Clear Plastic

Stretchable glass...that's a new one on me. You're going to have problems. Fiber optics are just that, fiber. Usually a bundle of them. The light travels inside the fiber. Plastic is usually long chains of molecules running in every direction. Any light will just scatter. there are no "conduit like" structures to allow the light travel any significant distance.

Good luck, I doubt you'll find anything that will remotely do what you want.

No, plastic with similar properties to glass. basically the plasic would diffuse the light around the object, if that makes it any clearer.

Total guess.

No, I am looking for something as thick as a watch strap or similar, perhaps the same as perhaps a small rubber belt such as a vacuum cleaner belt only clear. I have seen similar but cannot for the life of me find it.

Another guess.

and another.

Maybe this stuff

Cold room curtain. Comes in different thicknesses.

Good luck, Ky.

This isn't exactly what you want, but you can edge light acrylic, and maybe if you paint the unlighted edges with black paint you could get the effect you want.

Used to make military instrument cluster faces with it and machine the characters into the surface. When filled with white paint, the letters and numbers glowed. The rest of the sheet was painted black.

They have fluorescent sheet now, too.

If you could use a circular cross-section, you could try using clear tygon tubing as-is. It should do fairly well to conduct the light. It that isn't good enough, fill the tubing with water or clear oil and seal the ends with RTV.

good answers, I think the clear acrylic or cold room curtain might work. I would prefer a more stretchable product but dont think it will be available. I will try the acrylic or tygon tubing idea and see what that yields. Thank you all for your help. Google wasnt much help.

Natural color EPDM, Polyurethane, Poly vinyl chloride fit in the definition, But transparency may not be as good as of polycarbonate or acrylic,

http://www.rubbersheetroll.com/silicone-rubber-clear.html

One more Idea is,Take a rubber tube fill it with pure water and plug both ends with glass or acrylic PCs,

Chances are that you may need to have a frosted finish to actually get the luminous effect that you are seeking. Otherwise the light will escape without giving you the effect you want.

I can meet you halfway there. It is called multimode fiber - see wikipedia. Used in short distance communication, or in bundles as a light source in endoscopes, both medical and industrial.

Some of the complexities in your request include what you want the final product to look like. A weakly guiding structure such as a decorative optical fiber will show a bright spot when it is bent tighter than its general curvature. This would not give you a glow. How big is the item you want to cover? Power is lost rapidly along the length of a decorative optical fiber and they glow brighter at the start than they do just a short distance down the fiber. Most transparent plastics will guide light, depending on the surface quality. monofilement fishing lines actually transmit light fairly well. Depending on why you want it "glowing" and where it will be, try a dual layer aproach with something like a monofilement line covered by a plastic sheet. There are also lines with "sparkly" components that could give some interesting character. For just plastic strips, you will probably have to look for a multi layer unit. A single layer plastic strip that might guide light sufficiently, would rapidly loose its guidance with any dirt or damage.

As Lyn said, clear sheet acrylic has the light transmittance properties that you desire but without the elasticity. However, it can be easily drape-formed, with a heat gun, to any shape you require. Most of the light propagated at the edge and transmitted through the sheet is reflected by the air/acrylic interface and doesn't acheive the requisite angle of incidence to penetrate, so for side glow the surface (of the acrylic) must be etched. Some very cool illumination effects can be acheived with this technique!!

Thank you. Though stretch would be ideal, I have experimented with several things and achieved the results I want. I took an led and placed in a small hole in the end of a clear hot melt glue stick and it was perfect. the stick is soft and bendable. the other was oxygen tubing which is similar to tygon. I achieved good results as well. I do not need the glow to go around the entire object, though for confidentiality I cannot state exactly what it is for. The LED will shine on the end of such tub and light will diffuse through the tube. I think I have what I need unless anyone has knowledge of a stretchable material which could go from say 1.5-3 inches and be relatively stable with repeated stretching. I think having a tube as I have tried with a piece of elastic between the ends such that it will expand would work as well. Thank you all.

best regards,

Shawn

Right on!

Not quite sure what you're after here, but, lots of layers of cling film might work.

There's a group of plastics called LISA plastics that might work for you. There's an article here. Not stretchy but they convert mainly the UV component of any light source & it produces a bright edge glow. They are used in 'point of sale' advertising stands to attract attention, th effect is very noticeable.

I have seen some products from 3M that might give the effect you want. I don't know what the exact materials are, but would guess acrylic or silicone based elastomers. They have used them in automotive demonstration vehicles. They are basically an elastomeric light pipe. They were showing them as being flexible, so I don't know how much "stretch" they might have to them.

That may be EL wire. It is not a light tube, but a fine copper wire coated with fluorescent coating and excited by a second fine set of copper wires wrapped around it - like a coax cable. When high frequency AC current is passed through it, it glows. It also comes in tape and sheet form. Doesn't take much juice, but the transformer can "whistle". It is not very stretchable but can easily take a bend.

the kurabe site looks good, and waiting to hear back from them, I can find no price information on elastomer light guides but this is exactly what I am looking for.