Absolute Lighting Designs of the U.K. produces a line of custom carpets that change color as pedestrians walk across them. The carpets use fiber optic cables sewn into the weave to produce the effect.

To maintain the necessary optical clarity necessary for making lighted displays produced with fiber optic cables, Absolute Lighting Designs uses Araldite 2011 epoxy adhesive from Huntsman Advanced Materials (Los Angeles) to bond the fiber optic cables into an aluminum end cap.

The epoxy is a two-component, room-temperature curing paste with a shear strength of 2,700 psi and peel strength of 29 pounds per linear inch.

The epoxy provides the strength, heat resistance and translucent, polishable bondline required for the application. A resilient adhesive with good resistance to dynamic loading, it is suitable for bonding a variety of substrates, from metals and thermoset plastics to ceramics, glass and rubber.

“We would have never joined these substrates using traditional methods, such as riveting or welding, although crimping would have been possible,” says Gordon Addison, managing director at Absolute Lighting Designs.

For more information on epoxy adhesives, call 818-247-6210 or visit www.huntsman.com.