Why UV LED?

For many years the conventional way to generate high intensity UV light was to create a plasma in a quartz bulb, either with a high voltage arc or with RF (microwave) energisation and then make sure the correct metals were in the bulb too – Hg, Fe, Ga etc. – so that the light emitted by the plasma contained as much UV in the right wavelengths as possible. Quite a bit of IR is irradiated too. Jenton is good at this! For ‘conventional’ UV lamps and products please see our other website – www.jentonuv.co.uk

In the 21st century there has been a massive move over to solid state light sources, driven by sustainability in respect of lower energy usage and less use of harmful mercury and everyone is familiar with homes, offices, street all being lit with LED.

It’s more difficult to generate lower UV wavelengths with LED – and, being monochromatic sources, UV photoinitiators have to be tuned to the wavelengths being generated.  But the great advantages of UV LED – namely long life, constant and consistent output, cool operation (no substrate heating), the ability to be turned on and off instantly, no ozone generation and the removal of mercury – has meant that some fantastic UV LED systems and chemistries are now available.