An Image Guide is a bundle or rod composed of thousands of individual plastic optical fibers. The fibers are bonded as a single optical element for transmitting an image from one end of the rod to the other. All images transmitted through the rod retain their original spatial properties. Fiber optic image guides are also called coherent fiber bundles (as opposed to non-coherent fiber bundles that transfer light, but no optical spatial properties). Image guides are often round in shape, but can be configured in any shape.

Glass fiber image guides are available in rigid and flexible versions. Most glass image guides are custom designs, built to customer specifications and available in very high resolution. Plastic image guides are manufactured as standard products with a specified shape, outer diameter and pixel size as well as customer items. Production set-up costs for plastic image guides are very high, and plastic guides lack the optical clarity and resolution of their glass counterparts.

The two most common materials that plastic image guides constructed of are acrylic and polystyrene optical core materials. Acrylic cores had better optical clarity and bending properties, but were more expensive. Polystyrene cores are lower priced and have lower optical clarity, but nonetheless are entirely adequate for some applications. At one time there was a company that was making image guides with polystyrene, but they have ceased production due to inadequate demand.

We are taking inquires and sample requests for sample orders for pmma optical image guides .75, 1.0, 1.5, 20 and 2.5 mm in diameter composed of approximately 7000 pixels. We expect to have samples available in first quarter of 2010. If you have a specific requirement, please contact us. We will work with you to get you samples or design a custom product for you. Listed below are some preliminary specifications.