Intensity Control in UV LED Curing Systems

As with all LED technology, UV LEDs can be current or voltage controlled. By raising or lowering these parameters the output intensity of a UV LED curing lamp can be set. Interestingly, this relationship is not linear with LEDs which can be a challenge in industrial applications where precise control of intensity and dose is critical.

In this post, we look at the software developed by ProPhotonix’ engineers to provide intensity control in UV LED curing lamps and highlight a number of useful features enabling the configuration of the lamps to suit your specific application needs.

Configurable Intensity

The COBRA Cure FX1 UV LED Lamp offers a variety of factory set intensity profiles, as standard, allowing users to specify the optimum intensity profile to suit their application needs. In addition, ProPhotonix’ engineers have developed software used in the COBRA Cure FX Series to correct for the non-linear response typical of LED technology ensuring a precise linear response and superior intensity and dose control.

Maximum intensity

The maximum intensity of a COBRA Cure FX1 lamp is factory set to ensure a long lifetime. Applications can vary in terms of intensity and lifetime requirements and the COBRA Cure FX Series is designed to offer the flexibility required to configure the lamp to your application.

Intensity, Dose, Lifetime: What does your application require?

The COBRA Cure FX1 delivers intensities up to 6W/cm². Some applications do not require this level of intensity but need high precision control at lower intensity levels. Instead of the maximum intensity of 6W/cm², COBRA Cure FX1 can be configured to output 2W/cm², for example, with more precise control at the 0 to 2 W/cm².

In other types of applications, intensity and dose are the main priority. In these instances, the COBRA Cure FX1 can be configured to higher intensity and dose levels to meet the application needs. Estimated lifetimes can be provided for these new settings.

Linear Response

ProPhotonix’ innovative software ensures further options are available to the user allowing them to select the intensity response to analog control to best suit their application needs.

In “Analog” mode the lamp remains off until 1V. At 1V the lamp instantly turns on at 10% intensity. The intensity then scales in precise linearity with a change in voltage up to 10V where it reaches 100% intensity.

The “Sustain” mode is useful in applications with lower intensity requirements as well as in calibration modes. This mode is particularly useful in noisy environments. In “Sustain” mode the lamp is off at 0V. From 0.1V to 0.99V the lamp is on at 10% intensity. The intensity then scales in precise linearity with a change in voltage from 1V up to 10V where it reaches 100% intensity.

COBRA Cure FX1

COBRA Cure FX1 UV LED Curing lamp incorporating its innovative proprietary software ensures users can configure many aspects of intensity control to suit their application requirements.