Fiber optic light emitting panel assemblies and methods of making such panel assemblies

摘要

Fiber optic light emitting panel assemblies include one or more light emitting layers which are sealed along the side edges and/or an end edge to hold the fill threads in position and keep the light emitting portions from fraying at the edges. A thin film, sheet or coating may be applied to one or both sides of the light emitting portions of the panel assemblies. At one or both ends of the light emitting portions is a light cable which may be formed by randomly distributing the optical fibers which comprise the light cable into a plurality of discrete bundles each including fibers extending from different locations across substantially the entire width of the light emitting portions, bringing the discrete bundles together to form a single bundle of all of the fibers in each light cable, and applying a connector assembly to the cut ends of all of the fibers in each light cable.