We have hundreds of these rather costly sample packs to send to Design Engineers but stock is obviously limited so supply must be on a first-come-first-served basis. Santa's Elves Ltd has been contracted for logistics since they assure us that they have economies of scale at this time of year so who knows, there may even be a little extra surprise gift or two?

Almost the entire MENTOR classic range has now been replicated in a new and unique "miniaturised" range. This has been designed for the 2.54 mm grid and features tiny Ø2 mm light elements.

Despite these being positioned very close together in the interests of miniaturisation, MENTOR's advanced design and manufacturing skills ensure that there is no visible light bleed between elements.

When you receive your pack, do experiment with MENTOR's 150 mm long flexible light guide. You will be impressed with its optical performance and realise how such a component can "get you out of a hole" when face-lifting your product half-way through its life-cycle.

Whilst waiting for your sample pack to arrive, why not check-out our video of many of our different light guides in action?

We're also very friendly when you telephone us on +44 203 475 2610. We are well-used to Engineers telling us that despite our offer of >450 standard parts they need a custom dimension.

This is rarely a problem; we have developed a clever system of tool inserts that allows us to supply special lengths, normally with little or no tooling costs.

Talk to us about what you need, we can very often find a work-around. Custom materials to provide self-colouring, diffusion and UV-stabilisation are all easily provided.

Also, over half our business comes from designing and manufacturing totally unique, highly sophisticated and technically challenging custom opto solutions.

Established in 1920, MENTOR GmbH is an extremely successful, self-funded and highly-invested company with legendary standards of efficiency. It has 600 employees and is German headquartered with additional substantial manufacturing facilities in Germany, Poland and Tunisia. Stardard stocked parts encompass handles, knobs, switches, sensors, opto and light guides. Around 50% of turnover comes from MENTOR innovatively fulfilling customer-specific requirements from design to finished component, all in-house and very cost-effectively.

Opto design and manufacture is a core and world-leading MENTOR competency and they are 1st tier suppliers to many major auto companies. This experience has resulted in MENTOR developing unique skills; they are able to virtually design optics and take these to in-house production without the need for prototyping. Many non-automotive companies are now exploiting these capabilites.

Multitron Ltd was established in January 2012 with substantial support from MENTOR. Its management has a 19-year track record of assisting Design Engineers with MENTOR solutions.

Multitron is MENTOR's sole agent in the UK & ROI and is also contracted to represent MENTOR to major global "catalogue-based" distributors and OEMs. Its three objectives are:

• Assist its region's Design Engineers to successfully identify and exploit the many elegant design solutions that can be found within the broad range of MENTOR standard and semi-custom components.
• Managing "Total Solution" projects that allow its region's OEMs to benefit from MENTOR's unique combination of opto and electronic design expertise, coupled with legendarily efficient in-house manufacturing competence.
• The efficient management of MENTOR's supply chain to major global catalogue-based distributors and OEMs.