As comic book collectors ourselves, we understand the significance of UltraVIolet (UV) light in comic book protection. That is why we conducted extensive apples to apples tests to evaluate the effectiveness of our products for UV protection. While we were at it, we compared to several products on the market. Our tests involved measuring the UV energy blocked by our ComicCapsule and how much percentage of UV reduction is recorded once a product is put under the UV light.
What is UV?
UV light is a portion of the overall electromagnetic spectrum in the 10-400 wavelength range beginning from the violet range of the visible spectrum. The diagram below shows the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that is UV and visible light.
Source: https://www.clinuvel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Electromagnetic-Spectrum-FINAL.jpg
Note the difference between UVA, UVB, and UVC. Nearly all UVC is blocked by the atmosphere, while of the remaining UV that reaches sea level, about 85% is UVA, and the remaining 15% is UVB. If one goes outside in direct sunlight at approximately sea level, UV exposure is around 2400uW/cm^2. Inside your home, if built after 1994, most likely has UV protection built into your windows, thus the risk of UV exposure is very low.
Why UV Protection Matters:
UV light can be harmful to various materials, including paper and ink. Over time, exposure to UV rays can cause fading, discoloration, and deterioration of your comics. For collectors, this can result in significant loss of value and aesthetic appeal.
UV absorbing materials act as a shield, absorbing harmful rays and safeguarding the vibrant colors and crisp lines of your comics for years to come! This can be achieved by anti-UV films, or in the case of ComicCapsule, impregnated into the raw material resin itself.
Here’s our UV Tests Setup:
Our setup consists of a UV source, a UVA/B sensor, and a tested product all mounted to a 3D printer. The 3D printer allows us to carefully control the distance between the UV source and the UV meter, ensuring accurate positional control, thus precise apples to apples inputs/results.
Eric's UV Test Results:
We wanted to make sure our claims about UV protection weren't just talk, so Eric the Engineer put our ComicCapsule to the test, to see if our comic book protectors really block harmful UV rays..
Here are the results:
The final results show the front of ComicCapsule blocks:
- 99% of UVA @ 395nm Wavelength with 144uW/cm^2.
- 100% of UVA @ 365nm Wavelength with 1000uW/cm^2
- 100% of UVB @ 320nm Wavelength with 153uW/cm^2
These are the products we tested:
If you've noticed, products with higher UV reduction have lesser visibility of 'blue light' when the UV light is shone onto the product.
We published these test results to be transparent to our comic community, and we hope these insights will be valuable in helping you make decisions when it comes to protecting your comic books.
All in all, our ComicCapsules still stand out in terms of UV protection vs other comic book protectors in the market currently. With Eric's thumbs-up, you can feel confident that ComicCapsule is the real deal when it comes to protecting your comics. We're not just saying it; we've got the test results to prove it!