Reflectors and Filters are used to collect the UV Energy produced by the lamps and focus it onto your process. They can also be an integral part of heat management and our Cold Mirror and proprietary IR filter technology are unmatched in this regard.
REFLECTORS
COLD MIRROR Unique to the industry, our Cold Mirror™ reflector features a 40-stage vapor-deposited coating on optically-neutral glass. The coating system efficiently reflects desirable UV energy while IR passes easily through the glass. While other manufacturers claim to have dichroic reflectors that perform the same way as our Cold Mirror™, those other reflector systems are typically coated aluminum, and IR does not easily pass through. In fact, since aluminum is a highly conductive metal, dichroic coated aluminum reflectors become a secondary heat source. If heat is a concern in your UV process, then our Cold Mirror™ reflectors are the solution for you.
ALUMINUM is the most commonly used reflector system in UV curing. Optically it works very well, but it has no impact on IR reduction. As noted above, even dichroic coated aluminum reflectors fall short of the Cold Mirror™, so we offer only uncoated versions of aluminum reflectors. If heat is not a concern in your process, then these reflectors will satisfy your requirements.
GEOMETRY Elliptical reflector systems are by far the most commonly used reflector geometry used in UV processing. They excel in the creation of a narrowly-focused band of intense UV energy. By making sharper ellipses, UV energy can effectively be focused on items as small as a single optical fiber, which is only 250 um in diameter. Diffuse (or flat) reflectors are useful when a less intense but broad band of UV energy is needed over a wider area. Parabolic reflector systems provide a focus that lies between elliptical and diffuse.
FILTERS
INFRARED FILTERS We also make a highly-efficient Infra-Red cut filter, designed to dramatically reduce heat when processing sensitive substrates such as circuit boards, media discs and thin films. In these applications, where even the efficient IR reduction of the Cold Mirror™ is not enough, our proprietary coated IR cut filter can be used in combination with the Cold Mirror™ to provide substrate temperature rise as much as 40 degrees lower than that seen with competitive systems.
