How To Super Charge AGT™ Glow Stones using UV LED Light Bursting.
The Impact of Competing Light Sources on Glow Stone Performance
AGT™ Ultra & Commercial Grade Glow Stones have been engineered to perform under many environmental conditions and are unaffected by most chemicals. They are also not affected by extreme climates such as high heat, sub zero or wet environments. However, one of the most important conditions that must be managed in order to get the highest performance out of any glow aggregate is the presence of competing light sources. Competing light sources are typically only an issue in urban or city environments where streetlights are present. These polluting light sources affect a glow stone’s ability to be seen.
The Solution for Competing Electrical Light Sources is to Super-Charge Your Glow Stones
After a few years of testing in the AGT™ Glow Labs and later with the Disney Imagineering Team working on “The World of Avatar” exhibit, we discovered that periodic or interval light-bursting with a UV spectrum LED light can effectively enhance an AGT™ glow stone’s luminosity. UV spectrum light is one of the sun’s wavelengths of light that charge photo-luminescent materials. Interestingly, UV spectrum light can penetrate clouds allowing AGT™ glow stones to be charged even in daylight. Artificial UV LED lights or black lights can be used to super-charge AGT™ Glow Stones by mimicking the sun’s charging ability at night.
The Way it Works
As previously mentioned, AGT™ glow stones set in concrete or asphalt will glow very well without the introduction of an artificial charging source. But if the project scope includes the presence of competing white lights, UV spectrum LED lights can be installed to assist. In these cases, UV lights - also known as ‘black lights’ can be positioned to cast their light onto the surface containing the glow stones. A short 60-120 second burst of UV LED light will charge the AGT™ glow stones to peak luminosity. These UV LED light bursts can be easily automated by introducing a simple digital timer (see below) Timers can be set to allow the UV LED Lights to remain ON for 1-2 minutes and then turn OFF for 60 minutes. So over a 10 hour period, only 20 minutes of electricity would be consumed.
UV LED Lights Installed in Railings along a Bike Path Super-Charge the Embedded Glow Stones
Super-Charging Glow Stones in Action!
In this first image, the digital timer has triggered the UV LED lights to the‘ON’ position, allowing a burst of UV light to cycle-charge the glow stones in this glowing concrete surface.
In this second image, the digital timer has triggered the UV LED lights to the ‘OFF’ position, illustrating just how well the UV LED lights super-charge the glow stones in about 1-2 minutes.
