UV curing method and apparatus

An ultraviolet (UV) apparatus for applying UV light to UV photo initiators in UV curable inks, coatings, or adhesives, on surfaces of products, articles or other solid objects, comprising:

• a panel;
• a group of visible light-emitting diode (LED) assemblies secured to said panel in an array of rows of light emitting diodes on the panel for emitting visible light for indicating to a user of the apparatus that power is being supplied to all the light emitting diodes in the array of rows of LEDs on the panel;
• a first group of UV LED assemblies being secured to said panel in different rows of the array or being spaced apart in one or more rows of the array for emitting a first wavelength of UV light on the UV curable inks, coatings or adhesives on the surfaces of the products, articles or other solid objects facing the first group of UV LED assemblies;
• a second group of UV LED assemblies secured to said panel in different rows of the array or being spaced apart in or more rows of the array for emitting a second wavelength of UV light on the UV curable inks, coatings or adhesives on the surfaces of the products, articles or other solid objects facing the second group of UV LED assemblies, said first wavelength of UV light being different than said second wavelength of UV light;
• a heat sink mounted to said panel for dissipating heat from said UV LED assemblies;
• a variable speed fan mounted adjacent said heat sink for blowing air on said heat sink or UV LED assemblies to cool said heat sink or said UV LED assemblies;
• a light sensor for sensing the intensity of UV light emitted from said UV LED assemblies;
• and,
• a control circuit coupled to said light sensor and to said variable speed fan for controlling the light intensity of the UV light emitted from said UV LED assemblies and the temperature of the UV LED assemblies by regulating the speed of the air blown by said variable speed fan on said heat sink or UV LED assemblies and by varying the speed of said variable speed fan in response to the sensed intensity of the UV light thereby to maintain a substantially constant intensity of light for the curing of the UV curable items;
• a panel-moving mechanism for moving said panel in proximity to or adjacent to the UV curable inks, coatings or adhesives on the surfaces of the products, articles or other solid objects facing the visible and UV LED assemblies while generally constant intensity UV light comprising the first and second wavelengths of UV light are emitted from the first and second groups of UV LED assemblies onto the UV curable inks, coatings or adhesives on the surfaces of the products, articles or other solid objects facing the first and second groups of UV LED assemblies;
• said control circuit also being operatively connected to the first and second groups of UV LED assemblies and the panel-moving mechanism for concurrently distributing the first and second wavelengths of UV light from the UV LED assemblies equally onto the UV curable inks, coatings or adhesives on the surfaces of the products, articles or other solid objects facing the first and second arrays of UV LED assemblies while said panel is being moved to cure the UV curable inks, coatings or adhesives on the products, articles or other solid objects with generally constant intensity UV light from said first and second groups of UV LED assemblies.