Jan. 22, 2016

LASTILUX light conductors and Gruner AG

LASTILUX is the name assigned by LATI to a new family of thermoplastic materials used for the light transport.
Two different types of these compounds have been developed:

• OPAL LASTILUX, able to create perfectly homogenous diffusion effects, with desired opalescence levels, useful, for example, in applications where the light coming from a point source is to be diffused hiding, however, the presence of such source, typically LEDs.
• COLORED LASTILUX; green, yellow or red, able to absorb light in the UV region and re-emit it in the visible region with fluorescence effect.

If well exploited working on low thicknesses and proper geometries, this phenomenon allows to direct the diffuse light where desired, giving the impression that the light is emitted by the object.

If products are directly irradiated with UV frequencies (as may occur in certain types of detection), this effect may be further enhanced. Gruner AG, a German leading company in the field of relays and actuators, has chosen and successfully applied LASTILUX 87/28 for the manufacture of a cursor used in one of its actuators for the sector of ventilation and air conditioning.

The design requirements for this signal lamp are well defined and range from perfect surface quality and aesthetics typical of visible elements, to the correct handling of the light beam through the geometry of the part, from the absolute dimensional stability to the coloring reliability.
For this reason, a transparent PC-based compound was chosen, featuring not only all technical requirements mentioned above, but also a particularly good color rendering.

The formulation of the LASTILUX compound has negligible effects on thermal, electrical, and mechanical properties of the base resin, which remain substantially unchanged.
The usual ease of conversion of LATI compounds is also ensured, in this case without affecting the light effects.