Innovative UV LED Applications Launched in 2019
December.25, 2019 - 15:57 — YiningChen
UV LED as a division of LED technology is still at its initial stage and has a great market potential with a wide range of applications, attracting more and more global companies to join the business.
According to “2019 Deep UV LED Application Market- Sterilization, Purification, and Water Treatment Markets” by LEDinside, UV LED manufacturers’ revenue grow stably with growing momentum coming from applications in surface and air disinfection, static and flowing water disinfection.
In the past year, we have seen some innovative applications adopting UV LED technology launched all over the world. Despite that some of them are still conceptual products, they offered insights to the ongoing trend in the UV LED market.
UV LED Integrated Drone to Clean Subway Stations and Trains
A group of Korean designers created a “space care system” referring to a drone equipped with UV LED. The drone provides sterilization service by autonomously flying around in subway stations and trains for surfaces disinfection and air purification.
Integrated with UV LED, vision sensors all around the body and driving camera, the drone can operate in the dark and serve as an efficient way for thorough cleaning.
Self-cleaning UV-C Bottle to Ensure Drinking Water Safety
The applications of water disinfection and purification are expanding and becomes a driving force of the UVC LED market. One of the growing applications is UV-C embedded water bottle.
LEDinside reported in August one model of the UV-C LED integrated bottle offered by an on-line design shop NOERDEN. Soon after that, we found more and more similar products launched in the past two months.
In most of the bottles, a UV-C LED module with Li-Polymer battery is equipped with the bottle cap and can be activated to water disinfection by tapping the cap. The caps are mostly water proof and with USB for charging.
Some products have two purification modes, one for low to medium contaminated water which takes about 60 second to diminish up to 99.99% of pathogens and a stronger mode with longer purification time for water sources with medium to high contamination. According to the UV bottle providers, the stronger mode can kill up to 99.9999% of contaminates with two to three minutes satirizing process.
The bottles also provide auto-clean function that turns on autonomously with intervals of every two to four hours for 10 to 20 second cleaning.
LEDinside noted it the latest report that water sterilization is a major drive for UV LED. UV LED makers are aiming to develop home appliances with UV-C LED for static and flowing water disinfection. Compared to flowing water cleaning, the power requirement for LED is lower for static water. UV-C water bottle thus offer an entrance for LED supplier.
Researchers Develop UV LED Disinfect System for Beer Bottling
In Germany, the Advanced System Technology (AST) branch of the Fraunhofer Institute for Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB and UV technology provider PURION, have collaborated to create a UV LED based purifying module to destroy germs during the process of beverage bottling.
The team designed a UV LED module delivering a maximum wavelength of 265 nanometers to reach an optimal disinfection performance for brewing water and the caps for bottled beer and soft drinks.
UV LED-based Self-sanitizing Door Handle Powered by Door Movement
UV LED technology has come closer to our daily life for diminishing bacteria and enhancing hygiene. One way to apply the technology could be integrating UV LEDs with public door handles. Two graduate students of the Chinese University in Hong Kong designed the self-sanitizing door handle and was selected as the top 20 in the James Dyson Award in 2019.
Sum Ming Wong and Kin Pong Li, the inventors of the self-sanitizing door handle, were inspired by the SARS outbreak in 2003 when the infection spread out via contact. The door handle was created to prevent contagious disease transmission and improve public health.
The team used a thin photocatalytic coating activated by UV LED to decompose bacteria on the surface of a substrate. As a consistent UV light source is required, a generator is added to provide stable electricity to light up a UV LED lamp through the motion of opening and closing door. Reflections of light could occur inside a transparent glass door handle to activate coating on the outer surface. In this way, the door handle can sterilize and clean by itself.
Wong and Li said that they aim to commercialize the product and hope the handle can be applied in public areas with higher infection risk such as shopping malls, hotels, hospitals and public bathrooms.
SOURCES: https://www.ledinside.com/news/2019/12/uvled_applications_2019
https://www.ledinside.com/news/2019/10/uvc_led_application_trend_self_cleaning_water_bottle
https://www.ledinside.com/news/2019/11/uv_led_self_sanitizing_door_handle