That glowing light up and to the left is the makings of a custom ultraviolet (uv) light source. We have been using these very high output LED's (light emitting diodes) in our latest project, a camera-based inspection system.

Here's how it works. You write on something with a uv crayon or uv reactive paint. Then you turn on the uv lights and the camera can see what you wrote. Here's the neat part: the paint or crayon is invisible to the human eye, so after you're done with your quality control you don't have any mess to clean up! So, you save time and reduce wasted material.

These UV LED's are smaller and more flexible than traditional uv sources (fluorescents). They are also better for high vibration, more rugged environments (less likely to break the bulbs). The LED's are continuously on when energized (unlike fluorescents which cycle) so higher sample rates and speeds of moving materials are possible.

Give us a call if you'd like to know more about using these little bundles of invisible power for an application of your own.