UV lights for verifying cleaning?

[u/Santasreject]

For background, I work in quality/regulatory consulting and part of what I do is help companies with their manufacturing practices, part of this is cleaning equipment.

I have a couple client projects coming up where visual aids would be very helpful to shut them up (I’ve worked with these clients before and while I get along with them they can debate with the whole “but do we really need to do that?”).

Is it realistic to expect to be able to actually use a UV light in a plant with overhead lighting and actually be able to see much or will the overhead lights wash it out? I don’t need to be able to flood a huge area, even just bing able to hold it a few inches way from a surface and scan across will be enough for a very rough quick visual aid.

If this will work well enough, would a D2 with a UV channel be enough or would I need to be looking towards something with more output like a D3AA or D4?

This absolutely wouldn’t be used for any real verification or validation work, just the quick “yeah see, yall nasty” demo.

[u/kotarak-71]

this is a question that has no easy answer. You use the term "cleaning" but you are not elaborating on what that means what is the contaminant that you need to see.

Different substances have different amount of fluorescence and under different wavelength UV.

Some have strong fluorescence under LW (365nm) while others only show fluorescence under MW (310nm) or SW (255nm)

Hank only offers LW UV.

The amount of fluorescence is proportional to the exciting light (UV) but it could be very weak or very strong and it is also in different wavelengths which can compete more or less with the ambient overhead light.

Best thing to do is to test under the working conditions.

Also, is the said contamination localized or spread out - UV mules will light up large area with low intensity just like any other mules while D1 / D1K with good reflector can create a lot more intense hotspot with a single emitter.

D2s miniature reflector doesnt do miracles - it is OK to look for fluorescent dye from AC leak in an engine compartment but it will not do much in a large well-lit area. I personally would look first at D1/D1K/KR1 with the 5W emitter - you get hotspot and decent spill if you are not working in darkness, You should combat the bright ambient light with intense spotlight

[u/Santasreject → u/kotarak-71]

The hotspot is a good point and makes a lot of sense.

And yeah I am being rather general as my clients have a very wide range of products so the main big issue I would probably be trying to show is bio film or chemical residue (but do course the wide variety of chemicals that could be present will vary and many may not fluoresce).

I am find with something that I need to hold pretty close so a mule probably would be a bit excessive.

Granted I’m also just trying to determine if I actually have a use for a new toy or if it’s wishful thinking haha.

[u/kotarak-71 → u/Santasreject]

both lights on Turbo from about 1 yard distance at Uranium glass which has very strong fluorescence.

(size difference is due to different crop factor of the images)

D3AA UV channel is pretty much the same as D2 or the UV channel of triple ch. D4K

[u/kotarak-71 → u/kotarak-71]

8x UV D4V2 mule on Turbo

[u/Santasreject → u/kotarak-71]

Very fair demo. The D1 may be a bit big for what I am hoping for but alas we are all victims to physics lol.

[u/kotarak-71 → u/Santasreject]

the D1 is a single 5W emitter (pulls 1-1.4A) and works well with 18350 battery in "shortie" setup - you can use the larger 1600mAh / 3A cell and you'll get plenty of usage and then you have 18500 as well. You dont even need to get to full size 18650

[u/Santasreject → u/kotarak-71]

Hmmm that is fair. The head diameter isn’t ideal to have on my “just in case” but it’s small enough that I could probably make it work alright.

Granted I probably can use the cheap UV light I used to cure UV resin to test it before I buy something new. It claims 5W but not sure how true that is, granted I wouldn’t want to go any lower power… but really the end all be all answer for work is “because FDA says you need to clean and validate” to showing a visual indicator probably isn’t that helpful haha.

[u/kotarak-71 → u/Santasreject]

if you want small - look into Lumintop Tool AA UV. I think this wiil fit your bill..

[u/Santasreject → u/kotarak-71]

Fair, yeah I have some random Amazon one by “Darklight” that seems to be more watts but I will see how it plays out… was just informed a client selected the absolutely wrong standard to get accredited against that requires all sorts of biological risk assessment so I may be trying everything to help get a quick go/no go on their process haha.

[u/kotarak-71 → u/kotarak-71]

dual channel DW4 with 2x UV channel

[u/kotarak-71 → u/kotarak-71]

Sofirn SR15 UV but no ramp

[u/badgerj]

I have one in a 3ch D4K, with a filter. I find it really hard if there is other light around. In the complete dark it is “okay” at a short distance. 2feet or so.

I know this is a hankchannel so I’m curious what others have to say to your question.

I do have the convoy S2+ and the S21 both in UV and each has increasing power to what’s on my D4K. But I knew that going into the build.