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WHAT'S NEW - Interesting Uses of JKL Products |
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Biting Insect Attractor
• A Rhode Island company designed a portable, hydrocarbon gas (propane) powered biting insect trap which mimicked the human body by emitting a plume of warm carbon dioxide gas. In addition to emulating human breath to which female mosquitoes and other biting pests are attracted, additional baits such as octenol and ultra violet light were deployed. The electrical components of the trap, such as the exhaust/suction fans, are powered by a thermoelectric generator (TEG) which is fueled by the propane source. The TEG produces a low voltage, low wattage current, which is too weak for a standard 5 Volt CCFL inverter.
JKL designed and produced a custom 3 Volt power inverter (BXA-302) with an Ultraviolet CCFL BF305-UV1 assembly which could be lit by the low voltage TEG supply.
Experiments in Microgravity
• The space shuttle Endeavor (STS-57) launch in July 1993 carried with it into low orbit a series of science experiments designed and created by students of the state of California from grades 7-12.
One of these experiments, called "Crystal Growth in Space", utilized a JKL cold cathode flourescent lamp. The crystal development, which was produced from a slurry of Silicon Dioxide and Sodium Oxide, required a small, lightweight, energy efficient and low-heat lamp -- with the correct color compatability -- to allow the video recording of crystal growth in microgravity within a pressurized Small Shuttle Payload science module.
It was determined that the CCFL lamp BF3100-20B, with an RGB spectral output at 5600k, coupled with a BXA-12529 inverter provided adequate light to record the experiment while allowing for space, heat and battery life considerations.
Eyewear/UV protection
• JKL ultra-violet lamps are used to demonstrate how variable opacity eyeglasses darken with exposure to sunlight.
• CCFL UV's are also used to test the effectiveness of sunglasses, by placing an ultra-violet lamp in front of a pair and measuring just how much UV content gets through the lens.
Fingerprint identification
• Ultra-violet lamps emitting in the C range (365nm) are used with fluorescing inks to identify and verify fingerprints. Many small, hand held foresnics devices employed by law enforcement and other forensic detectives use the BF325-UV1 lamp coupled with the BXA-302 inverter powered by batteries for quick identification of fingerprints and other biological traces of evidence.
Geiger Counter Design and Construction
• Tom Dahlin, (The (G)Eiger Sanction: The Design, Construction and Interfacing of a Radiation Detector, Circuit Cellar, Issue 150, January 2003.) was asked by a client of his to develop a radiation detecting device for a robotic sensing platform. The Geiger-Mueller radiation detection tube which he deployed in the device requires a high voltage power source to supply the 800 volts necessary to produce a potential across the Geiger tube's electrodes. When a beta particle or gamma ray enters the Geiger tube, argon gas atoms inside the tube become ionized, and then are accelerated towards the tube's oppositely charged electrode.
One of the many challenges with which Dahlin was faced was the need to develop a way to produce the necessary high voltage without using up too much board space. After experimenting with his own multistage voltage multiplier circuit, he discovered JKL's BXA-502 and BXA-503 inverters, which produced the necessary voltage while requiring only a fraction of the board space.
Instrument Panel Lamps for the Douglas Aircraft Company DC-3
The Douglas DC-3 was and is one of the most reliable aircraft ever built. Even today, 70 years after the first DC-3 flew (originally the DST, or 'Douglas Sleeper Transport') and ushered in the modern age of commercial passenger flight, there are more than 2000 of these planes still operating as passenger and parcel transports the world over.
Today, the DC-3 is primarily deployed in a commercial role in Africa and South America. When maintenence requires that a burned-out classic screw-in indicator lamp be replaced, aircraft equipment suppliers turn to JKL. JKL Components supplies the 320A Incandescent Lamp Assembly. These brass bodied 28 volt amber lamps operate at 40mA.
Medical Uses
• Blue CCFLs are used in psychotherapeutic incubators for newborns suffering from physiologic jaundice. Jaundice occurs when bilirubin escapes from the liver and enters into the blood stream. If the neonate has an unusually high amount of bilirubin, it must be placed under these special lamps which simulate sunlight, which convert bilirubin into the more managable lumirubin.
• “Lazer Surgen” use a JKL UVA light to highlight skin imperfections.
• Ultra-violet lamps are used to analyze urine samples.
Movies and special effects
Night Invisible Displays
• JKL Green CCFLs are deployed in Military and security applications to backlight LCD’s that are used at night. The green phosphor is cool in temperature and thus invisible to night vision devices, which can pick up the infrared heat coming off of a white phosphored lamp.
Oil Drilling Industry
• JKL part number 1962DZ, a ruggedized miniature quartz halogen lamp, is used as a light source for a reconnaissance camera to search for broken drill bits in a "down hole" (the oil well) in the oil drilling industry.
Outer Space and Beyond the Infinite
• JKL designed and installed the lighting for a NASA glove box.
• JKL supplied UV lamps for the plant growth experiment chamber aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery.
Printing
• A printing operation uses a 12-volt inverter on an electro-static paper charger to charge a grid. The inverter charges a wire, which charges a paper with an electro-static charge. In turn, this makes the ink jet spray onto the paper and stick on the paper. This process uses the same principle that attracts dust particles to a television screen or CRT monitor.
Promotional uses
• A Beer tap backlight display in Belgium uses JKL CCFLs.
• Infiniti logos were backlit with JKL CCFL and used for a wall display at an auto show.
Safety
• Ultra-violet lamps are used to analyze chemical content in the ambient air.
• An ultra-violet lamp is used to detect explosive residue content.
Smoke Detectors
• A JKL inverter is used to power an ultra-violet detector tube in a smoke detector. The way it functions is as follows: Flames generate ultra-violet light. If an open flame is present, the UV it produces will be registered by the detector tube, which then activates the alarm.
Speakers
• Large Outdoor Speakers, BXA-12579, use a JKL 12-volt inverter as the power driver for electro-static speakers. A 12-volt inverter charges two high voltage plates. This causes the metal plates to vibrate, which produces a sound loud enough to be used out of doors.
The Great Dingo Fence of Australia
Portions of the famous 8000 kilometer Dingo Fence in central Australia are lit at night at 100 meter intervals by Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps. The lamps are 86 millimeter tubes in white and red intervals (JKL part no. BF386-20B and BF386-10R, respectively) and driven by a BXA-12576 inverter, which is powered by a rechargable battery pack. An array of photo-voltaic cells charges the battery pack during the day.
Because of the long life of the cold cathode fluorescent technology, the light stations which dot the length of the dingo barrier are extremely low-maintenence. This kind of long-life and durability is necessary in the vast expanse of the Australian outback, which is not always accessable and inspected at irregular intervals.
Tracking the Nocturnal Movements of Small Animals with Sub-Miniature Lamps
• Researchers at Northern Arizona University and Southern Oregon State College developed a new method for tracking the spatial, temporal and physical relationships of small nocturnal animals to their environments. The tracking device, a 2.5gm unit consisted of a modified 675 cell mercury power source and a JKL WL1516, a 1.5 volt 16mA axial incandescent lamp. The lamp itself, at 1.5mm in diameter and 8mm in length, fitted directly to the battery, was small enough that it could be taped to the head of a mouse or bat without impeding its movement in any way. The device could be attached to the tracking animal in the field or in the laboratory, and on a dark night could be visible from up to 260 meters.
Such an experiment was performed at Diamond Craters, Oregon, the results of which are published in Northwest Science, Vol.53, No.2.
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