Phosphorescent pigments

Rubber parts (o-ring, grommets) are being created with "new generation" phosphorescent pigments based on rare earth oxides. The idea is to keep the receiver clear so that the glow in the dark rubber parts can shine through and give it a unique look.

For now we can only show you some bags of pigment (very hard to take these pictures, relative brightnesses can't be seen, the purple color doesn't look nearly as deep and good as it does with the naked eye).











- The usual yellow-green color is the brightest, fastest to recharge and longer lasting (hours of phosphorescence).

- The aqua color is second brightest, almost as bright as yellow-green. It has similar recharge time and hours of glow.

- The violet color is the best looking, it's spectacular really - however it doesn't shine nearly as bright as yellow-green, and it fades faster (minutes not hours). Also it seems it also can't be recharged with normal household lights! It needs UV light, we've tried with direct sunlight and it was great, purple LEDs that have a UV component don't work very well at all, a black light should work perfectly but we don't have one.

- The orange color (salmon red?) is also spectacular when just charged but it fades faster than all of the other colors. 2-3 minutes max useful time.

- The pink color was created by merging orange and violet. The manufacturer says you can't do this. But it works quite well. Perhaps the pigments will interfere at molding temperatures and become inactive.

We'll experiment more with brightnesses when we get the molded silicone parts. We'd really like to go with violet but it would have limited utility (it's rare to go from bright daylight into total darkness). In an "event/club" sort of setting, with UV lights, this would likely not be a problem.

Again don't trust the pictures. When we get the real parts we'll photoshop some shots to try to get a result as close as possible to what the naked eye sees.

More to follow...

Comments

By BDSAMM at 2010-08-11 12:54:55 Reply

It seems like this is overkill. This thing will generally be worn under clothing and not visible to anyone. Most of us only spend a very small amount of our time in clubs where we can be naked. I know some subs spend a lot of their at home time naked but I still think that is a small percentage. If this is really easy and inexpensive, it may be worth while but otherwise, just not worth the effort.

By sub-eli at 2010-08-11 14:48:36 Reply

Beware. The price of rare earths has been highly volatile of late.

By dreamloverlabs at 2010-08-11 18:52:19 Reply

Thanks for the comments.
We're just giving it a try...

By dyonisos at 2010-08-12 13:19:24 Reply

I'm agree with BDSAM, isn't very useful for a belt usely closed in pants.