| Plastic Optical Fiber (POF) is used in data communications, decoration, illumination and industrial application. POF works in the same manner as glass optical fiber, but it uses plastic instead of glass, and usually the core area tends to be larger. This new technology has been introduced with the intention of manufacturers to reduce costs and reduce the usage of copper cable or glass optical fibers.;Plastic Fiber has not yet proved that its operational and physical characteristics will make them a serious rival in terms of cost, bandwidth, attenuation and most important of all, long-term thermal stability. Although it will face some barriers, it continues to be developed, having higher transmission capacity, excellent noise resistance, and a major potential advantage, its light weight compared to others.;This study focuses on thermal-mechanical models of PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate), that will be used to analyze bending. Fibers were subjected to shrinkage, swelling, and spring back at various bend radii and temperature histories. Tension and compression tests were used to determine its mechanical characteristics. Finally, results demonstrated that fibers needed to be heated at 110°C during one minute to perform the simple and complete manufacturing process for bending optical fibers. This will have an impact on future data distribution systems in complex places such as automobiles, houses, laboratories, aircraft, etc. |
