How to choose a UV aging chamber lamp

The end-use conditions of your material determine which type of UV lamp you should use. All UV aging chamber lamps emit primarily UV light, not visible or infrared light, and the power of a UV lamp is equivalent to an ordinary 40-watt fluorescent lamp. However, the total UV energy emitted by each different type of lamp is different, and the spectral distribution is also different. UV lamps can usually be divided into UVA and UVB, depending mainly on the area where most of the output spectrum is located.

 

UVA Lamps

 

UVA lamps are particularly suitable for comparative testing of different types of polymers because UVA lamps do not contain any ultra-short UV light below the sunlight cut-off point of 295 nm. It has a slower damaging effect on materials than UVB lamps. However, it correlates better with outdoor exposure results.

 

UVA-340 Lamps

 

UVA-340 best simulates sunlight from 365nm to the critical UV short-wave region at the cut-off point of 295nm. It peaks at 340nm. The UVA-340 is particularly useful for comparative testing of different compositions.

 

UVA-351 Lamp

 

UVA-351 simulates the ultraviolet portion of the sunlight that passes through window glass. It is suitable for indoor products such as: aging tests of certain inks and polymer materials placed adjacent to windows.

 

UVB Lamps

 

UVB lamps emit the shortest wavelength of sunlight available on the earth's surface. Therefore, fluorescent UVB lamps are widely used in QC and R&D departments for faster and more efficient testing. Since all UVB lamps emit unnaturally short UV wavelengths below the sunlight carrier point of 295nm, there will be different results from the actual conditions. We can provide two types of UVB lamps that have different irradiation amounts but produce the same waveform of UV wavelengths.

 

UVB-313EL lamps

 

UVB-313EL is more suitable for QC and R&D applications and durable material testing compared to QFS-40 lamps. UVB-313EL emits higher UV output, gets faster test results, and is also very stable. UVB-313EL is an alternative to UVB-313, who provides more output stability. The solar vision intensity control system can simulate the QFS-40 lamp by reducing the irradiation intensity of UVB-313EL. This extends the lamp life and reduces the cost of lamp replacement.

The QFS-40 lamp, called the FS-40 or F40 UVB, is an early QUV lamp. FS-40 lamps have been in use for many years and are still specified in many automotive test standards, especially for paint, QFS-40 lamps are only available for QUV/basic models.

 

Other Manufacturers

 

Other UV lamps are sometimes available from other manufacturers, which are often imitations of fluorescent lamps. Although the lamp names are the same, the light intensity, spectral power distribution and aging characteristics of the lamps from other manufacturers vary greatly. As a result, different test results can be produced.