Light Guides From Incure — Spare-Parts Planning for Spot-Curing Stations
A spot-curing station rarely stops because the controller fails. It stops because a guide cracks, darkens, or gets crushed in a fixture change, and the spare that should have been on the shelf is either missing or the wrong part. Q: How Many Spare Light Guides Should a Spot-Curing Line Keep? A: Enough to Cover Each Distinct Guide Type Until a Replacement Can Arrive The count depends less on the number of stations than on the number of different guide specifications in use and how quickly each one approaches its replacement threshold. A line with five identical stations may need fewer spare part numbers than a line with three stations that all use different guides. Incure recommends building the spares list from a station inventory and a transmittance log rather than from a round number. This article covers how to build both, and what else belongs in the same spares kit. Step 1: Inventory Every Guide by Full Specification List each station with its lamp model, guide construction, core diameter, pole count, length, connector, and any terminator. Incure's own lines show why each field matters. The S20™ arc spot lamp pairs with 1-, 2-, 3-, or 4-pole liquid lightguides. The L9000™ UV LED spot lamp uses fiber-construction Cool Guide (83 mm total), Short Guide (66 mm), or Long Guide (118 mm) options. Core diameters for industrial spot curing run 3–12mm. Two guides that share a diameter but differ in pole count or construction are separate spare part numbers. Step 2: Group Stations Into Spare Families Once the inventory exists, collapse it into families of identical specifications. Each family needs at least one spare on the shelf. Where a family covers many stations, or where a station is a bottleneck whose downtime costs more than an idle spare, a second spare is a reasonable decision for the planner to make deliberately. Step 3: Use Transmittance Data to Predict Demand Guides do not fail on a calendar; they lose transmission through solarization, tip contamination, and handling damage. Incure's LS217™ Lightguide Simulator, which fits Standard D, Ø5mm ports on arc, xenon, and halogen spot lamps, provides readings that turn those losses into a trend. A widely used replacement threshold is 70–80% of a guide's original baseline. Plotting each guide's readings against its own threshold shows roughly when it will cross, which is when the spare should already be in stock. The routine for taking those readings is described in Incure's article on the LS217™ Lightguide Simulator. As a hypothetical example, if a guide family's log shows that its guides cross the threshold about twice a year across the stations that use it, and the replacement lead time is a few weeks, one spare covers most of the year with time to reorder after it is issued. Email Us with your station inventory, and Incure can help confirm part numbers for each guide family and the lead time to plan against. Step 4: Store Spares So They Are Usable When Needed A spare that…