Getting Your OEM Setup Right with our 80W/cm Mercury UV Lamps
We’ve built our standard mercury lamps around a power density of 80W/cm. Why? Because for most industrial curing lines, it’s just the sweet spot. It gives you the UVC and UVB punch you need to get those adhesives, inks, and coatings to set properly without any guesswork. The balance of power and heat Here’s the thing about power density: it’s all about how fast you can move your product through the line. At 80W/cm, we’re playing a balancing act. You want speed, but you don’t want to fry your materials. If you crank the wattage too high in a small space, you’re asking for trouble—think scorched substrates or warped reflectors. To keep things stable, you’ll need a ballast that can handle that initial “kick” of strike voltage and then settle down into a steady operating current. If you don’t, those electrodes will burn out way faster than they should. Quartz and the “Drop-In” Fit We use high-purity fused quartz for the outer shell. It’s clear, it’s tough, and it lets the UV light pass through without getting trapped in the glass. But we know every machine is a little different. That’s why we work with our OEM partners to tweak the details. Need a specific length? A different pin layout? Custom shielding? Just let us know. We build the lamp to fit your existing fixture so you can just slide it in and get back to work. No need to tear apart your housing or redesign your whole system. A heads-up on the heat One thing to watch out for: these high-wattage lamps put out a lot of infrared heat along with the UV. You can’t just ignore it. If your cooling fans or water jackets aren’t up to the task, the quartz envelope is going to overheat. When that happens, the glass starts to cloud over—a process called “solarization.” Once that happens, your UV output tanks. Keep an eye on your temperatures. It’s the simplest way to make sure you actually get the full lifespan out of your electrodes.