Illuminators

Illuminators are used to provide adequate contrast for imaging. Illuminators include backlights, LED illuminators, and fiber optic illuminators. Illuminators can be spot, dual spot, ring, line, dome, backlight and structured light types depending upon the nature of the illumination needed. Spot illuminators are ideal for emphasizing a specific feature on a part, de-emphasizes part background.  Dual spot illuminators are used for inspection from a particular angle.  Ring types are used to provide even lighting for cameras.  Line type are also known as a linear array, these are used to provide even illumination along a straight line.  Dome illuminators are used to provide extremely even, diffuse illumination.  Backlights are used to provide maximum contrast between object and background.  Structured light is basically with a diffraction grating that produces a characteristic pattern, such as a circle, square, stripes, etc. 

The light source for illuminators can be LED, laser or lamp.  Important illuminator performance specifications to consider when searching for illuminators include active area diameter or length, active area width, lifetime, wavelength, color temperature, maximum voltage, and illuminator output.  The active area diameter is circular or length if rectangular.  The active area is specified as a width if the illuminator has a rectangular construction.  The estimated lifetime of the illuminator is specified in hours.  The wavelength or wavelength range of the illuminator is dependent on the light source.  Light Emitting Diode (LED) and laser diode illuminators tend to be monochromatic where as lamps will provide a large spectrum of light.  Color temperature is a measure of the visual "warmth" or "coolness" of the light from the lamp. The higher the value, the whiter or "cooler" the light appears.  The maximum voltage specifies the maximum operating voltage for the illuminator.  The illuminator output is the light output of the illuminator.

Features such as strobed, diffused, collimated, polarized, and fiber optic are used to produce the particular lighting characteristics needed.  Strobe illuminators are pulsed.  In diffused illuminators, the light of the illuminator is scattered.  Scattered light de-emphasizes shadows.  Collimation offers greater contrast.  The light from the illuminator can be polarized.  Polarized light can be used to eliminate spectrally reflected light.  Fiber optic illuminators use fiber optic light guides to deliver the light.

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Part Numbers for Illuminators