LED light tunnels from planistar are ideal for the industrial machine vision and quality inspection of glossy or reflective objects. They provide highly diffuse, homogeneous and virtually shadow-free illumination, reducing unwanted reflections and making surface features clearly visible.
Thanks to their open tunnel design, our LED light tunnels can be easily integrated into production lines, inspection stations and automated processes. Compared with conventional LED dome lights, they offer a key advantage: the inspection object can enter the tunnel completely, allowing the desired lighting effect to be fully utilised.
A special feature of planistar light tunnels is their actively illuminated surfaces. Unlike many dome lights, the light is not merely directed onto a reflective surface. Instead, the actively illuminated tunnel walls provide intense and uniform lighting—ideal for demanding machine vision applications.
If you cannot find a suitable LED light tunnel in our extensive standard range, we will be happy to develop and manufacture a customised lighting solution according to your requirements. Dimensions, light colour, light intensity, camera openings and other technical features can be adapted to your specific application.
As we develop and manufacture our LED light tunnels in-house, we can offer short delivery times and cost-effective solutions—from individual light tunnels to customised series production.
The LED light tunnels from planistar feature three actively illuminated surfaces. Powerful edge lighting combined with a curved diffuser creates an illumination effect similar to that of an LED dome light. This provides highly uniform, diffuse and virtually shadow-free illumination of inspection objects while significantly reducing unwanted reflections on glossy or reflective surfaces.
The camera opening is individually adapted to the specific inspection task, camera position and lens used.
Thanks to their special design, the LED light tunnels can be flexibly adapted in length, width and height to the mechanical requirements of the system as well as the required camera and working distance. Conventional LED dome lights generally do not offer this level of flexibility.
The LED tunnel illumination can be triggered via an optocoupler switching input requiring only low control power. The input supports signals ranging from 5 V TTL to 24 V PLC and responds to every rising signal edge.
The entire control system is integrated into the light. No additional external lighting controllers are therefore required.
The LED light tunnels and tunnel dome lights from planistar are available for a wide variety of industrial machine vision applications. In addition to various shades of white, they can be equipped with monochromatic LEDs covering a wavelength range from approximately 380 to 940 nm.
For technical reasons, UV and IR versions are designed with an LED matrix. This means that a suitable light colour is available for virtually every inspection task.
The special planistar LED light tunnel was developed for demanding line-scan camera applications in industrial machine vision. A powerful LED matrix combined with a curved diffuser produces a lighting effect comparable to that of an LED light dome. This provides highly uniform, diffuse and low-shadow illumination of the inspection objects, with approximately 70,000 lx across the inspection area. Unwanted reflections on glossy or highly reflective surfaces are significantly reduced.
The camera opening can be precisely adjusted to the line-scan camera’s field of view using the side panels. The edge facing the line-scan camera is illuminated almost seamlessly.
Thanks to its flexible design, the LED light tunnel can be customised in length, width and height to suit the mechanical requirements of the system.
The tunnel light can be triggered via an optocoupler switching input with low control power. The input supports control signals ranging from 5 V TTL to 24 V PLC and responds to each rising signal edge.
The complete control electronics are integrated into the LED light. Therefore, no additional external lighting controller is required.
The lighting technology extends to the ends of the tunnel, ensuring continuous and uniform illumination. If required, the light tunnel can be extended modularly with additional lighting elements.
The heat generated by the high-power LEDs is reliably dissipated by passive heat sinks, enabling durable, low-maintenance continuous operation.
This is precisely where our strength lies. Because planistar manufactures the lights in-house, we can produce customised backlighting with short delivery times.
So you don't have to follow our standard programme. We adapt exactly to your requirements and the conditions on site.
This saves you costs in theOur production processes are planned in such a way that a customised light has almost the same throughput as a standard light. The only difference is that the customised luminaire is precisely documented. This means that we are able to supply replacements even years later.
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When revising the product series, we always take sustainability into account, as many small details add up to a big picture.
This starts with saving resources and energy, the right choice of materials we use, right through to packaging and disposal.
An LED light tunnel offers significant advantages over a conventional dome light, particularly when inspecting large or elongated objects or integrating the illumination into a production line. From an optical perspective, both solutions pursue a similar objective: providing diffuse, uniform and virtually shadow-free illumination of reflective surfaces.
The majority of our LED lighting systems use efficient edge coupling combined with a specially calculated light guide panel. planistar previously held the patent for the edge coupling of light sources and light distribution by means of a dot pattern. This extensive experience provides us with the expertise to calculate and manufacture area lights in virtually any required size.
Our light guide panels distribute the coupled LED light particularly uniformly across the entire illuminated surface. This homogeneous light distribution is largely maintained throughout the service life of the lighting system. Even the failure of an LED row at the edge has only a minimal effect on uniformity within the relevant measurement area. In an LED matrix system, however, a comparable failure may become visible as a dark area on the illuminated surface.
For certain industrial machine vision applications, a conventional LED matrix system is the better choice. Thanks to our sophisticated light design, this technology also provides excellent uniformity and particularly high light output.
Our LED matrix backlights are especially suitable for high-speed machine vision applications. Their high illuminance enables short exposure times, significantly reducing motion blur when inspecting moving objects.
Depending on the inspection task, object speed, working distance and required uniformity, we develop the appropriate LED backlight—either with an edge-lit light guide panel or as a high-performance LED matrix system.
In many conventional LED dome lights, the LEDs are positioned exclusively around the lower edge of the dome. The light is first directed onto the reflective inner surface and then distributed indirectly onto the inspection object. This redirection results in light losses. Depending on the design, stray light may also enter the camera lens directly through the camera opening and impair image quality.
As the LEDs are concentrated around the lower edge, heat is also generated primarily in this limited area. Consequently, most of the heat must be dissipated through this section of the housing.
In contrast, planistar LED light tunnels use three actively illuminated surfaces combined with a curved diffuser. The LEDs are distributed throughout the entire light tunnel. This spreads both the light output and the generated heat across a significantly larger surface area.
With our extensive range of manufacturing equipment, we can develop and produce both very small and large-format LED lighting systems for industrial machine vision.
The example shown features a customised LED light tunnel measuring 1,800 mm in length and incorporating a long camera slot for use with a line-scan camera.
Thanks to our wide range of manufacturing capabilities and high level of in-house production, we can precisely adapt the dimensions, design, light colour, light output and camera openings to the specific machine vision application.
This enables us to create customised lighting solutions that are optimally matched to the available installation space, camera technology and inspection task—from compact LED lights to large-format light tunnels for industrial line-scan camera applications.
A conventional hemispherical LED dome light can provide highly uniform, diffuse and virtually shadow-free illumination under ideal conditions. However, several limitations may arise when integrating it into an industrial machine vision system.
The inspection object must enter the dome
A dome light achieves its optimum lighting effect only when the inspection object is located inside the dome or very close to its opening. This is often difficult to implement in an automated production system. If the dome is mounted at a greater distance above the object, its characteristic diffuse, enveloping lighting effect is significantly reduced. In this situation, a more cost-effective area light may provide comparable illumination.
Diameter, height and camera distance are interdependent
A conventional hemispherical dome light cannot be freely adapted in all dimensions. Due to its geometry, the diameter also determines the required height and therefore the possible camera and working distance. Users must often rely on predefined standard sizes and adapt their machinery to the dimensions of the dome.
In contrast, an LED light tunnel from planistar can be individually adapted in length, width and height to the specific machine vision application. This allows the object size, working distance, camera position and available installation space to be considered during the design process.
Thanks to its open tunnel design, the light can be easily installed above a conveyor belt, workpiece carrier or production line. Inspection objects pass directly through the uniformly illuminated area without requiring extensive modifications to the conveyor system to accommodate an enclosed dome structure.
The result is diffuse, uniform and easy-to-integrate LED illumination for the reliable inspection of glossy and reflective objects.
Our team will be at your disposal for any questions you may have. We will process your request as soon as possible.
| +49 (0) 9364 8060-0 | sales@no-spam.planistar.de | Industrial Lighting Catalog (incl. prices) Visual Inspection Catalog (incl. prices) | |||||||
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| Tel | +49 (0) 9364 8060-0 |
| Fax | +49 (0) 9364 8060-29 |
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