Archive for August, 2009

After working with UV Technology and UV Applications Engineering for over 20  years there seems to be a never ending stream of new opportunities of which UV technology can be applied on a daily basis.  The basic advantages are simple.

A quality UV application most always exhibits:

1. Superior product life and durability.
2. Increased product appearance or aesthetics over a longer period of time.
3. Production or curing at a fraction of the time needed for conventional materials such as solvent based or epoxy type materials.
4. 100 percent solids or in other words no VOCs (Green Friendly).
5. Requires less material to do more and sometimes the material that is unused can be recovered for future use.

The activator in conventional materials is usually time or heat and sometimes both which are needed to achieve a cured or dried state.  With UV activated materials they use a component called Photo-initiator which when matched with the correct spectral output or nM (nanometer) or wavelength causes the material it is mixed with to go from a liquid to a solid basically.

Below is a UV Adhesive Demonstration video that simply points out the most simple core principles of UV Curing. Speed, Durability and ease of use when the process has been correctly engineered.  In this case a UV adhesive is used to cement a threaded insert to a joining peice of polcarbonate as a pre-assembly of components.

Being a UV Applications Engineer I typically rely on testing, fact checking and so on. Relying on research information areas such as EPA News or the EPA Publications, which prove the effectiveness of UV Air purification products. But practical experience really does speak for itself. Prior to installing a UV Germicidal bulb in my home’s air conditioner. My step-son had a chronic cough since we had moved in the house a couple years ago. We had never taken note of this until the installation of the UV Germicidal Light. That night it immediately made a difference in his coughing spells he would have while he slept. Thinking maybe this was a coincidence a few months went by and the cough started again. Well while I was putting away decorations for the holiday that had just passed, I noticed that the UV light was not on. Well without telling anybody in the household I decided to just replace the UV Lamp and waited to see if anything changed. Well that night the coughing subsided again. At that point I proved to myself without a doubt the UV Light in the air handler was making a positive impact. Instant irradiation of the mold spores on the coil seemed to have an immediate effect on his breathing. In addition I haven’t had to have my coils cleaned since I installed the UV system 3 years ago.