Discussion on the engineering capabilities of VCC is incomplete without mentioning its patented PCH 175 right angled circuit board that will allow both the bi-lead as well as the tri-lead LEDs to be mounted simultaneously in combination as well as in color arrays. The main feature of the PCH 175 is the tabs will lock the LED leads into position within the housing. Additionally the interlocking of the dovetail helps in banding leads together in to arrays. The standoffs coming as part of the manufactured device, will allow for easy soldering and clearing of flux after they are fixed.

Another example of inner engineering that establishes VCC as the market leader is the addition of a retaining ring to hold the mount that is passed through the hole in the LED to easily install the panel mount. This ease and  simple design which makes them efficient accessories are what make these superior to other products.

The difference in technologies is actually apparent by looking at the traditional method of mounting of the PCB on the display panel.  Conventionally the LED simply protrudes or hangs out form a hole in the panel. Sometimes the LED is glued to the panel and this is monumental risk as the results of ungluing for various reasons could be disastrous. Secondly, the LED because of lack of protection could result in it being pushed through and falling off besides increasing the emissions thus damaging the components of the circuit board. Third, the viewing angle becomes very restricted and the LED light is dull.

Superior engineering and design of the VCC enhances the ultimate illumination that the brand values!

With the ability to offer a power feed setting to the client, safety becomes an even more critical issue. Installing a clear, bright and reliable indicator for placement and lift detection was an important design requirement. The ability to make this connection in a reliable yet flexible manner was also important. Hougen engineered, selected and implemented VCC panel lens products into their latest development to achieve that goal.

“The Bi-Color CNX “D” connector was selected for easy assembly to the front panel and multi function of a Bi-Color RED / Green LED for their Safety Indicator Light.” said John Haas, from RC Merchant, VCC representative,   “ Thus, providing an Indicator to ensure the power drill is operated in a safe manner.”

VCC’s LED cable assemblies provide extensive time and cost savings over the traditional methods of wiring. With our pre-made assemblies there is no need to solder wires to the LED orheat shrink the insulator. This saves the client time, cost, storage room and testing time. Changes in design or replacement of components down the road are also completed in a more timely and efficient manner.

VCC offers a wide assortment of pre-made cables to meet all your project requirements. We will also engineer and manufacture custom cables. Our entire line of panel lens products is available for your project’s indicating and signal needs. Check out our catalog or contact us today for more information.

For more information about the line of products from Hougen Mfg, visit their website at http://www.hougen.com. Fore more information about the HMD925 Drill, click here.

“VCC expertise in quick SLA water clear prototyping and high quality production parts is of great interest to us” said Todd M. Haver. “We are working with VCC because of the experience they have in rapid prototyping and helping guide our engineers in a working design.”

“VCC holds many patents in light management and utilized some of these design characteristics in our custom light pipe application”, said Orlando Diaz Sales Specialist.  “With SLAs we are able to provide a working sample for customers to verify the design”

VCC Experts have the knowledge and skills required to assist you in a variety of applications that present special challenges and circumstances. Our many years of combined experience give us a wide range of applicable solutions from which to draw.  Our large inventory allows us to respond rapidly with samples and product assistance from the prototype stage through production. We also enjoy the challenge of working out custom solutions for new developments. Contact us today with your specialized needs.

Click here for more about Scott Health & Safety Products.

As the LED heat escalates, several key characteristics may become apparent, which demonstrate the importance of LED thermal management. The forward voltage will begin to decrease. The decreasing voltage can impose an increased load on related LED driver components causing their temperature to increase as well.

In resistor driven circuits, the forward current will increase. As the LED lights temperature continues to rise, the optical wavelength can shift. The increasing wavelength can cause orange LED lights to appear red or even white LED lights to appear bluish. This color shift typically intensifies with the AlInGaP technologies (red, orange, amber, and yellow). In addition, a thermally stressed LED lights will loose efficiency and light output will diminish. If the LED thermal management continues to race out of control, the LED junction may break down causing a state of complete thermal failure.

Thermal failure is the total loss of electronic function due to melting, partial vaporization of the component, thermal fracture of a support or separation between the leads. Thermal issues can also result in joint stresses and hot spots on your board.

Thermal management techniques must focus on effectively dissipating heat generated by high-power designs, providing high thermal conductivity, and on maintaining low coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE), while managing CTE mismatches between LED’s, components, their interconnects and the PCB.

Manufacturers of LED’s and IC components use a variety of packaging chips and often times the components may have a lower CTE than the standard PCB. This results in a thermal mismatch between the device and the PCB. The environment in which your PCB is to be operating can affect performance as well. For every 20°C rise in component temperature, the failure rate doubles.

All VCC proprietary products use UL rated (94-V0) material to protect against melting on the board during the reflow and/or wave soldering processes eliminating some of these concerns for the engineer.

While LED chipmakers are doing their part to improve thermal management for their devices, the design engineer must take heat dissipation into consideration as well, from using applicable board materials (like the UL rated (94-V0)) to paying special attention to mounting holes.  The use standoffs and different connection techniques will be integral in obtaining proper airflow to assist heat dissipation. Check out our selection here.

New patents are being issued as the industry continues to develop a variety of new LED thermal management materials and techniques. There are several prominent developments that are in the tool kit of seasoned PCB designers and engineers.

There are proven techniques such as copper thieving, increasing trace thickness, and using the mounting holes to dissipate heat.  Newer techniques and developments include using thermal modeling software, new heat sink material, high conductivity carbon composite board layers, special casing materials, and edge plating. Below I’d like to cover the latest developments in the area of heat sinks, which have historically served as the workhorse for thermal management in PCB design.

Heat Sink Developments

Heat sinks help keep LED components at temperatures below their specified maximum operating temperature. There are many different designs and various ways of optimizing heat sinks.

Over time, the technology has progressed with the use of new materials like carbon fiber and boron nitride. These materials are implemented into multi-layer PCBs to efficiently move heat from one fiber ply to the next. Due to their high cost, however, these materials will likely find limited use in future PCB fabrication and may not replace aluminum heat sinks in many LED applications.

Fin-based aluminum or copper heat sinks retain greater acceptance in many LED applications due to their low cost and ideal thermal dissipation characteristics. Aluminum has a highly acceptable thermal conductivity, while copper is about twice as high. Aluminum heat sinks are inexpensive; copper ones cost more and weigh more. Consequently, aluminum is chosen for most cost-effective applications, and copper is used in selected ones where performance reigns over cost.

Finally, while most heat sinks are finned to provide a simple way of increasing surface area for heat radiation and conduction. Newly developed special aluminum fin material is reported to be 15 percent more conductive than fin material used in previous heat sinks.  These current developments are sure to become as essential as the heat sink device itself.

MovieStuff WorkPrinter-HD Telecine

The ScanStream DV8 Sniper-HD, featuring unique PulseGate Technology, was custom designed and fabricated to create super 8 and regular 8mm transfers that offer sharpness and clarity that can only come with frame by frame scanning in high definition.

MovieStuff has selected and implemented the VCC panel lens products into their latest system. The Bi-Color CNX “D” connector was selected for easy assembly to the front panel and multi function of a Bi-Color RED / Green LED. The traditional methods of soldering wires to the LED and then heat shrinking the insulator was time consuming and costly.

“We do lots of panel work and need a quick and affordable solution for mounting LED’s. We’re pleased we found VCC. “ Said Daniel Jircik.

VCC specializes in developing and producing LEDs, connectors and other devices that are not only suitable for a wide variety of applications, but are also easy to install. Our development of alternative connections options support LED leads by providing the stability necessary to eliminate the broken and damaged lead problems. LED push back problems are also resolved through these innovations and result in a more secure assembly.

The CNX “D” connector was perfect for this project as it simplified method of electrically connecting Bi-Color LED’s and required no tools for assembly. The CNX “D” provides a simple, fast press-fit connection to the CLIPLITE lens. The “D” connector enables the pre-assembled wire harness, precluding the need for hard wire directly to the LED. This configuration permits easy replacement of defective LED’s in final assembly and will reduce both time and cost associated with test and field service operations.

Contact VCC today for your specialized application needs.

MovieStuff is the world’s leading supplier of high def and standard def telecine equipment for the small business.

For “Something New Under the Sun” visit MovieStuff at: http://www.moviestuff.tv

Regardless of the particular application, Engineers are in agreement regarding several ways in which LED devices provide advantages over other backlighting options such as CRT and fluorescent bulbs. The benefits of LED usage in backlight applications include:

• Improved Reliability – As they are solid-state devices, LEDs have a longer lifespan typically lasting over 100,000 hours. A benefit of solid state devices, LEDs will perform consistently from installation to end of life cycle as opposed to florescent options which continuously lose up to 50% of their light output over their life cycle.
• Lower Power Consumption – LED backlights have lower power consumption than traditional backlighting sources. Manufacturers quote a 60% reduction in power consumption for LED backlighting compared to conventional mercury-arc lamps.
• Blur Reduction and Brightness – LCD displays have a motion blur effect primarily because an LCD pixel remains lit, unlike the CRT phosphor screens which are strobed for a very short time. To resolve this issue, one of the latest improvements being employed by large manufacturers is to use LED for the backlighting. They then employ a new scanning technology that strobes the horizontal rows of LEDs from top to bottom. This approach is also superior in reducing computer generated motion blur produced by video games.
• Blacker blacks – The improved dynamic contrast ratio achieved through use of LEDs for backlighting creates improved contrasts, stronger blacks and whites as well as a greater range of color levels in between. This is accomplished by utilizing multiple LEDs to vary the backlighting across the LCD screen based on the image displayed.
• Wider Color Array – LED’s cover a broader range of red and greens well over the NTSC standards. This results in a more extensive range of colors allowing images to appear more life-like. Current improvements using LED backlighting are bringing the available color array closer to the human eye’s perception range.
• Environmentally friendly – The significantly lower power requirements of LEDs result in reduced air pollution from carbon emissions. The longer life span of saves maintenance costs by being replaced less often. In addition, LEDs do not contain mercury and thus are not only easier and less expensive to dispose of they are safer and leave less of an environmental impact. Even Apple computer began changing to LED backlit display in their efforts to become a “greener apple.”

Though using LEDs in backlighting applications is still more expensive at this time, the benefits are overcoming the cost concerns. The new development in LED materials will also reduce the price in the future. Regardless, the benefits are so strong that the result has been an increased demand for LED use in backlit applications in all sizes. This will significantly boost LED production requirements immediately and into the future. VCC Optoelectronics is happy to provide you with LEDs and LED mounting components for your entire project.  Check out our catalog for LEDs as well as products you will require to complete a successful and innovative PCB design.

L-3 Unmanned Systems(L-3 US) provides engineering, designing, manufacturing, integrating and supporting of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), and has a history of delivering proven products, systems and services for a variety of customers and applications.

To provide a smaller, more integrated flight control system, their specifications required an LED Lens or Litepipe_TM which would provide a moisture-seal, resist shock and vibration, and provide ease of installment for this LED indicator application.

VCC was able to offer a standard, off-the-shelf product to meet their needs. Our LCS 032 CTP, an LED Lens and Litepipe_TM assembly, met all the required specifications. After reviewing and testing the LCS 032 CTP, Michael Stephens from L-3 responded,”We have chosen to design-in your product due to its moisture barrier provided by the o-ring, having no leaks, and very easy to install.”

The LCS series is a threaded, moisture-sealed Litepipe_TM assembly that requires no special tools, just for the retaining ring to be “hand tightened”.  Its CMS 442 lens meets IP67/Nema 6P requirements; providing a seal against water, ice, shock/vibration up to 6g at 2000Hz, Solar & UV exposure.  The attached Litepipe_TM captures the LED light and transmits it up, illuminating the lens thru the front panel. The characteristics of this Litepipe_TM made it the perfect match for this and any application that will be exposed to the elements or requires a protective seal.

This smaller, more itegrated solution developed by L3 Unmanned Systems uses proven, state-of-the-art UAS guidance, navigation and control software and is now available as a stock product.

For more information about L-3US:http://www.l-3com.com/UAS/

Additional information on the new, innovative flight control solution can be found here.

Jim Albritton, a VCC Sales Representative explained, “For Mesa Boogie, aesthetics are very important. The indication products offered by VCC’s competitors just didn’t provide the clean look and feel that Mesa Boogie was looking for.”

Find more information about Mesa Boogie and its products here.

San Marcos, CA — Visual Communications Company (VCC), a provider of innovative Optoelectronics solutions, recently announced the appointment of Advance Technical Sales, Inc. as its manufacturer’s representative for the southwest. Based in southern California, VCC is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of LED mounting components.

“Advance Technical Sales is a great addition to the VCC team,” said Mark Baker, National Sales Manager, of VCC. “It possesses a solid business ethic and is well-known in the industry for its knowledge and professionalism. We are very excited to be working with the team.” Advance Technical Sales will cover a four-state region including Texas, the Texas – Mexico Border, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. “The partnership between VCC and Advance Technical Sales is part of VCC’s effort to augment its existing rep network in order to best support the expanded demand and growth opportunities that the company is currently experiencing,” explained Baker.

The use of the HMC 461 CTP lens with a 10mm VCC LED provides for optimal brightness and a wide viewing angle, which makes the lens easily viewed in a bright room. The lens and LED were combined with the CNX 460 LED cable assembly.

VCC’s solution functions as a status indicator for the patient who is being scanned. The patient is instructed to look at the indicator and not to move until the light is off. In Philips’ design stage, it was important to find a lens that was large enough for the patient to easily view, but it also needed to be aesthetic appealing. The HMC 461 CTP met the all of these requirements.

Additional product information is available on the web at Philips Medical