会社のニュース UV-LED optical small lens low temperature curing process

Curing small optical lenses typically involves bonding the lens to components like the lens barrel and lens mount, or curing optical coatings on the lens surface. Because optical components are heat-sensitive, traditional curing methods can easily cause deformation, making low-temperature curing technology crucial.

Prepare the optical lens and mount to be bonded, along with specialized UV-curing adhesive. This adhesive is specially formulated with a photoinitiator that efficiently absorbs UV light in a specific wavelength range. Using automated dispensing equipment, precisely apply a small amount of UV-curing adhesive to the designated location on the optical lens or mount. This step requires extreme precision to ensure even application and accurate placement to avoid affecting subsequent optical performance.

The glued lens and lens mount are placed in a custom fixture, ensuring precise alignment. The fixture is then positioned within the irradiation area of ​​a UV-LED curing device. The device emits ultraviolet light of a specific wavelength (typically 365nm, 385nm, or 395nm, depending on the spectral absorption characteristics of the adhesive) to irradiate the adhesive. The photoinitiator in the adhesive absorbs the UV light energy, rapidly decomposing and generating free radicals. These free radicals trigger the rapid polymerization of monomer molecules, transforming the adhesive from a liquid to a solid state in seconds or even less, completing the bonding or coating cure. After curing is completed, remove the cured optical components from the equipment. Strict optical performance and physical strength tests are carried out on the cured components, such as focal length, clarity, bonding strength, etc., to ensure that the product meets the design requirements.

UV-LED low-temperature curing technology has become the preferred choice for optical device manufacturing primarily due to its following core advantages:

• True "low-temperature" curing: This is the most important advantage. UV-LEDs are cold light sources, and their light does not contain infrared light, generating extremely low heat during the curing process. This effectively eliminates the problem of traditional thermal curing methods that can cause thermal expansion, deformation, and even damage to optical lenses and sensitive components, thereby ensuring stable optical performance and precision.
• Fast Curing and High Efficiency: UV-LEDs utilize concentrated power, and the curing process typically takes only seconds. This significantly shortens production cycles and increases productivity.
• Energy Saving and Environmental Protection: UV-LED curing equipment consumes extremely low energy, and its light source lifespan reaches tens of thousands of hours, far exceeding that of traditional mercury lamps. Furthermore, it contains no mercury or other hazardous substances and complies with environmental regulations such as RoHS, making it a truly green manufacturing technology.
• High Light Source Controllability: UV-LEDs are compact and can be integrated into curing modules with various configurations, such as point, line, and surface, enabling precise and controllable localized curing. This is particularly important in automated production lines, as they can be customized to suit different product structures.
• The equipment is small and easy to integrate: Due to the small size of the LED chip, the UV-LED curing equipment can be designed to be very compact, making it easy to integrate into existing automated production lines and save factory space.