Introduction
We build mercury UV lamps with one focus in mind: wood finishing lines. This isn’t some off-the-shelf bulb. It’s a purpose-built tool, engineered to rapidly cure UV-curable topcoats and sealers on hardwoods and engineered wood. The aim is straightforward: give you intense, reliable output that keeps your line moving—without scorching the wood.
Power, Voltage, and Fit
Here’s the heart of it. These lamps run on a high-intensity discharge design. They need serious voltage—often 400V—to strike and hold the arc, which gives you the shortwave UV that cures the surface fast. The wattage is matched to your line speed and how thick the coating is. A 2500W rating is common for production lines that need to cure a wide zone quickly. As for size, we make the length and diameter to fit standard curing chambers. The arc tube is sized to work with the reflector, so the UV energy is focused right where it needs to be: on the wood. If you’re retrofitting an existing oven, we can spec the tube as a direct replacement so your footprint stays the same.
Quartz, Coating, and Connections
The arc tube is quartz, chosen for handling high heat and letting strong UV through. Inside, the mercury fill delivers the shortwave output that drives the photopolymerization. Some versions add a reflective coating on the outer jacket to push more energy forward, which boosts irradiance on the workpiece. For connections, we typically use R7s connectors. This double-ended setup handles the high current and high temperatures inside the reflector. It gives you solid contact and repeatable alignment, so installation is clean, and you get stable ignition and consistent output over the life of the lamp.
What It Does for You
On a finishing line, this setup cures coatings fast. That shrinks your line footprint and boosts throughput. The shortwave output hits the top surface, giving you a hard, scratch-resistant finish without over-curing the deeper layers. But high power comes with responsibility. A 2500W, 400V lamp needs proper cooling and electrical support. The reflector and chamber have to manage the heat—otherwise, components overheat and the lamp life drops. And that’s where our OEM service comes in. We can brand the lamp to your specs, match your voltage and length requirements, and supply the right connector. The payoff is a drop-in lamp that performs predictably on your line, day after day.