A UV conveyor system is cheap to specify correctly and expensive to specify twice. Most mis-ordered systems trace back to one unanswered question — about wavelength, part width, or control integration — that surfaced only after the machine arrived.

Q: What should be decided before buying a UV conveyor system?

A: The adhesive’s cure requirements, the part envelope, the line rate, the control method, and the facility hookups

A UV conveyor is a carrier for a lamp head, and the lamp head is chosen by the chemistry. So the buying sequence runs from the formulation outward: what light and dose it needs, what parts carry it, how fast they arrive, how the machine will be controlled, and what the room must supply. The checklist below follows that order. Work through it with the adhesive data sheet and a part drawing on the table.

Section A — The Chemistry (answer these first)

1. What wavelength range does the photoinitiator absorb, according to the adhesive data sheet?
2. What minimum dose (mJ/cm²) does the data sheet specify for full cure?
3. Does the data sheet specify a minimum irradiance (mW/cm²) as well as a dose?
4. Was the adhesive qualified under broadband arc exposure, and does that qualification include UVC?
5. Is the material pigmented, filled, or applied thick enough to absorb energy near its surface?

On the Incure CDM™ platform, answers 1 and 4 alone decide the lamp family: UV LED heads are factory-configured to a single wavelength (365, 385, 395, or 405 nm), while F-Series arc heads give broadband output, with UVC only in the x2AC assemblies.

Section B — The Part Envelope

1. What is the widest part, and where on it does adhesive sit?
2. What is the tallest part, and how much height variation exists across the product mix?
3. Are there components beside the bond line that should not receive UV?
4. Is any adhesive shadowed by the part’s own geometry?
5. Will parts ride directly on the belt or in carriers?

Maximum part width on the CDM™ is fixed by head, from 1 inch on the M51 focused beam to 8 inches on the L88 flood. Curing height adjusts 0.5–2.0 inches on LED heads and 3.0–6.5 inches on F400/F500 heads.

Email Us with your answers to Sections A and B and Incure can narrow the field to one or two configurations before you go further.

Section C — The Line Rate

1. What is the upstream cycle time per part?
2. What part spacing on the belt is practical?
3. What belt speed does that imply, and does it fall inside 1.5–12.0 ft/min?
4. At that speed, does the candidate head deliver the required dose with margin?
5. Is the line rate expected to rise, and how much dose headroom should be reserved for it?

Question 14 is where a candidate head often drops out. Dose scales inversely with belt speed, so a published figure can be rescaled: the CDM™ F400x2AC delivers 2,630 mJ/cm² UVA at 6 ft/min, so at a hypothetical 9 ft/min it would deliver about 2,630 × 6 ÷ 9 ≈ 1,750 mJ/cm². Compare that number, not the headline intensity, with the data sheet.

Section D — Control and Integration

1. Does the cell need PLC, RS-232, or foot-switch control, or is standalone running acceptable?
2. Should the lamp switch on only when a part is present?
3. Is timer mode or continuous mode the better fit for how parts arrive?

This section can override earlier choices. The LED heads support PLC, RS-232, and foot-switch inputs; the arc heads have no external control port, and that cannot be added later.

Section E — Facility and Belt

1. Can the room supply forced-air cooling and exhaust ventilation for an arc head?
2. Is a polypropylene belt compatible with the parts, cleaning agents, and part temperature — or is the stainless-steel wire belt of the CDM™ Compact required?
3. Does the floor plan fit the standard chassis at 137 × 36 × 41 cm, or does the 76 × 37 × 34 cm Compact suit the space better?
4. Is an anti-static belt needed for the parts being handled?

Section F — Verification and Upkeep

1. Who will verify irradiance with a radiometer, how often, and against what threshold?
2. What lamp-replacement interval does the head’s rating imply for your operating hours — beyond 20,000 hours for LED, beyond 1,000 hours for arc?

Turning the Checklist Into an Order

When every line has an answer, the configuration usually selects itself. The full set of heads, belts, and dose figures is in the Incure CDM™ UV conveyor guide. If Sections A and B leave two lamp families in play, Incure’s guide to choosing a CDM™ lamp-head category works through that decision, and the curing conveyor industrial guide covers when a conveyor is the right architecture in the first place.

Contact Our Team to review your completed checklist and confirm a configuration.

Visit www.incurelab.com for more information.