Because of increased interest in new fiber optic illumination applications within the past few years, product requirements have dictated numerous environmental and mechanical testing techniques to be developed. The purpose of this paper is to describe these parameters and the methods used to define the product capabilities of the incoherent fiber optic bundle. Since the sole purpose of a flexible bundle is to transmit effective light, this basic criteria is utilized to measure the capability of the combined fiber bundle and jacketing in hostile environments including extreme temperature and humidity, mechanical stress, as well as various chemical fluids. The importance of these measurements for customer and manufacturer's product specifications has led to the development of several testing techniques and equipment believed to be unique in this field. Environmental life requirements must be realistically defined according to particular application needs, therefore these tests and variations are presented to be used as a general format for specifications and standards in the industry. In discussing this subject, we shall first consider different applications that required this area of development, the system of transmission measurement utilized, and finally the various environmental tests themselves.

Date Published: 1 June 1970
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 0021, Fiber Optics II: Applications and Technology, (1 June 1970); doi: 10.1117/12.953421

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 0021:
Fiber Optics II: Applications and Technology