plastic materials in tube, rod, sheet, plate etc - where to go for

[Richard]

I'm in UK.

When you want to get inexpensive and non precision tube, rod, block, sheet,
or plate etc to use as a general (ie non precision) light diffusion material
or to use as a waveguide of sorts to propagate light (like say akin to a
light pipe), where do you get your stuff from? Do you just buy from your
regular plastics suppliers?

I suppose the materials could be almost any clear or translucent plastic. I
want to see how light passes through a tube and see how much gets reflected
out from a tube or rod. I was thinking about using some clear or
translucent polycarbonate tube or rod for a project. I thought that might be
good stuff to mess with.

If anyone has any recommended sites where I can get the kind of materials in
the shapes I mention that can be used for light experiments on
diffusion/light scattering and propagation, please feel free to post a link.
Thanks.

 

[TKM]

I'm in UK.

When you want to get inexpensive and non precision tube, rod, block,
sheet, or plate etc to use as a general (ie non precision) light diffusion
material or to use as a waveguide of sorts to propagate light (like say
akin to a light pipe), where do you get your stuff from? Do you just buy
from your regular plastics suppliers?

I suppose the materials could be almost any clear or translucent plastic.
I want to see how light passes through a tube and see how much gets
reflected out from a tube or rod. I was thinking about using some clear
or translucent polycarbonate tube or rod for a project. I thought that
might be good stuff to mess with.

If anyone has any recommended sites where I can get the kind of materials
in the shapes I mention that can be used for light experiments on
diffusion/light scattering and propagation, please feel free to post a
link. Thanks.

The best plastic for lighting work in my experience is acrylic. It's used
for outdoor plastic signs and indoors for lenses and diffusers for
luminaires. I've seen prisms made out of it as well as lenses for
demonstrations. The U.S. trade name is "Plexiglass", I believe it is called
"Perspex" in the U.K. There used to be handbooks published by Rohm & Haas,
the manufacturer, that described the optical properties and how to work the
various forms of the materials; but they are probably long out of print. I
did find a couple of sites, however:

http://www.rplastics.com/phprofplac.html

and a nice old commercial describing applications:

Polycarbonate is very different stuff -- much stronger than acrylic, but it
yellows from UV when used outdoors.

I've seen plastic for sale in home centers; but mostly I go to commercial
distributors and rummage through their boxes of odd shapes and pieces which
they sell at a discount. I don't know if they have similar distributors in
the U.K., but you might call a sign company and ask where they get their
plastic.

Terry McGowan

 

[Richard]

The best plastic for lighting work in my experience is acrylic. It's used
for outdoor plastic signs and indoors for lenses and diffusers for
luminaires. I've seen prisms made out of it as well as lenses for
demonstrations. The U.S. trade name is "Plexiglass", I believe it is
called "Perspex" in the U.K. There used to be handbooks published by Rohm
& Haas, the manufacturer, that described the optical properties and how to
work the various forms of the materials; but they are probably long out of
print. I did find a couple of sites, however:

http://www.rplastics.com/phprofplac.html

and a nice old commercial describing applications:

Polycarbonate is very different stuff -- much stronger than acrylic, but
it yellows from UV when used outdoors.

I've seen plastic for sale in home centers; but mostly I go to commercial
distributors and rummage through their boxes of odd shapes and pieces
which they sell at a discount. I don't know if they have similar
distributors in the U.K., but you might call a sign company and ask where
they get their plastic.

Terry McGowan

What I should be doing is establishing the material I can use or what is
suitable, and then searching for a supplier instead of just searching for
sellers of plastic tube, rod etc.

And I should probably be thinking about using acrylic tube or rod to see how
light diffuses when light is shone into one end.

I think if I stick to using acrylic I'll not go far wrong. Unless
exceptional strength is required, or some other exceptional property. Or
there's a cost issue.