9-7-23
A Message from Don Newsome, President, UV SYSTEMS, Inc.:
Here’s the affordable answer:
Once you see how the EverBright pencils out, you'll be drawn, like us, to its surprising affordibility.
I’ve always believed well-designed, well-built products that deliver superior results sell themselves. Take the all-new SW EverBright Filter. Already, mineralogists and museum executives everywhere want to know all about it. Their #1 question is: “Why are the new EverBright Filters so expensive?” Here’s the answer:
Only the EverBright filters deliver SW transmission of at least 75% at 254 nm with no, or negligible, solarization throughout their lifetime!
The EverBright is not a glass filter like the traditional Hoya Optics U-325C filter. Glass filters are ultraviolet-transmitting visible-absorbing filters. They work by absorbing most of the visible light but transmitting just some of the 254 nm SW light. But the Hoya filter solarizes with exposure time to SW. Solarization is a chemical process that reduces the SW transmission; the result is your fluorescent minerals become dimmer and dimmer as the filter solarizes. A typical glass filter will only transmit about 50% of the 254 nm after only 100 hours of use, and they continue to solarize with exposure time.
The EverBright is a thin-film (or dichroic) filter that works by constructive and destructive interference of the wavelengths shining on the filter. Simply put, some wavelengths (SW) are transmitted while some visible wavelengths are blocked.
- The films are deposed on a substrate, an optical grade high silica substrate that is non-fluorescent and very expensive. The substrate is cut from a large block of the material, which means each EverBright must be polished on both side to a very fine tolerance.
- The substrate alone is 155% more expensive than a Hoya U-325C filter before polishing. There are more than 100 coatings on the substrate on both sides of the filter. The coatings are made in a special vacuum chamber usually using hafnium oxide and silicon dioxide films. Each of those coatings, or films, are only several nanometers thick. Preparation of the coating machines takes at least 3 days and the deposition process itself requires 12 hours. The EverBright filters are then turned over and the whole process is repeated for the other side.
- UV SYSTEMS’ specifications require that the filter must have maximum transmission at 253.7 nm and must transmit less than ½% at the following wavelengths 404.6 nm, 435.8 nm, 546.1 nm, 578.2 nm, and 588.8 nm. Those wavelengths are the visible light emission lines of a low-pressure mercury arc lamp. Those specifications make it challenging to manufacture a filter that meets all these requirements.
Only the EverBright charts unmatched superiority:
This life/solarization test, above, was conducted from November 17, 2022, through January 23, 2023. The SW UV was from a Dual TripleBright 3 with two LS-60-254 lamps but without any filters. Five FS-20EB EverBright filters were tested along with one Hoya Optics U-325C filter. Transmission measurements were made at 0, 91, 159, 408.4, 433.3, and 1093.3 hours of SW exposure. The results of five FS-20EB were averaged together.
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For all SuperBrights: The 2” x 5.5” FS-20EB EverBright SuperBright conversion kit is $995.00 So, for $995.00 you get one FS-20EB EverBright filter, two filter holder brackets, six sheet metal screws for those brackets, a filter guard with four mounting bolts. That equates to only $49 per year.
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For all TripleBright and Dual TripleBrights: The 2.65” x 9.25” FS-60EB TripleBright conversion kit is $4,595.00. So for $4,595.00 you get two FS-60EB EverBright filters, four filter holder brackets, and twelve sheet metal screws for those brackets. That equates to only $114 per year.
Or call (206)-818-1084
11:00 am-11:00 pm PST
UV SYSTEMS, Inc. 16605 127th Ave SE Renton, WA 98058 info@uvsystems.com www.uvsystems.com
Supplying High-Quality UV Lighting to North America and the World