Welcome to the LEDs Magazine News & Insights newsletter for Aug. 7, 2020. In my column in our Wednesday News & Insights newsletter, I mentioned a blog post where I discussed a UV-C disinfection system being tested by JetBlue to clean its aircraft. The robotic platform has UV-C lamps mounted on extensible arms that extend out over the seat.
One of our readers responded via the comment capability we recently restored to our website. The reader was not happy that I was somewhat pessimistic about the potential for success using this robotic approach and suggested I should be optimistic given that UV is the bright spot of the lighting industry right now. Now I didn’t intend to be pessimistic. I simply offered an opinion based on my thoughts when I read the details of the UV-C scheme. My intent is balance, although I do know I have griped plenty about the volume of questionable UV news we are handling.
I mention this incident here, however, for a different reason. If you are interested in germicidal UV-C, you should click through to the article and read the comment in question. The reader had some real insight as to the potential for success with the system.
Of course, we have other UV content for you today, and that content I suppose could be considered pessimistic. I’d prefer to view it as realistic and still believe safety should come first with UV-C. The ALA, NEMA, and UL have jointly posted a position paper on the safe use of UV-C, and that paper warns against many of the types of product concepts we have been seeing come through our inboxes. I think the paper is well done and will help guide the safe deployment of UV-C even in consumer products. Moreover, in the article linked just above, I also covered a position paper from IUVA on the use of far UV-C technology. Again, that paper might be considered to have a pessimistic slant.
We also have a solid-state lighting (SSL)-centric IoT story for you today. Hubbell Lighting has announced what it’s calling the SpectraSafe platform — when I saw that name I thought it was yet another UV product. Instead, SpectraSafe is a video security concept based on high-definition cameras mounted in luminaires and connected via Wi-Fi. And Hubbell is going to supply the enabling technology to third parties while also offering it in its own product lines.
I’ll close today with a quasi-apology. I wrote some things in our other two newsletters this week about the SpaceX Dragon program that question its elegance relative to what I consider the iconic Space Shuttle. As an engineer, I should have mentioned that Dragon is less costly and presumably safer than what a shuttle-like vehicle would offer. Also, I will freely admit that the ability to land boosters on barges rocking in the ocean is very elegant. I can’t even imagine how that works. The aero surfaces are not good. And the engineers have minimum control surfaces and thrust available.
You will find many more stories of interest in the body of today’s newsletter. And always feel free to contact me to discuss content we post or to pitch a contributed article.
- Maury Wright, (858) 748-6785, [email protected]