Importance of UV curing lamp

[WinkyTheWindshield]

How important is the strength of the UV light when curing a repair? Currently, I am using a 12v that has an AC adapter that plugs in to the cars power outlet. Sometimes I get the micro-crack effect when a repair is completed and sometimes I don't. Could this be because my light does not have enough power?

[Kgobin]

In my opinion,the UV light is a very important part of windshield repairs. The UV lights that Delta Kits sell are rated at 365nm. 12 Volt are normally powerful and consistent and they should be used whenever possible. We have tested a number of lights and some do a good job of curing resin, some a bit slower, and some that do not cure well at all. It's always best to check with the manufacturer of the resin you use to ensure your lamp meets their specifications.

[GlassStarz]

I prefer the Big Ole Yellow one

[Frank EU]

WinkyTheWindshield; what do you mean with; micro-crack effect? Is it the ripping sound when you remove the film tab?

[WinkyTheWindshield]

thanks for the help. We are planning on purchasing the the thin resin with the low viscosity from Delta. Until we can come up with the cash to pay for an indrustrial UV light, will the 12v lights we are currently using suffice for a solid cure? And is the low viscosity injection resin the best choice for repairs?

[WinkyTheWindshield]

WinkyTheWindshield; what do you mean with; micro-crack effect? Is it the ripping sound when you remove the film tab?

I just meant getting a good "hair-line fracture" appearance on the leggs after I cured the damage.

[GlassStarz]

Dude the sun does a fine job as well as the multiple uv lights they all do the job just some work quicker than others.
That $9.95 AA powered portable blacklight from spensers will work just takes about 5 minutes and you have to glue a suction cup on it
Dont waste too many brain cells on UV lights lots of better places to spend your energy worrying about

[Brent Deines]

I'm afraid I have to disagree with GlassStarz on this one, at least in part. Direct sunlight will cure Delta Kits resins, but may not properly cure all resins, so always check with the manufacture. Your location, your weather, and the time of year also affect the effectiveness of sunlight as well as the performance of UV lights. We used to use battery operated lights in all our windshield repair systems. They ran on 6 D cell batteries and cured the resin approximately twice as fast as the AA batter lights, but still not fast enough in my opinion. A high quality light will cure about 10 times as fast as the typical battery operated light, and is far more consistent than either sunlight or battery operated lights.

Let's be clear about something though. While a 12V light is run off a battery, the power produced is very comparable to the power produced by an AC powered light. Some are more powerful than others of course, but most 12 volt lights that we have tested offer exceptional performance. A $10 light will work in a pinch, but should not be used as a primary curing light when using Delta Kits resins.

The other thing that I keep trying to drive home is that the Solar Green glass used to make windshields blocks a significant amount of UV light, so everything but the pit area will take considerably longer to cure than the pit resin on the surface. An AA battery operated light will cure the the pit resin in five minutes, but it will not cure the resin deep inside the repair in that amount of time. A good 12V or AC powered light will cure the pit resin in less than a minute, as will direct sunlight, but we still recommend a 5 minute cure to make sure that the resin is cured throughout the break.

Failure to do so may result in a failed bond and/or air showing up in the break after curing. We could avoid a significant number of technical support calls if technicians who use Delta Kits equipment and resins would follow our advice. If using other equipment and resins feel free to experiment at will, but for best results using our equipment please understand that no one knows our products better than we do.

[GlassStarz]

Brent I recieved some pretty intense training from uncle sam on spectrum of light and as you may know I am a fairly well known artist who choses to make his living at WR (I like to eat) My photographic specialty is IR films and my years working with the airforce in te SR71 and U2 programs working with specialty films that are sensitive to specific UV spectrums I can tell you the sunlight contains a full spectrum of light including all of the UV spectrum now granted the WR UV light gives a focused bright beam of the chosen uv spectrun and the sunlight has a wider spectrum with lesser amounts of the required UV that sets off the resin but to say that the sun wont set it off is not correct to say it may take longer is correct and in different weathers like cloudy or hazy you get even less (thats why you get sunburnt some days in 15 minutes and other times it takes all day) but either way the UV is there just not in the same amounts and combined with the filter factor of the glass it may take awhile
All that said of course the light does a better and quicker job

[Brent Deines]

Hey GlassStarz, I think you may have misunderstood me. I agree with you 100% about the sun having a full spectrum of UV light, including the long wave UV light that is necessary to cure our resins. I also agree that the sun can often be used to cure Delta Kits resins and that "some" long wave UV light gets through even on cloudy days. In fact, depending on where you are located, direct sunlight cures far faster than the most powerful UV light, but in places like Oregon it often does not cure well at all. Sorry if I was not clear about that as I like to use the sun to cure my repairs sometimes as well.

The point I was trying to emphasize was that there is a significant difference in the quality of UV lights and the power they produce and that the sun can be an inconsistent long wave UV source.

In reading back over your 12/14 post I see that I really should not have said I disagree with you, but was just trying to clarify the importance of having a quality UV light. Sorry about that.