UV light -vs- Black light?

[Delta Kits]

Most W/S repair resins kick or start curing at wave length of 366 nm. I think thats nano meters. This is called short wave length. If you are using a long wave length bulb your resin won't cure.

Actually, that's backwards...Long wave is between 320-400nm, and short wave is 290-320nm...(Those numbers are debated a bit, some say long wave is 315-400).

All UV light can be harmful, but especially short wave. As has been mentioned, regardless of which light you use, do not put it up to your eyes!

The resin that we sell cures best with a 365nm light.

[glassdoctor]

Just thought I would mention that I agree with sydfloyd about the 9watt dual tube style lights. I think they are the best. Delta has them as well as several other suppliers. They are worth $100, easily.

The 4watt "AA" battery lights that WSR suppliers sell work too, but they need much longer for a good cure and are not good in cold temps. But you can get them really cheap... 5-10 bucks, already with the uv bulb, instead of $30-40 from WSR suppliers.I have some with with bulbs and some with purple bulbs, and I think they work the same.

I used these for several years before I found the 9 watt 12V ones. It was a big leap for me to pay $100 for a cure lamp, but once I tried one, I was hooked. I bought another one. I actually have several now, for me and my partner.

Here's a tip if you use these in cold weather... warm the bulb first. They are very dim when cold... just not enough power. Use a mini torch, ligher... something to make the bulb nice and warm. Then it works like it's supposed to.

[ARG]

Instead of heating the light with any flame, why not just carry them in your vehicle near the heater or defrost duct. I carry mine on the passenger side floor. I pull it out and use it when needed and put it back as soon as I'm done.

ARG

[glassdoctor]

I guess we all have different circumstances... if you do retail jobs, one repair at a time, then you can do things a bit different. Keeping the light in your warm car would be good. When possible, I try to keep everything warm in my van... but often it can't be done.

I work dealer car lots, rental, etc... and keeping everything warm is an uphill battle in the winter. A good day for me means being out in the cold for hours, often on a lot where I can't take my van... you gotta walk and carry your stuff. After the first car is done, your stuff will be getting pretty cold... and hopefully there are several more cars to go. The only way to keep everything warm is to have work vehicle right there, or get all the cars started and warmed up as you go, and stick you stuff inside them.

You can also keep some things stuffed inside your INSIDE coat pockets too, but that has it's limits, and you have to keep opening you coat.

Also, if you live where it gets really cold, the WARM light will be cold in a couple minutes... so you can hit it with a mini torch again, it only takes two seconds to re-warm it.

But I don't need to worry about cure lamps anymore... mine are fast and reliable even in cold weather, as long as you have a good power source.

[deering]

A "black light" or Ultraviolet lamp is almost the same as the flourescent lights used in most classrooms. The difference is that "UV" lights lack the white phosphor coating, and they are made with dark blue glass.

Flourescent tubes contain a near vacuum with a little mercury vapor. If you could find a flourescent tube made from clear glass with no white coating, you'd be able to see some tiny droplets of mercury rolling around inside. When high voltage is applied across the ends of the tube, a big, silent, fuzzy spark jumps through the low pressure gas inside, and this makes the gas glow. The gas gives off various frequencies of light, and humans usually see these as colors.

Mercury gas gives off green, blue, and UV light. If your black light tube was made from clear glass, the bright blue/green glow would light up the room. Because of this, black lights are made with dyed glass which blocks most of the visible light but passes the UV light. If a perfect dye were available, black light tubes would not glow purple when turned on, they would look totally black, even when turned on. But the dye in the glass lets a little violet visible light through as well as passing lots of invisible UV.

From http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/ma ... .Ch.r.html

[CPR]

Check out this cut and paste, some good info here...................



Blacklight Fluorescent Lamps
(From: Don Klipstein (don@misty.com).)
BL in the tube designation (e.g., F40T12BL) means "blacklight", which is a fluorescent lamp with a phosphor that emits the longest largely invisible UV wavelengths that are both efficiently and fairly cheaply possible. This phosphor seems to emit a band of UV mainly from 350 to 370 nanometers, in the UV-A range.

BLB means "blacklight-blue", which differs from "blacklight" only in that the glass tube of this lamp is darkly tinted with something with a dark violet-blue color to absorb most visible light. Most UV gets through this, along with much of the dimly visible deep-violet 404.7 nanometer line of mercury. Most of the violetish-blue 435.8 nanometer line is absorbed, but enough of this wavelength gets through to largely dominate the color of the visible light from this lamp. Longer visible light wavelengths do not significantly penetrate the BLB's very deep violet-blue glass, which is known as 'Wood's glass'. The UV is the same as that of the BL lamp, being mostly between 350 and 370 nanometers.

There is a 350BL blacklight lamp, using a different phosphor that emits a band of slightly shorter UV wavelengths in the UV-A range. The reasoning for this lamp is that it is supposedly optimized for attracting insects. These lamps are one variety of UV lamps used in electric bug killers.

There are other UV fluorescent lamps. There are at least two different UV/deep violet emitting fluorescent lamps used mainly in the graphic arts industry, emitting mainly wavelengths between 360 and 420 nanometers. Possibly one of these is also used in bug killers. I have noticed one kind of UV fluorescent lamp for bug killers with a broadish band phosphor with significant output from the 360 nanometer range (maybe also shorter) into visible wavelengths around 410 to 420 nanometers or so.

There is an even shorter UV-A lamp used for suntanning purposes. I would guess the phosphor emits mainly within the 315 to 345 nanometer range. One brand of such lamps is "Uvalux".

There is even a UV-B emitting fluorescent lamp. Its phosphor emits mostly at UV-B wavelengths (286 to 315 nanometers). It is used mainly for special medicinal purposes. Exposing skin to UV-B causes erythema, which is to some extent a burn reaction of the skin to a slightly destructive irritant. Use of UV-B largely limits this to outer layers of the skin (perhaps mainly the epidermis) and to parts of the body where skin is thinner. UV-A wavelengths just over 315 nanometers can also cause sunburn, but they are more penetrating and can affect the dermis. Please note that the deadliest varieties of skin cancer usually originate in the epidermis and are usually most easily caused by UV-B rays.

There are clear UV-emitting lamps made of a special glass that lets through the main shortwave UV (UV-C) mercury radiation at 253.7 nanometers. These lamps are marketed as germicidal lamps, and ones in standard fluorescent lamp sizes have part numbers that start with G instead of F. These lamps will work in standard fluorescent lamp fixtures.

Cold-cathode germicidal lamps are also in use; these somewhat resemble "neon" tubing.

Be warned that the shortwave UV emitted by germicidal lamps is intended to be dangerous to living cells and is hazardous, especially to the conjunctiva of eyes. Signs of injury by the UV are often delayed, often first becoming apparent several minutes after exposure and peaking out a half hour to several hours afterwards.

Please note that non-fluorescent (high pressure mercury vapor discharge) sunlamps generally emit more UV-B rays rather than the tanning-range UV-A rays. These lamps do have substantial UV-A output, but mainly at a small cluster of wavelengths around 365 nanometers. Tanning is most effectively accomplished by wavelengths in the 315-345 nanometer range. In addition, no UV suntanning is completely safe.

[screenman]

I would suggest that delta kits uv lamp is designed to work with the resin they sell. If you intend to make a success of this business I suggest you at least save up some money and buy a kit from them. With some of your hard earned invested you will try harder to find work and do it properly.We have more than enough people in this trade that are going around with bits of of old kit nailed together for very little cost doing rubbish jobs and getting us profesionals a bad name. Remember speculate to accumalate . Dont go in half hearted its a fantastic business.

[optic-kleer]

Hello Screenman, what part of the UK do you operate in?.

[desertstars]

The answer to your original question is YES, Karen.

A "black light" emits UV rays because it has a phospherous coating.

Consequently, some call it a "black light" and some call it a UV light.

It might be black; it might be white; it might be blue.

Without getting too technical, either a so-called "black light" or UV light will serve your purpose.

The argument about sunlight opposed to a UV light depends on the area you reside and I won't open that can of worms within this thread.

In Arizona, sunlight is normally sufficient to harden the repair within three minutes after removing the shield.

I use blacklights to find scorpions at night either within my property or in the desert.

Quite effective for that purpose.

[Rock Chip Nimrod]

I use the uv light even when the sun is out. which is about 2 days a year, up here in the pacific north west. one of the main reasons I use it is to impress the customer. "wow look at all that hi-tech stuff" makes me look like I know what I'm doing.