News

The University of Huddersfield’s Centre for Precision Technologies will be receiving £3 million of funding over the next five years to lead major research programmes designed to drive significant advancements in machinery design and performance.

The news follows the Government’s recent announcement that over £100 million of new investment through its Strength in Places Fund will support five new landmark regional programmes. One of these is the West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester based Advanced Machinery and Productivity Initiative, known as AMPI, which consists of 10 partners, including the Centre for Precision Technologies.

This investment is expected to grow the UK’s advanced machinery capability to a £2 billion export capacity within ten years establishing over 30,000 high value manufacturing sector jobs.

Collaboration between academia and industry

Leading the project is Professor of Machine Tool Metrology and Research Director for CPT, Andrew Longstaff, who explains:

“West Yorkshire and Manchester have been at the heart of innovation in the design and manufacturing of machinery since the first industrial revolution. The future of manufacturing will need a step-change in the machines available to create the advanced products made from new materials, with new functionality, and greater reliability. The process of designing, building and reconfiguring machinery will need to be more efficient, more flexible, and more user-friendly for a changing workforce. The machines also need to be more resource-efficient throughout their working life, in the drive towards the Net Zero target for greenhouse gas emissions.

“AMPI is a large-scale response to these challenges and will be a critical element of our future research programmes, taking advantage of our existing strengths in machine design, modelling, simulation, metrology and control systems. But AMPI is much more than just a research project. The programme has been defined in close consultation with our industry partners and includes multiple mechanisms to learn from each other and to accelerate the progression of research outcomes into commercial exploitation. This focus on active collaboration between academia and the private sector is central to AMPI’s ethos and its core goal of a resurgent and world-class advanced machinery sector in Northern England.”

The Centre for Precision Technologies

The Centre for Precision Technologies (CPT) is widely recognised as both a UK and world-leading centre for advanced manufacturing metrology. Over more than two decades it has delivered large-scale research programmes with a national and global impact. By bringing together academic and industrial experts the team provides modern, cutting-edge measurement theory and technologies for dimensional and surface texture, machine performance and mathematics for measurement. Indeed with over 150 different industry partners across a broad range of industrial sectors, CPT has been able to tackle problems faced by industry in the modern transition of manufacturing.

CPT has provided industry with many original, creative and innovative technology solutions (hardware and software), provided training and measurement services and, most recently, created a spin-out company to further commercialise emerging technologies.

The overall programme is being led by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) from their North of England site, which is based at the University’s 3M Buckley Innovation Centre. The AMPI consortium also includes several local and regional industrial partners who have been collaborating with the research team over a number of years, plus academic teams from Leeds, Manchester and Salford.

Mouser Electronics has received the TDK European Distribution Award for the third time from TDK, a world leader in electronic components and solutions. The Gold distribution award recognises Mouser’s 2020 performance based on inventory management, operational excellence, terms and business performance. Mouser previously won the award in 2019 and 2017.

TDK’s High Service Distributor Award was updated in 2020, with the award criteria being raised in line with an adjusted scorecard system, providing a higher benefit for the end customers. Under the new system, Mouser is the only high service distributor to be recognised this year with the TDK European award.

Stated Dietmar Jaeger, Head of TDK Global Sales Distribution: “We are very pleased with Mouser’s continuous excellent performance, which certainly deserves to be honoured. I want to congratulate the whole team from Mouser for their hard work, promoting our products to the engineering world during the last year.”

“We are incredibly honoured to receive this prestigious award, and thank TDK for recognising the outstanding efforts of our teams around the world,” said Mark Burr-Lonnon, Senior Vice President of Global Service & EMEA and APAC Business. “Throughout our longstanding partnership we’ve realised many successes together, and we look forward to many more in the future.”

Mouser stocks a broad selection of TDK’s comprehensive product portfolio, including ceramic, aluminium electrolytic and film capacitors; ferrites and inductors; high-frequency products; and piezo and protection components as well as sensors, sensor systems and power supplies.

To learn more, visit https://www.mouser.com/manufacturer/tdk/

An electronic equipment manufacturer needed to improve the reliability of the detection system fitted to their Printed Circuit Board reflow oven. Long-distance inductive sensors from Contrinex provided a simple solution that reliably detected PCB’s leaving a reflow oven to trigger transfer equipment that moves the board automatically to the next process stage.

Customer application

Reflow soldering ovens are an essential part of the electronic assemble process, being used to secure components in place on printed circuit boards. PCBs which have had solder paste screen-printed onto them are populated with electronic components and connectors before being conveyed into a reflow oven. As the PCB is conveyed through the oven, the temperature increases progressively according to a predetermined thermal profile which melts the solder paste so that it flows around and secures the components, as well as ensuring a robust electrical connection.
As each PCB leaves the oven, a sensor must trigger the factory’s control system to activate an automated transfer mechanism to move the board to the next processing stage.

The ambient temperature of 80°C immediately adjacent to the exit of the oven was causing an unacceptable rate of failure in other manufacturer’s sensors and so Contrinex was approached to see if its sensors could operate with total reliability.

Customer solution

Contrinex’s 500 series of inductive sensors which provide extended sensing distances were ideal for this application. They were able to detect the metal within the PCB and also allow sufficient space for the PCBs with tall components to pass underneath. The longer-distance sensing also enables the sensor to be positioned further away from the heat being radiated off the hot boards.

Best-in-class operating distances, vacuum-encapsulated electronics and excellent resistance to thermal shock and vibration from Contrinex’s Condist technology enable these sensors to provide a continuous 70°C temperature rating.

The inductive sensors are mounted vertically on steel brackets attached to the exterior of the reflow ovens. They are positioned 10mm above the PCBs and their M12-threaded metal housing enables easy adjustment. The 500 series sensors proved to be reliable even in the elevated ambient temperatures around the reflow oven, without needing to use more expensive specialised high-temperature sensors, an area in which Contrinex also excels, offering inductive sensors rated to operate in temperatures up to 230°C.

The factory’s control system required an NPN sensor with a normally open configuration and other than fitting protective sheathing over the sensor’s PVC cable, no additional electrical or mechanical protection was required despite the adverse operating conditions.

Previously, sensors from other manufacturers did not detect boards reliably and had unacceptably short service lives, causing frequent interruptions to production. Whilst the sensors were not particularly expensive, the cost of engineers replacing them and interruptions to the manufacturing process was high. The switch to Contrinex inductive sensors provided a reliable sensing solution enabling the customer to achieve the level of machine availability and effectiveness, OEE, that they desired. The total cost of ownership was extremely attractive because the 500 Series extended range inductive sensor cost less than the cost of two of the competitor’s sensors.

Contrinex sensors are available from PLUS Automation.

PROFINET is an open, manufacturer-independent Industrial Ethernet standard based on international standards for manufacturing and process automation. It is a communication protocol designed to exchange data between controllers and devices in an automation setting. It was introduced in the early 2000s and is the most well-adopted Industrial Ethernet solution.

With its scalable communication, it offers the highest performance and flexibility and meets all requirements for the use of Ethernet in industrial automation.

Since PROFINET is a truly open standard, hundreds of manufacturers have developed PROFINET products, such as PLCs, PACs, Drives, Robots, Proxies, IOs, and diagnostic tools.

PROFINET Technology Workshop  September 28, 2021

This workshop is designed to help make implementation simple and efficient for all companies wishing to develop PROFINET products for in-house use, or to take advantage of the huge market opportunity for PROFINET-enabled products.

Topics to be covered in the Workshop:

• PROFINET in the system environment
• Implementation options
• Device model
• Diagnostic concept
• Parameterisation
• Representation of the system topology
• Unit replacement without engineering system
• Real Time (RT) and Isochronous Real Time (IRT)
• GSD creation
• Certification
• Tips and tricks
• Live demo
• PROFIenergy, PROFIsafe, PROFIdrive
• TSN, OPC UA, Security

The workshop will also include presentations of development support and practical tips for implementation and testing from some of the world’s leading technology houses. So that everyone around the world will have a chance to join this webinar, a first session will take place from 7 – 10 am (BST) and a second session with the same content will then be held in the afternoon from 4 – 7 pm (BST).

Date: Tuesday, September 28th, 2021
Time: Session 1: 7:00 -10:00 AM (BST); Session 2: 16:00 – 19:00 (BST)
Location: Online (GoToWebinar)
Host: PROFINET & PROFIBUS International
Price: No-cost

To take advantage of the wealth of experience offered by the individual companies and developers, register here: (https://www.profibus.com/pi-international-profinet-technology-workshop)

ACEINNA, a market leading, inertial sensor company, has named Wade Appelman as the company’s President & COO, responsible for developing and implementing strategy for the company’s worldwide operations.

“ACEINNA is part of two exciting market trends, autonomous driving and vehicle electrification. Used in autonomous vehicles to ensure both accuracy and safety, high precision Inertial Measurement Unit Sensors (IMU) complement perception sensors such as imaging, radar and LiDAR,” says Mr. Appelman. “Current sensing is another strength for ACEINNA critical to power management and I’m excited to help this talented team continue its amazing growth and technology innovation in both of these segments.”

According to Dr. Yang Zhao, founder and CEO of ACEINNA, “Wade is an organised and dynamic technology executive who will be able to successfully lead the ACEINNA engineering, marketing and business teams towards our goal of making next generation self- driving and eco-friendly vehicles a reality.”

Prior to joining ACEINNA, Mr. Appelman was VP and GM of the depth sensing division of ON Semiconductor where he led the team responsible for adoption of low light sensors in LiDAR and successfully secured early customers designs in automotive, medical, and industrial markets for the divisions sensing product portfolio.

He joined ON Semiconductor in May 2018 through the acquisition of SensL Technologies, where he was VP of worldwide sales and marketing responsible for the company’s business strategy since 2012.

Wade has extensive experience in both private and public sector organisations having served in senior leadership roles driving sales and marketing efforts for five venture-backed startups with total exit valuations of $900 million. Select highlights include the network processor pioneer, Sitera (acquired by Vitesse), Zagros (acquired by Altera), and Lightstorm Networks (acquired by Broadcom).

Mr. Appelman has also served in a leadership role in three publicly traded corporations. In addition to ON Semiconductor, he led product marketing for Cabletron’s $1B switch and routing division, and Vitesse Semiconductor’s product marketing and product management for the 500-employee Advanced Networking Products Division. He has a B.S. from Wagner College in New York, NY.

Farnell, an Avnet Company and global distributor of electronic components, products and solutions, has today launched a new global podcast series, The Innovation Experts. Exploring the latest innovations in the world of electronics, the first series investigates how test and measurement equipment is key to enabling technological innovation.

The podcast series features interviews with experts from the world’s leading test and measurement equipment suppliers including Tektronix, Keysight, Rohde & Schwarz, Pico Technology, Hioki and Fluke, to understand how they are helping customers drive innovation across a wide variety of real-world applications. The podcasts provide valuable insights for buyers and design, development and systems engineers as well as amateur test enthusiasts wanting to stay up to date with the latest trends, challenges, products, tools and applications.

“Changes in technology and rapid modernisation are placing greater demands on test and measurement equipment manufacturers – and they have responded by utilising new technological advances in industrial automation and control technology combined with the integration of connected devices through IoT and IIoT to bring to market the most cutting-edge and innovative products,” said James McGregor, Global Head of Test & Tools at Farnell. “Engineers are now measuring, testing, analysing, recording and displaying data on almost every application in the world around us, from factory automation, medical applications and transportation through to checking defects in high-performance and power-efficient consumer products. Test equipment – and test engineers – have never been more important in driving technological innovation around the world.”

With new episodes released every two weeks, The Innovation Experts podcast will cover topics including how test and measurement equipment enables innovation at tiny start-ups right through to large blue-chip organisations, how cutting-edge test tools support innovative battery design for electric vehicles and much more.

The debut episode of the series focuses on how Pico Technology’s PC-based oscilloscopes and RF testing products have enabled hybrid working and new ways of remote learning throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Mike Purday, Business Development Manager from Pico Technology, joins Farnell’s Global Head of Technical Marketing and electrical engineer Cliff Ortmeyer, to discuss the capabilities and impact of using low-cost PC-based scopes through to high-performance products for a range of innovative – and unexpected – applications, from tattoo removal to monitoring the temperature of penguin eggs.

Cliff Ortmeyer, Global Head of Technical Marketing at Farnell and host of The Innovation Experts, said: “With this podcast, we wanted to hear from the experts right on the cutting edge of technological innovation in the test space. Over the course of the series, I speak with leaders from some of the largest test and measurement equipment manufacturers around the globe to find out how they deliver innovative solutions and empower their customers to build an exciting future. I’m delighted to have spoken to influential experts in this industry and we hope the test and measurement community will find their insights helpful and interesting.”

Responding to the growth of test and measurement globally, Farnell has invested significantly over the last 12 months to build a comprehensive portfolio which includes the latest solutions from world leading suppliers. Farnell’s in-stock range of test and tool products includes oscilloscopes, power suppliers, signal generators and digital multimeters, as well as soldering products, hand tools and 3D printers. Free technical support is available to customers 24/5 from Farnell’s in-house test and measurement specialists as well as access to online resources, data sheets, application notes, videos and webinars.

The Innovation Experts is freely available from major podcast providers including Spotify, Apple Music, Alexa and more.

The first episode, featuring Pico Technology, is available now on Farnell’s new Technical Resources Hub.

Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces that, as a participant of the Lunar Industry Vision Council, it has worked with other members from government, academia, and industry to formulate a vision for a lunar industry, prepare a number of recommendations, and jointly submit them for the consideration of Inoue Shinji, Japan’s Minister of State for Space Policy.

Over the years, Yokogawa has utilised its strengths in measurement, control, and information to support industries and the infrastructure that society depends on. Plants are one element in our industrial infrastructure that have an extremely large impact on the environment and society, so efficient, safe, and secure operations even in harsh environments are extremely important.

With the growing interest in the space industry and in lunar commercial activities, Yokogawa has designated in its long-term business framework that the space field will be an area for future exploration, and the company is actively considering future business opportunities on the moon.

Examples of relevant Yokogawa strengths include a strong lineup of equipment that measures physical quantities such as power, voltage, current, light, and pressure with high accuracy, and advanced sensing technology with high performance and network capabilities. Moreover, Yokogawa has not only built up a long track record in providing distributed control systems for the monitoring and control of plant production equipment and operations, but has also acquired know-how on the optimal management of equipment throughout the plant life cycle. Additionally, by drawing on the latest digital technologies, including industrial IoT, AI, and big data, as well as its extensive domain knowledge, the company has developed a deep understanding of how to optimise operations. Moving forward, Yokogawa is looking to apply these strengths in the extreme environment of space.

Yokogawa will engage in co-creation with a range of partners to introduce self-sustaining, resource-saving technologies and comprehensive recycling solutions to enable a circular economy in space, where the air, water, food, and power needed to sustain human life are in extremely short supply, while also aiming to improve the global environment in line with the SDGs.

As it is anticipated that many different industries will expand their activities beyond the Earth, Yokogawa will continue to work with the Lunar Industry Vision Council to strengthen cooperation toward the goal of building an internationally competitive industrial base.

Official statement by the Lunar Industry Vision Council

“Since the beginning of history, human beings have expanded their sphere of existence and economic activity through the exploration of new frontiers. In the near future, humans will expand their presence beyond Earth, including near and on the Moon, and a new lunar economic system will be realised. Governments and private companies worldwide are aware of this momentum. As such, legislation is underway to support commercial activity on the Moon; scientists and academics are preparing instruments for lunar research and development; and private companies are creating new services and roadmaps to build an economic connection between the Earth to the Moon.

With this in mind, the Lunar Industry Vision Council was formed with the primary objective to realise lunar exploration activities centered on industrialisation in Japan. As such, the council convened thirty companies and organisations from across Japan to explore this effort and executive upon its objective. Following several months of dialogue and study, the council has compiled a report consisting of six resolutions and seven policy recommendations to be presented to the Japanese government.

The council is proud to announce that, on July 13, 2021, the report, which is titled, “Lunar Industry Vision: Planet 6.0” was respectfully submitted to and duly received by Minister of State for Space Policy Inoue Shinji. It is with great honor that the council may conclude this undertaking. It is the council’s strong will and anticipation that this activity will lead to a “Lunar Industrial Revolution,” creating a private sector-led lunar industry that can provide benefit to Earth.”

The Łukasiewicz Research Network – Institute of Microelectronics and Photonics has chosen to use measurement instrumentation from Tektronix and Keithley to investigate the current and voltage characteristics of wide-bandgap semiconductors.

Based in Warsaw, Poland, the Łukasiewicz – Institute of Microelectronics and Photonics conducts scientific research and development work in areas such as micro- and nanoelectronics, optoelectronics, materials engineering and power electronics. The Institute works with the country’s entrepreneurs and seeks to help the Polish economy by implementing and distributing the results of these projects.

In a recent project, the Institute sought to develop a new generation of pioneering devices and materials based on wide-bandgap semiconductors such as GaN, SiC, Ga2O3 and others for power electronics, with particular applications in fast charging stations for electric cars.

PhD Eng. Andrzej Taube of the Łukasiewicz – Institute of Microelectronics and Photonics says: “We found the biggest challenge the project posed was meeting the stringent requirements for the functionality and flexibility of the system when measuring semiconductor devices, which were in the form of both on-wafer chips and in TO-220 and TO-247 packages. “The project also required a variety of measurement procedures with some current measurements in the femtoAmp range.”

In addition, dynamic characterization of GaN power semiconductor devices presents specific challenges not encountered with other semiconductors. This involves a complex test setup to retrieve key figures such as dynamic RDS (on) or the capacitance value between the terminals. The customer also specified the need for automatic switching between high-voltage and high-current measurements without re-cabling which Tektronix equipment was able to provide.

The Łukasiewicz – IMiF chose devices from the 2600 Series of Source Meter Units (SMUs) to measure current-voltage characteristics in a wide range of voltages (up to 3kV) and current, extending from the femtoAmp range up to 50A. This series of SMUs are designed specifically to characterise and test high voltage/current electronics and power semiconductors, such as diodes, FETs, and IGBTs, high brightness LEDs and DC-DC converters.

Moreover, 2600 Series Source Measure Units, along with an ATV HV switch and Tektronix MDO3034 digital oscilloscopes, will be used to meet the need for dynamic RDS (on) measurements of GaN power transistors.

Tektronix not only supplied equipment to the Institute, but was also advised the researchers on effective measurement techniques. Dr inż. Taube says: “We received technical advice for measurements of very low current levels, below 10-14 A with good resolution.”

PhD Eng. A.Taube added: “I can definitely recommend Tektronix and Keithley products due to the wide measurement ranges of various electrical quantities, a wide and unique range of measurement procedures offered and their ease of use and configuration. They also offer the flexibility to expand the system with new measurement possibilities in the future, as well as good price, quality and quick and trouble-free help and technical advice.”

Maria Heriz, Present EMEAI, Tektronix, commented: “At Tektronix, we are dedicated to supporting our customers throughout all their endeavors. We are delighted to have been able to provide the Lukasiewicz – Institute of Microelectronics and Photonics with not only high-quality equipment to match their requirements, but also high-level technical advice to benefit their project and ensure innovative work can continue.”

Inndeo, a Spanish company founded in 2016, uses Specim’s hyperspectral imaging technology to improve the quality inspection processes in the food industry by increasing automation. With this new technology, they can detect contamination and defects in the production lines and characterise different food quality parameters.

From opportunity to an industrial partner

In 2014, Daniel Artal and Emilio J. de la Red found a business opportunity to integrate new technologies into quality inspection automation. They learned that the industry manages these duties with traditional manual labor and machine vision equipment with limited detection capabilities. So they founded Inndeo in 2016, and in 2018 started to work with hyperspectral imaging to detect more complex contamination problems.

Currently, they develop and manufacture machine vision solutions for the food industry under the INSPECTRA brand. With their approach of selecting the most appropriate technologies to solve their customer’s quality problems and automate their production processes, they have gathered a clientele consisting of large Spanish food producers, especially in the meat sector.

Replacing manual labor and old equipment with sensor fusion

Today, food producers’ main fear is losing brand image above all the costs and repercussions of quality failures. The solutions companies use in the food sector are X-ray equipment, metal detectors, and even manual operators for certain defects. There are some artificial vision machines on the market, but most of them cannot detect defects beyond a comparison of a colour palette.

INSPECTRA’s advantage is their integration of different technologies, sensor fusion, to improve the detection capabilities. One of the benefits is the digitalised quality and production data from the production lines. This high amount of data allows companies to apply BI techniques to rate their providers’ quality and detect production inefficiencies to improve their productivity.

Advancing from detecting defects and contamination to quality parameters

The main challenge was to choose the most suitable vision technology for each of their equipment to capture and process the images online.

Hyperspectral imaging allowed them to perform the most complex contamination detection outside the visible light spectrum. Like melted grease in the heat-sealed area of packages, it goes undetected by the human eye and other inspection technologies.

“The main reason we decided to implement hyperspectral imaging technology in our equipment was that no other technology was able to detect particular contamination and defects in the products and also characterise different quality parameters of the food,” Emilio J. de la Red, Chief Technical Innovation Officer of INSPECTRA, commented.

An added benefit was that they could classify different quality parameters from the food products with hyperspectral imaging.

The capture of hyperspectral images and the compose of chemical images requires a high load of computation. Moreover, integrating all that software in a robust machine that needs to work three shifts per day in a harsh environment was a challenge that required much hard work.

Both the use and the configuration of Specim cameras are simple in everyday life. They have the advantage of usability of a conventional camera despite being cameras with specific technology. The tricky part comes later, after the image capturing; the most challenging part is processing the images, associating the different spectral signatures, and obtaining the images in different tones according to the chemical composition.

Selecting the right partner

To succeed in integrating hyperspectral imaging into industrial equipment, INSPECTRA needed to choose the right partner. Specim is the world’s leading provider of hyperspectral imaging and is selected by numerous research laboratories, including world-renowned centers. This gave them the confidence to start the collaboration. The decision was easy when they learned the features and benefits Specim offered as a supplier.

“We have tested other suppliers for different types of technologies, but for hyperspectral imagining technology, we have trusted Specim since our beginning. We continue to work with them as a supplier to this day because they have always offered us the best solutions and have solved our problems very quickly whenever we have needed them,” added Emilio J de la Red.

Excellent results

Specim technology has allowed them to detect different types of defects and contaminations, undetectable to the human eye and other technologies. They have successfully used hyperspectral imaging in many various applications:

• Contamination of heat-sealed packages
• Contamination in shrimp and different fish production lines
• The freshness of different products, meat, fish, vegetables
• Contamination and quality of wool
• Composition and contamination detection of various minced meats
• Quality and contamination detection in pork meat

For example, they use Specim FX17 cameras, available from Quantum Design UK & Ireland, to classify different defects from the meat samples. Detecting PSE (pale, soft, and exudative) defects from the meat samples are difficult to see with the naked eye. The same goes for both bones and tendons.

“Yes, the solution met our expectations because we could superficially detect defects in meat samples that were difficult to distinguish due to the similarity with shades in certain parts of the meat through this technology. In addition, this technology allows us to know the different chemical components of each product or element and thus assign them a different colour depending on their chemical composition,” explained Emilio J de la Red.

“We could detect foreign bodies, bleeding, PSE, tendons, bones, and cartilage in the samples without any problems. The only challenging defect is the holes in the meat. Hyperspectral cameras see the hole as an area of flesh (same material) but with shadow (less brightness).”

Endless amount of applications

The experience of working with Specim has been very satisfying for INSPECTRA. Both the cameras and the technology are easy to use and adapted perfectly to the different applications.

For the future, INSPECTRA is looking for native software from Specim, as the full integration into their machines has proven to be challenging with third-party software. However, given the multiple applications of the developed chemical image analysing technology, they will apply it to developing new equipment to detect contamination and quality inspection of many different food items. In addition, in the long-term future, they may build products with this technology for other sectors.

When asked what Emilio J. de la Red would like to say to other companies looking for a technology partner, he concluded: “We would advise choosing Specim as a supplier of hyperspectral vision technology if they want to choose a supplier with solid experience, who offers a wide range of products to choose the technology that best suits their needs and offers excellent service and response time.”

SteriLumen was founded in 2016 with the goal of helping hospitals combat HAIs (healthcare associated infections) with their patented UVC-based disinfection solutions. Each year millions of people contract an infectious disease from a hospital, assisted living, long-term care facility, or other healthcare environment; and nearly 100,000 die. These infections cost the healthcare industry billions in lost reimbursements and fines each year. With the onset of the pandemic, these facilities quickly started seeing their profits slide into the red.

At its founding SteriLumen focused its efforts on disinfection of high-touch and high-traffic surfaces and sink drains. These areas are particularly susceptible to harbouring germs and bacteria that can be easily transferred from one person to the next. Manually cleaning these surfaces multiple times a day is neither practical nor as efficient as a disinfection system that is always working.

For disinfecting high-touch surfaces, SteriLumen launched its Lumicide Ribbon, a connected, configurable platform that can be seamlessly integrated into new spaces, or retrofitted into existing ones. The Lumicide Ribbon system is designed to always be on, providing maximum germicidal irradiation to the surface it’s disinfecting. Since UVC light is harmful to people, the Lumicide system has a dual, redundant motion sensor integrated into it ensuring that the system is switched off when someone approaches. Here, Don Simmons, Chief Engineer at SteriLumen, explains why they selected the ILT2400 UVGI Light Measurement System.

For Don, the selection of the ILT2400 was multi-fold. Prior to purchasing the radiometer, SteriLumen had been relying on software modelling to predict where the UV light was going, and at what threshold a person would be exposed to UV hazard when the device was on. On top of that, they were relying on outside testing services to validate that their system was emitting the proper amount of light, or dose, to effectively inactivate germs. These tests are expensive and time consuming, and not conducive to iterative development, ongoing improvement, and tight time lines.

“I had always worked places that had testing and validation tools on-site, and I knew if we were going to effectively meet our engineering objectives, we would need that capability here as well,” explains Don. “The addition of the ILT2400 enabled us to pull that capability in-house, saving us an enormous amount of time and resources in outside testing services,” continued Don.

With the onset of Covid the market has been flooded with all kinds of UVC devices making all kinds of claims regarding disinfection. For SteriLumen they back their claims up with data – and lots of it. Often going beyond the regulatory requirements, SteriLumen was looking to show that their system was both effective at inactivating pathogens, and safe from being a UV hazard. SteriLumen’s Lumicide systems have been UL tested for efficacy and are currently being investigated for adherence to UL8802.

Don explained: “When we received the data back from UL, our numbers were almost an exact match. There were no surprises. This gave us the confidence we would pass biological efficacy testing, which costs many thousands of dollars more, before we sent the system in.”

SteriLumen makes their independently conducted efficacy tests available upon request.

The ILT2400 not only helped SteriLumen with their development and regulatory and efficacy test preparation, it also enabled them to effectively evaluate new components from potential suppliers. As Don puts it: “We would receive in chips from all kinds of suppliers, claiming all kinds of things. We had to rely on their specifications without being able to verify them, and for us, that just wasn’t good enough.”

When explaining why he ultimately chose ILT for his meter, Don said: “Simple. I was already familiar with ILT having used your equipment previously, you’re a local company, and you have great tech support.”

Since buying their ILT2400 meter, SteriLumen also acquired Akida LLC, makers of the Airocide product line, to address air-borne pathogens such as coronavirus.

“This system,” Don explains, “is very different from the Lumicide. It uses a totally different light engine, with totally different properties. I’m just starting to get my arms around this system from an engineering perspective, but what’s been helpful is that with the addition of a second detector calibrated for that source type, the ILT2400 can validate both.”

Find out more about the ILT2400, available from Quantum Design UK & Ireland, here : https://qd-uki.co.uk/light-measurement/international-light-ilt2400-light-meter/