How to clean and maintain laser lenses

Protective lenses are consumables in the optical path system of laser cutting machines. In order to minimize usage costs, lenses should be cleaned strictly in accordance with this specification. During the cleaning and replacement process, attention should be paid to the placement, testing, and installation of protective lenses to avoid contaminating or damaging them as much as possible. After the installation of new lenses, the protective lenses should be regularly inspected and cleaned in a timely manner. Take the following preventive measures on a daily basis: 1. Before disassembling the protective lens, it is necessary to ensure that the area around the window of the cutting head protective lens is clean, and there should be no fan blowing in the direction of the cutting head to prevent dust from being carried into the cutting head by the airflow during the disassembly of the protective lens, causing internal pollution; 2. Do not use bare fingers to install lenses, wear powder free finger covers or rubber/latex gloves; 3. When taking the lens, do not touch the film layer and mirror surface. Pinch the edge of the lens and place it on a wiping paper; 4. Avoid speaking above the lens and try to keep all pollutants away from the working environment as much as possible; 5. When cleaning lenses, try to operate in a dust-free environment as much as possible (cleaning agents such as anhydrous ethanol will only dissolve dirt and will not cause lens damage). Cleaning accessories Step 1 Flexible cleaning for lenses with mild pollution (dust, fiber particles) Use a blowing airbag or cleaning air to blow away any scattered pollutants on the surface of the lens. If this step fails to remove the pollution, please continue with step 2. Attention: Avoid using air pipes in the workshop as they usually contain a large amount of oil and water. These pollutants can form harmful absorption layers on the surface of the lens. Step 2 Flexible cleaning for lenses with mild pollution (stains, fingerprints) Soak an unused specialized cotton swab with cleaning agents such as acetone or anhydrous ethanol, gently wipe the surface of the lens (do not rub vigorously), and slowly drag the wet cotton on the surface of the lens until the liquid left behind the wet cotton can evaporate immediately. This will not leave any traces. If the pollutant is not removed in this step, please continue with step 3. Note: Only pure paper swabs (Q-tip brand swabs are recommended) or polyester fiber swabs (reagent grade acetone and anhydrous ethanol cleaning agents are recommended) can be used. Step 3 For lenses with moderate contamination (saliva, oil), perform a moderate intensity cleaning by soaking an unused cotton swab in 6% distilled white vinegar and gently wiping the surface of the lens with pressure. Use a clean dry cotton swab to remove any excess distilled vinegar from the surface of the lens, then gently wipe the surface of the lens with a cotton swab soaked in acetone to remove all acetic acid. If the pollutants are not removed in this step, please continue. Step 4 Vigorously clean lenses that have been severely contaminated (splashes) (note: Step 4 should never be used on new or unused laser lenses. This step can only be used if the lenses have been severely contaminated during use and an acceptable cleaning effect has not been achieved after performing steps 2 or 3, and it cannot be guaranteed that the lenses will still function properly after performing step 4). Seriously contaminated or dirty lenses may require the use of optical polishing solution to remove contaminants from the surface of the lenses. 1. Shake the polishing solution container thoroughly before use. Pour out four to five drops of polishing solution and drop them onto a cotton ball. On the surface of the lens that needs to be cleaned, use the weight of the cotton ball to gently move it in a circular motion (do not press the cotton ball!), and keep rotating the lens to avoid excessive polishing in one direction. The time required to clean the lenses should not exceed half a minute. If you notice a change in color on the surface of the lens during this step, it indicates that the exterior of the lens film layer has been corroded and cleaning should be stopped immediately. 2. After using the polishing solution, soak an unused cotton swab in distilled water, then gently wipe the surface of the lens with it, thoroughly wet the surface of the lens, and remove any remaining polishing solution as much as possible. Do not make the surface of the lens dry. This will increase the difficulty of removing polishing fluid residues. 3. Quickly wet a lint cotton swab with anhydrous ethanol, and then gently clean the surface of the lens thoroughly with it. Cover the entire surface with the head of a cotton swab and remove as much polishing fluid residue as possible. 4. Wet the lint cotton swab with acetone and use it to clean the surface of the lens to remove all residual anhydrous ethanol and polishing solution during the cleaning process. When performing the final cleaning with acetone, gently drag a cotton swab on the surface of the lens to wipe off any remaining marks until the entire surface is wiped clean. Use a cotton swab to make the final wiping action, which should be moved slowly to ensure that the surface behind the cotton swab can immediately dry, which can eliminate surface streaks. Certain types of pollution or damage (such as metal splashes, potholes, etc.) cannot be removed. If the surface of the lens is contaminated or damaged as mentioned above and cannot be cleaned and restored, it should be abandoned for cleaning and replaced with new lenses to ensure cutting quality.

08 May-2024

Why do LED lens beads turn yellow after prolonged use

In this 21st century, with the trend of LED lighting gradually replacing traditional lighting, the widespread use of LED lighting lens is no longer news. In the process of widespread use, it is inevitable that LED lenses will encounter problems due to quality, human factors, physiological factors, etc. Therefore, as a large component of LED lighting production materials, the quality of LED beads largely determines the quality of LED lighting fixtures. As far as LED lens manufacturers know, one of the common problems with LED beads is that they are prone to blackening, and the coating of the LED bracket is silver plated. Because sulfur-containing gases can undergo vulcanization reactions with the silver plating layer of the light source through the porous structure of silica gel or support gaps, the plastic produced by the support we use has many porous structures. Reason 1: Sulfurization discoloration of LED lens bead coating After the vulcanization reaction occurs in the LED lens light source, the functional area of the lamp will darken, the luminous flux will gradually decrease, and the color temperature will show significant drift; The conductivity of silver sulfide after vulcanization increases with temperature, and it is prone to electric leakage during use; The more serious situation is that the silver layer is completely corroded and the copper layer is exposed. Silver has a strong affinity for sulfur, oxygen, and chlorine. Silver easily adsorbs water molecules in the air to form a water film on its surface. Oxygen, sulfur, and chlorine in the air enter the water film to form insoluble silver oxide, silver sulfide, and silver chloride, which corrode the surface of the silver layer and cause discoloration. The rough surface of the silver plating layer is easier to condense water and enter the corrosive medium, causing discoloration compared to the smooth surface. After silver plating, the surface is not cleaned thoroughly, and the residual plating solution contains silver ions, which quickly cause discoloration when in contact with humid air. Reason 2: LED lens beads with fixed crystal glue discoloration LED chips are glued onto the bracket (excluding eutectic). LED lens manufacturers believe that everyone should know that LED chips are heat sources, and all heat must start to dissipate from here. And due to the fact that the light emitted by LED chips is not blue, with short wavelengths and high energy, the molecular chains of the solid crystal glue are in a high-energy state for a long time. Solid crystal glue is the hottest substance outside of the chip, which can cause discoloration of the solid crystal glue. Epoxy compounds are prone to carbonization at high temperatures, and prolonged exposure to blue light can lead to molecular bond breakage and qualitative yellowing. Silver halide, vulcanization, and oxidation in silver glue lead to a decrease in thermal conductivity and adhesive strength of the solid crystal adhesive. Reason 3: Aging and discoloration of packaging adhesive Due to the need for transparent adhesive protection for LED beads, high refractive index and high projection index are important factors when choosing adhesive. Usually, it is recommended to choose silicone or epoxy resin adhesives based on benzene groups. These adhesives will undergo molecular bond cleavage changes under long-term exposure to light. Phenyl silicone, due to the presence of a phenyl ring group, will produce a color changing group called "quinone" and undergo yellowing under high temperature and ultraviolet conditions. Epoxy materials are more prone to yellowing and cracking under high temperature and UV conditions.

06 May-2024

Design principles of optical lenses for LED spotlights

How to design a high transmittance, high-end, and low-cost lens has become one of the main research areas in LED Lens spotlight distribution. The most important thing in the market is still the overall light efficiency of the lamp, so the design of the lens needs to meet three requirements: first, the effective transmittance of the lens; The second is the innovation of lens design; The third is the visual effect of the combination of LED lighting lens and lighting fixtures. According to the above three requirements, there are three common lens designs in the market: The first type of lens adopts an external straight surface armor and a compound eye design at the center of the emitting surface. The second type of lens adopts a free form surface design on the side wall, with a near light surface and a compound eye surface. The output angle is adjustable from 250 to 600, and PC material is generally used. It can be used for COB light source spotlights with a maximum output surface diameter of 14mm, and its optical effective transmittance can reach up to 95%. The third and second types of lenses generally use PC material, which has high temperature resistance. The light source can be either SMT light source modular or COB light source, with an adjustable output angle of 300-600 and uniform output. When viewed externally, modular patch light sources can be dispersed by the compound eyeball surface, resulting in visual effects that are COB like and expanding the selectivity of the light source. From this, it can be seen that the lens design of led lens directional lighting fixtures has gradually moved towards aesthetics and commonality. How to improve the effective transmittance, spot uniformity, and commonality of directional lighting fixture lenses will become the mainstream of design. Speaking of so many reasons for optical design, when it comes to our company, Lianlong Optoelectronics, our most important focus is on talent cultivation, especially in this optical industry. Our R&D and design team is very important. We have a strong R&D team with rich theoretical and practical experience. If you need it, our company can provide you with an optical design solution from scratch.

30 April-2024

Will LED lenses be affected by LED heat dissipation?

In the era of LED controlled lighting, colorful light is decorating people's lives. We all know about the three main components of general LED lighting fixtures: LED light source, power supply, and heat dissipation. Will the effect of heat dissipation affect the LED lens? At present, most LED Lighting Lens in the market are mainly produced using PMMA and PC materials, which have low temperature resistance. Therefore, excessive heat will directly affect the application effect of LED lenses. Short term use of LED lenses in overheated environments can result in color drift and reduced light output; If exposed to such an environment for a long time, it will accelerate light decay and shorten lifespan. To prevent the impact of high temperatures on lighting fixtures, natural and artificial cooling systems are generally used for heat dissipation. Forced cooling, also known as natural cooling, is a type of cooling system that does not include energy consuming electric devices. The most commonly used type is the heat sink. A typical heat sink consists of many sets of metal fans, which can quickly transfer the heat accumulated in LED light sources and power modules. Because the heat sink itself does not consume energy, it is the most energy-efficient heat dissipation system. However, with the continuous increase of LED light source power, the heat dissipation area is required to be larger, which requires the design of heat sinks with disorderly shapes, which also takes up more space and is not conducive to the design of lighting fixtures. Automatic heat dissipation refers to the use of energy consuming mechanical equipment such as pumps, fans, or electric fans in a heat dissipation system. In short, in led lens, the performance of each component affects each other, so good products require us to pay attention to every detail.

29 April-2024

Enhance the awareness of LED lens quality and promote stable improvement

The trend of led lens enterprises to ensure the quality of all employees and to strictly grasp and control product quality is long-term and constitutes a normalization. By summarizing the previously presented problems, how to manage them, prevent them, and fundamentally prevent and handle them is the key to ensuring quality operations in the future, and improving employee awareness. In addition to completing tasks and ensuring safety, emphasis has also been placed on quality monitoring. Without production quality, there will be no work progress, and at the same time, there will be no benefits. In terms of ideology, employees should pay attention to production quality and improve quality; Enhance the ability level of personnel, enable suitable personnel to be used in suitable positions, cultivate main personnel through competitive mechanisms, adopt internal training, encourage allocation and other methods to promote operators to become main positions, and implement specialized key competency training for key positions; At the same time, implement multi skill training for other positions, so that operators can understand that by improving their abilities and ensuring reliable production and quality, they can take on the main role and actively promote the improvement of their abilities and usage quality in terms of ideological awareness. So as to enhance the quality awareness of all employees in the workshop, and then make timely adjustments and improvements through the problems presented, promoting the stable improvement of quality operations. LED Lens quality is a principle, quality is loyalty, quality is a responsibility, quality is the life of the product, and quality is the future of LED lighting lens enterprises! We should keep in mind the importance of quality, carefully complete every day's homework, and treat all details as a form of respect for life.

27 April-2024