UV Analyzer
The UV Analyzer is an app-based UV measurement device. It consists of the UV Analyzer app for Android and iOS, the UV Analyzer self-adhesive strips and the UV Analyzer stick.
The app can be downloaded via the App Store from App Store® from Apple® or via Google Play free of charge. The UV Analyzer measuring strips and stick are distributed by IST. Please contact our sales team for pre-order.
Measuring is quite easy. Put the strip on your substrate, irradiate it with UV and measure the strip with the stick. The app will show you the measured dose in mJ/cm². This dose value can be compared with your reference value to determine aging. Reference values for the UV analyzer are determined directly by you on site when the system is new. The measurements can be exported for quality assurance and documentation.
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Recommended measuring range for dose from approx. 200 - 2000 mJ/cm². For further information see FAQs
2. How to handle the strips?
Use gloves, hold the strip in the corner and pull of the strip. The strip is self-adhesive and must be put onto a white surface to avoid shine through from the background. Don’t touch the strips without gloves!
Remark: The strips should be stored in the fridge to ensure measuring quality over life time. During transport use the thermo bag.
3. What factors are important for UV measuring?
There are quite a lot of factors influencing the measuring. Most important are electrical power, distance to UV unit, light spectrum, machine speed and shape resp. color of underground (curved – flat, dark - light).
Recommendation: Respect the warming up time of minimum 5 minutes for the whole unit before measuring and ensure consistent measuring conditions. In sheet fed printing we recommend to run 100 sheets before measuring and to use 3 strips (left, center, right) to cover the printing format.
4. How to operate the UV Analyzer stick?
Position the stick on the strip, ensure no overlapping and touch the key measuring within the app (not the hardware button). The app allows up to 5 measurements (after repositioning) for each strip. After completion of the desired number of measurements a mean value is automatically calculated. We do recommend minimum 2 measurements.
5. What is the recommended dose range?
We do specify the UV dose as a rough rule between 200 mJ/cm² and 2000 mJ/cm². In detail the real sector is a function of strip sensitivity and the emmission sectrum of light source. The app will use recommendations depending on the selected type of UV. The UV dose is inversely proportional to machine speed. Means double the speed, half the dose. Therefore a lot of applications are brought up for UV measuring. The app can calculate a dose for a target speed.
6. Why dose@target speed calculation?
It might be that requested dose values exceed the recommended limits of the strips. In this case you should set your machine speed to realize dose values which will be within the limits. The machine speed might now be wrong for your application, but you are able to calculate the exact dose for your desired machine speed with this feature.
8. What stands the reference curve for?
The UV Analyzer app is using reference curves to realize best accuracy. In reference to the lamp spectrum resp. LED spectrum you have to choose the curve of corresponding UV source. Choosing a designated curve will get you as well a detailed information for recommended dose levels.
Remark: The reference curves cannot be compared with one another.
Available curves for UV-light sources:
- BLK Fe - (iron doped lamps for IST BLK units)
- BLK Hg - (mercury lamps for IST BLK units)
- Generic Hg - (mercury lamps for all non IST units)
- Generic LED 375-405 nm - (LEDs for all non IST units)
- LUV3 385 nm - (385 nm LEDs with optics for IST LUV3 units)
- MBS-Li Fe - (iron doped lamps for IST MBS-Li with quartz screen)
- MBS-Li Hg - (mercury lamps for IST MBS-Li with quartz screen)
- SC 395 nm - (395 nm LEDs without optics for IST/ITL units)
9. What is the UV Analyzer expected to display?
The app shows dose measurements in reference to the type of UV unit and the spectrum, which will work for UV and LED. Dose calculation is executed through reference curves and displayed in mJ/cm². The reference curves were determined with different UV measuring devices, therefore you should respect a possible deviation in the range of +/- 10%.
Before measuring, you can enter and save additional parameters, such as unit number, operating hours, machine name and measuring speed, distance to substrate and power setting. These parameters are informative and have no influence on the actual UV measurement.
12. What is the advantage of the UV Analyzer?
The UV Analyzer respects that UV strips do not have uniform sensitivity over the complete UV range. The reference curves relating to aggregate type and spectrum take this aspect into account. In addition, each stick is referenced to a standard. Through these measures, a high measurement quality is achieved.
13. How is documentation realized?
The UV Analyzer app offers the possibility to share measurements. A complete protocol can be stored as a pdf-file, transmitted to a printer or an e-mail address. Please note that only the last 10 measurements will be stored within the app. If you try to store more than 10 measurements the oldest measurement is overwritten.