Fiberscopes

Using glass fiber optic material such as borosilica, Fibre optic borescopes otherwise known as fiberscopes are used to perform visual inspections around curves and can be bent down to a 1-2″ radius depending upon diameter. They can be purchased as non-conductively coated on the exterior of the protective sleeve design of the fiber optic scope to prevent electrical contact and shorting will not occur or create sparking for explosive environments. Fiberscopes are available as small as 1mm (.040″) up to 10mm in diameter. Beyond the 10mm diameter the cost is extremely high to produce coherent image bundles with more than 30,000 glass fibers, especially if the application is beyond 3 meters in length. Plastic fibers are used in some applications to carry the light to the tip of videoscopes, so glass is not solely the only material used in manufacturing fiberscopes.