Tom, UV Curing Details- more than I know

A while back, the guy at Surf Source told me that Suncure cures under a pretty wide range of UV light, less efficiently even into the visible light range. I couldn’t stand the lines at Home Depot, but I checked back into GE’s definitions. The term “color temperature” is much more subjective than I thought. Color temperature is merely a rating of how bright somebody at the light manufacturer’s lab thinks the light appears. So much for theories. Spectral curves are the things we’re looking for. When I worked in the business, I had access to spectral curves on any light bulb made. The charts I saved were destroyed in the recent flood, but they were for Mercury Vapor and Sodium lights. I searched GE and Sylvania’s web sites for Neon spectral curves, but found none. You could probably submit E-Mail and get the curves. Pure neon emits lots of UV. I’ve cured small Suncure areas with my “cool white” shop light. Neon tubes spread emissions over large areas. The alternative would be pure Mercury Vapor, which emits probably half of its light in UV. MV’s advantage is in its compactness. You could buy or rig a few MV spotlights in your glassing room and turn them on without moving anything. 175 watt MV guard lights resemble a broad spotlight distribution pattern, and they’re cheap. MV’s drawback is that it takes one to three minutes for MV lights to reach full brilliance after turning them on. First a heating coil vaporizes the mercury, then the arc stream fires across the mercury vapor. Choose MV non-phosphored outer globes if you go that way. There have actually been lawsuits from sports fans claiming their eyes got sunburned after some stadium light MV outer globes were broken.

Noodle, I haven’t gotten in on this string yet and probably will never get to that level but I just wanted to say that you are a research KING. Thank you for your time and sharing it with us. Late,

I was going hold on this post until I was further along but I did have success in a locally available bulb and maybe someone will find it useful. He is what has worked for me. 1. Phillips F40-BL in a 48" bi-pin T-12 config. (these are called blacklight bulbs in the industry), hang on now, these are not the blacklight poster bulbs that some of us remember from the days of Hendrix posters and beaded curtains. This is a specialty tube, looks just like a 48" white shop light. They are used most notably for attracting bugs to electronic zappers. I used a standard shop fixture with 2 of these lamps and laminated a piece of foam and the Silmar with SunCure UV additive worked great and matched the sunlight cured piece for gel time etc. 2.The BL tubes come in a bunch of sizes, small 12", 15" and others usually sold as Stinger or some other bug light zapper unit replacements. If you want to make a hand held ding repair unit. I made one out of an old aquarium fixture with a 15"bulb and Mini-Pin(T-8)plugs. These are lower wattage and will take longer to cure the resin. 3.Someone at work loaned me a small 15" Blacklight unit they had. The bulb is labelled BL-B I tested this too and it also cured the SunCure UV/Silmar resin. Once again it was slower to cure because of the lower wattage out put of the small T-8 minipin tubes (about 1" in diameter) 4. Blacklight bulbs emit UV-A. BL-B coded tubes are the “old” blacklight tubes with a blue coating (appears black on an unlit tube). BL coded tubes lack the blue coating and give off a broader spectrum of light. The key to the UV curing properties is the UV-A properties AND the intensity of light source. Tanning bulbs (Diamond Sun-S) are higher wattage, around 100 watts I believe. I’m going to start on a UV cabinet this weekend and I’ll post what I end up with after I get it to work with a full lamination. TS References: Good FAQ on Flourescent and circuitry for building cabinets- http://www.misty.com/people/don/f-lamp.html Good info on UV Curing Processes http://www.sabreen.com/uv_curable_coatings.html

What valuable sources! Now that’s research. Your curing source lists tanning light 315-340 nm wavelength emission as ideal. But your lighting application source lists blacklight emissions at a longer 350-370 nm wavelength. Is the BL wavelength good enough for an efficient resin cure? Light emission is usually cheaper in longer tubes. I checked the GE blacklight bulb site. The site lists 4’ tubes, but no 8’ tubes. Have you found a source for 8’BL tubes? How expensive are BL tubes?>>> I was going hold on this post until I was further along but I did have > success in a locally available bulb and maybe someone will find it useful.>>> He is what has worked for me.>>> 1. Phillips F40-BL in a 48" bi-pin T-12 config. (these are called > blacklight bulbs in the industry), hang on now, these are not the > blacklight poster bulbs that some of us remember from the days of Hendrix > posters and beaded curtains. This is a specialty tube, looks just like a > 48" white shop light. They are used most notably for attracting bugs > to electronic zappers. I used a standard shop fixture with 2 of these > lamps and laminated a piece of foam and the Silmar with SunCure UV > additive worked great and matched the sunlight cured piece for gel time > etc.>>> 2.The BL tubes come in a bunch of sizes, small 12", 15" and > others usually sold as Stinger or some other bug light zapper unit > replacements. If you want to make a hand held ding repair unit. I made one > out of an old aquarium fixture with a 15"bulb and Mini-Pin(T-8)plugs. > These are lower wattage and will take longer to cure the resin.>>> 3.Someone at work loaned me a small 15" Blacklight unit they had. The > bulb is labelled BL-B I tested this too and it also cured the SunCure > UV/Silmar resin. Once again it was slower to cure because of the lower > wattage out put of the small T-8 minipin tubes (about 1" in diameter)>>> 4. Blacklight bulbs emit UV-A. BL-B coded tubes are the “old” > blacklight tubes with a blue coating (appears black on an unlit tube). BL > coded tubes lack the blue coating and give off a broader spectrum of > light. The key to the UV curing properties is the UV-A properties AND the > intensity of light source. Tanning bulbs (Diamond Sun-S) are higher > wattage, around 100 watts I believe.>>> I’m going to start on a UV cabinet this weekend and I’ll post what I end > up with after I get it to work with a full lamination.>>> TS>>> References: Good FAQ on Flourescent and circuitry for building cabinets- > http://www.misty.com/people/don/f-lamp.html>>> Good info on UV Curing Processes > http://www.sabreen.com/uv_curable_coatings.html

The tanning bulbs and blacklight bulbs are about the same cost ($12.50 ea.) if you get lucky and don’t get gouged by the tanning lamp supplier. As you noted the tanning lamps are superior in several aspects. The UV-A output is better, they are higher wattage (more efficient curing) and the lengths they are available in (71")work best for the design/cost of a 12’ curing cabinet. The guys at Fiberglass Hawaii in Santa Cruz gave me some good tips on what is working for them. Will be putting it together this weekend. Yeah, I know, someone said just go with the tanning bulbs in the first place. I always seem to do better learning it by the lump-n-bump method. Tom.>>> I was going hold on this post until I was further along but I did have > success in a locally available bulb and maybe someone will find it useful.>>> He is what has worked for me.>>> 1. Phillips F40-BL in a 48" bi-pin T-12 config. (these are called > blacklight bulbs in the industry), hang on now, these are not the > blacklight poster bulbs that some of us remember from the days of Hendrix > posters and beaded curtains. This is a specialty tube, looks just like a > 48" white shop light. They are used most notably for attracting bugs > to electronic zappers. I used a standard shop fixture with 2 of these > lamps and laminated a piece of foam and the Silmar with SunCure UV > additive worked great and matched the sunlight cured piece for gel time > etc.>>> 2.The BL tubes come in a bunch of sizes, small 12", 15" and > others usually sold as Stinger or some other bug light zapper unit > replacements. If you want to make a hand held ding repair unit. I made one > out of an old aquarium fixture with a 15"bulb and Mini-Pin(T-8)plugs. > These are lower wattage and will take longer to cure the resin.>>> 3.Someone at work loaned me a small 15" Blacklight unit they had. The > bulb is labelled BL-B I tested this too and it also cured the SunCure > UV/Silmar resin. Once again it was slower to cure because of the lower > wattage out put of the small T-8 minipin tubes (about 1" in diameter)>>> 4. Blacklight bulbs emit UV-A. BL-B coded tubes are the “old” > blacklight tubes with a blue coating (appears black on an unlit tube). BL > coded tubes lack the blue coating and give off a broader spectrum of > light. The key to the UV curing properties is the UV-A properties AND the > intensity of light source. Tanning bulbs (Diamond Sun-S) are higher > wattage, around 100 watts I believe.>>> I’m going to start on a UV cabinet this weekend and I’ll post what I end > up with after I get it to work with a full lamination.>>> TS>>> References: Good FAQ on Flourescent and circuitry for building cabinets- > http://www.misty.com/people/don/f-lamp.html>>> Good info on UV Curing Processes > http://www.sabreen.com/uv_curable_coatings.html