UV LED Lights

Help! I have a requirement to source or develop a UV light for automotive leak detection. (Where a UV dye is injected into a system or fluid, and then leaks are found using UV Light) I want to get involved with UV LEDs because they appear to be the new direction for lights. We are looking for people to work with to source component parts and assist with design or to provide a finished product. (We have some manufacturing capabilities) Any help would be appreciated. I also have read that some of the Blue LED's can be set up to work as (or close to) UV lights. Any help from the well informed people on this board would be appreciated. Don't hesitate to e-mail me at [email protected].

Any help would be appreciated.
Peter

Arc 5 will be out in july. You can order it in UV. It will be the brightest UV led light I know of. It uses 5 leds other UV light I seen use 1 led. http://www.arcflashlight.com/ More info on the site and you can preorder.

You should also look at the flourescent UV lights that fisherman use. For what I don't know for sure. I think they illuminate their lines at night.

Thanks for the free plug

It takes a good amount of UV to see a material floresence when you have a normal level of ambient light. Even under the hood of a car, it might be difficult to spot a leak that is out of the way.

Currently, the brightest and only true-UV LED I know of is the Nichia 550/590. Other near UV leds exist and you can pulse some blues to produce a small amount of UV. But I think for your application you will need a good amount in order to not miss any leaks.

The 550 is a wide beam and not very suitable for lighted areas, the 590 is very narrow and good for close in work with ambient light. Both LEDs are classified "under development" by Nichia and are rated for only 3000 hours (compare to a normal LED's 100,000 hours). Power is not as much as a regular LED either only about 1mW (compare to 5-40mW). As you would expect, the cost is unique as well ($33 in quantities of 1-10).

For your money, use a UV flourescent. If your really want to use LED's (durability, compact size, etc) then I recomend you use several so there is enough UV to reliably spot the leaks. The Arc-5 in UV has 5 LED's (hence the name) but I think it will be too expensive for most people ($175 + power pack and battery).

Hope this helps!

Peter Gransee
President
Arc Flashlight LLC