Horizontal light pipes enable 40 elements and PCB mounting

Foremost Electronics is now offering its UK customers a wide range of light guide/light pipes from the long established German manufacturer MENTOR.

MENTOR Light Pipes/Light Guides are precision optics that precisely manage the light emitted from the latest powerful LEDs.

MENTOR specialize the design and in-house manufacture of LED displays and a 1st-tier supplier to major automotive and other OEMs.

Horizontal PCB-mounted light guides/light pipes from MENTOR are used in applications that call for light to be emitted from a panel that is positioned at right angles to the circuit board.

MENTOR offers both classic Ø3mm element versions for the 5.08mm grid and miniaturised Ø2mm versions for the 2.54mm grid, as well as hybrid combinations of the two types.

Round, square and rectangular element versions are all available. Despite the close proximity of tiny elements, design coupled with precision manufacture ensures that there is no light bleed, even when different colors are adjacent.

Featuring 4-rows as standard, versions between 2 and 10 columns are available, allowing a maximum of 40 elements and PCB mounting is via press-in lugs. Length is 2.8mm as standard but infinite length variations can be supplied up to 15mm.

Alan Vincent, Sales Director of Foremost, commented: “Light guides form a key function in the human interface with a product, so their appearance and optical quality have a huge influence on aesthetics and overall user perceptions.

“The options of horizontal light guides with square, round or rectangular displays provide design engineers with ultimate flexibility. MENTOR light guides are visibly superior, feature precision optics and the excellence of their design and manufacture is immediately obvious when they are in use.”