Re: Swedish Glow Material -- conclusion
I am a bit late on this, but I know more than I should about Glow in the Dark materials. I thought I may be able to shed some light.
Glow in the Dark sheeting and almost all glow products are manufactured by only a handful of companies. The brightness is determined by a few things: chemical, grade, partical size, ratio, and thickness.
Chemicals can be Zinc Sulfide or one of the Earth Aluminates. But within these categories, there are hundreds of grades. Some Earth Aluminates are considerably less bright than Zinc Sulfide. The pricing between low grade and high grade pigment is almost 10 times. Therefore, almost all manufacturers use low or medium grade.
Since glow in the dark is created by multiple elements fused together, large particles will be brighter. In fact, even a small difference in particle size makes a major difference in brightness.
Although the particle size does not usually effect price within any grade, smaller particles are much easier to work with in a production environment. Therefore, there is yet another benefit to not using the brightest material for a manufacturer.
For anything that glows, there is a ratio of pigment in a clear medium. This ratio can range from .5% up to about 20%. Of course, higher ratios create brighter products. But once again, the extremely expensive pigment makes that a hard call for the manufacturer.
Finally, thickness of the material makes a big difference. A paper-thin sheet is naturally going to be dimmer than 1/8 inch sheet.
We thought about selling the sheet as a distributor, but the price mark for good quality sheet was very high.
I do have a very nice 1/8" sample from a Chinese company that is relatively bright.
On a side note to the webmaster of the LED Museum. I recommend your site almost daily to people looking for UV LED information. I sometimes think I am in the wrong market.
Have Fun,
Danny Clark
Glow Inc. (
www.glowinc.com)
