( )
min

Properties 51