Why are more machine vision systems using LEDs for illumination?
A. In recent years LEDs (light-emitting diodes) have played a major role in machine vision lighting systems and their use is growing all the time, as cost decreases and performance increases. Over the years machine vision designers have used cold light sources with fibre optics or high intensity, high-frequency fluorescence illumination. Cold light sources and fibre optics can be ideal in some microscopy applications, where one cannot illuminate the object with a hot light source because it will change the characteristics of the sample, for example in biomedical applications. However, for machine vision applications these lights are an expensive option and the need for regular bulb replacement in the light source makes the running costs higher and results in down time for planned maintenance.
