Unilux, a manufacturer of strobe lights for industrial surface inspection, has increased its capacity with the addition of UV inspection to its LED stroboscopic lights. The company, based in Saddle Brook, NJ, USA, offers inspection equipment frequently used in the label and narrow web market.

The company’s equipment aids in the inspection of processes, ranging from printing and converting to rewinding and coating. Unilux strobe lights function while the product is being made.

According to Michael Simonis, president of Unilux, the company offers products in visual and security inspection. “The big thing that we’re doing now is UV inspection of the security prints, the coatings, and things where you’re not supposed to see it until you turn the light on,” he explains. “If you’re doing any sort of security prints, be it for money or coating processes like the paper your labels are going to go on, all that has a coating on it. In order to know if they have voids, skips or misses, they put a phosphor in the material, and whenever they turn on the UV strobes, the operators can see it. Without it, they see nothing; with it, they have perfect clarity.”

Unilux manufactures multiple LEDs for various applications, including the LED-3 and LED-1 units. The LED-3 is a handheld and fixed mount LED inspection light that features a compact design. It provides bright spot, wide area flood or UV models that mimics natural sunlight. The LED-1 is a lightweight and portable option frequently used for small areas. Operators have the ability to locate defect origins, as well as reduce waste and control costs.

Unilux has traditionally produced xenon strobe lights, but starting six to seven years ago, the company invested roughly $1 million per year in R&D to develop new LED strobe lights. “It’s one of the reasons we have four times as many lights as everybody else and are twice as bright as everybody else,” says Simonis. “We have to be the constant leader in the industry.”

Physically, handheld LED units come in smaller sizes and feature lighter weights. The lights themselves are brighter than their xenon counterparts. “Our strobe lights complement vision systems, they don’t compete against them,” states Simonis. “With the vision systems–many of them–you get the microanalysis, the dot matrix of your print, and it blows it up and you can see if there are any problems in there. But things like scumming, filming, things like that that are across the entire web, it’s very difficult for operators to pick up. With the strobe light, it illuminates the entire web and it’s very simple for them to pick up massive macro defects… as well as micro defects.

“Basically what we’re doing is taking a single defect and freezing it multiple times, so your eye can very easily pick it up, since it repeats for you,” he adds.

LED strobe lights offer environmental advantages, too.  Despite filters, xenon lights create ozone, whereas LED lights do not. LED lights also operate at one-third of the energy. “If everybody could cut back on one-third of their power, two-thirds of their energy with their equipment, that’s a massive savings for a lot of those companies,” says Simonis.

In order to ensure that its customers receive the right equipment, Unilux will send field technicians to a prospective client’s facility in order to make sure the right equipment is purchased. These free in-house demonstrations are designed to customize the right equipment to a given customer’s specific needs. In addition, 30-day rentals are available. Customers can test the inspection system for 10% of the unit cost over that time period, and if the unit is purchased, 100% of the rental fee goes toward the transaction.

In addition to surface inspection for labels and packaging, the company’s strobe lights have been used for a variety of markets. According to Simonis, Unilux equipment was utilized for TV commercial spots, such as Red Lobster, to capture slow-motion actions like the squeezing of a lemon. The strobe lights are also used to capture the reactions of amusement park visitors on rides such as Splash Mountain or Tower of Terror.

Unilux was founded in 1962 and maintains sales offices in the US, China, Germany, India and Thailand. The company will soon open an office in South America, as well. In 1979, the company got its start in the film industry. Strobe lighting decreased the blur created by motion and accentuated special effects. The company’s activity in national TV commercials soon spread to overseas. Today, many of the company’s strobe lights are used in the security field for product authentication. This can be used to spot counterfeit items, especially with money and consumer goods.

Click here to watch Michael Simonis talk about his company’s equipment with Label & Narrow Web.