The UV Analyzer is an innovative, app-based UV radiation measuring device. It consists of the UV Analyzer App for Android and iOS, the UV Analyzer measuring strips and the UV Analyzer Stick. The app can be downloaded for free from the Apple® App Store® or Google Play. With over 45 years of experience in UV technology, IST METZ exclusively distributes the UV Analyzer measuring strips and stick. Please contact our sales team.
Thanks to the revolutionary technology, the measurement is quite simple. Stick the measuring strip on the substrate. After irradiation with UV, the measuring strip is measured with the stick. Via Bluetooth, the stick is coupled with the app. The app displays the measured UV dose in mJ/cm2. This dose value can be compared with your reference value to determine the aging. Your system-specific reference value must be determined by you on site, by your own measurement, when the LED/UV system is new, or alternatively with a new UV lamp and reflector. The measurements of the UV Analyzer can be exported for quality assurance and documentation.
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Any Application where UV dose is of interest and that can’t be accessed via conventional UV dose measuring devices.
This type of measurement is typically a referencing system. In order to obtain the reference value, you must measure the unit when it is new. You can then use this to determine a decrease over time. Since there are many different installations, the reference values must be determined on site.
Use gloves to avoid touching the strips with fingers. 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.
Caution: Do not apply measuring strips while the machine is running.
Remark: The strips should be stored in the fridge to ensure measuring quality over life time. During transport use the thermo bag.
There are quite a lot of factors influencing the measuring. Most important are electrical power, distance to light source, light spectrum, machine speed and shape resp. color of underground (curved – flat, dark - light). Since the light source is finite, there is a drop towards the ends.
Recommendation: Respect the warming up time of minimum 5 minutes for the whole unit before measuring and ensure consistent measuring conditions. Each light source must be measured individually. In sheet fed printing we recommend to run 100 sheets before measuring and always measuring at the same positions.
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.
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.
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.
UID stands for Unique Identifier. Each measuring strip packaging unit uses a unique UID. Before measurements can be taken, a UID must be redeemed. To do this, the stick must be connected to the smartphone and the UID must be entered in the "Strips" menu. The counter for the remaining measurements is then incremented under "Settings". Measurements are possible as long as the counter shows a plus.
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:
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.
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.
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 25 measurements will be stored within the app. If you try to store more than 25 measurements the oldest measurement is overwritten.
For sheetfed printing machines, the machine speed in m/min can be calculated from the sheet speed and the cylinder diameter. The table below serves as a guide for selected machines and does not claim to be complete.
Maschine | Bg/h | m/min |
HD SX52 | 4000 | 38 |
HD SX52 | 4000 | 46 |
HD XL75, SX/CD/CX102 | 4000 | 57 |
HD XL106 | 4000 | 65 |
MAN RO500 | 4000 | 52 |
MAN RO700 | 4000 | 63 |
MAN RO900 | 4000 | 85 |
KBA RA105/106 | 4000 | 63 |
KBA RA145/164 | 4000 | 89 |
KOM LS29 | 4000 | 46 |
KOM G/LS40 | 4000 | 63 |