Current status of UV irradiance meter and UV energy meter measurement in China
1、 Chinese ultraviolet radiation illuminance standard
Ultraviolet irradiance meters are often referred to as UV energy meters. With the development of the economy, the use of ultraviolet irradiance meters (UV energy meters) in industry is increasing, and the traceability of ultraviolet irradiance meters is becoming increasingly important. The international division of ultraviolet bands is not unified. At present, China divides the ultraviolet radiation band into four types: A1, A2, B, and C. The UV light sources corresponding to the above four wave bands include high-pressure mercury lamps, black light high-pressure mercury lamps, and low-pressure mercury lamps.
The Chinese UV radiation illuminance working standard mainly consists of spectral radiometers, standard UV radiation illuminometers, various UV light sources, etc., used for storing and reproducing UV radiation measurement values. However, due to the fact that the above standards were established in 1989, they no longer fully meet the traceability requirements of the modern market for ultraviolet radiation meters. With the gradual increase in the introduction of such instruments from abroad, the calibration of ultraviolet irradiance meters has encountered a situation where multiple national standards coexist, which has caused difficulties for the majority of ultraviolet irradiance meter users.
2、 A market where multiple standards coexist
At present, the domestic market share of radiation meters produced in the United States, Germany, and Japan is still quite large, and the instruments are relatively well made with good stability and long service life. However, there are significant problems, and even the standards of the same country do not seem to be completely unified. For example, the standards in the United States trace UV irradiance back to NIST, but produce different measurement results* Two typical irradiance meter manufacturers, EIT and International Light, also measure A-band instruments and use national standards for calibration. EIT has a reading error of 30% to 70%, while International Light can control the reading error within 10%, which is basically consistent with national standards. The instruments in Germany and Japan also have the same problem, with instruments that are consistent with national standards and instruments with measurement results that are far apart. If two instruments of the same manufacturer and different models from a certain German manufacturer have the same measurement band, but the measured results differ significantly. This may be caused by inconsistent spectral responses of calibrated light sources or instrument detectors. In short, there is no unified international standard for ultraviolet irradiance to constrain manufacturers, resulting in the coexistence of multiple national standards, which also brings difficulties to the measurement of ultraviolet irradiance.
