Forge Europa’s Near Field Measurement System
Forge Europa has invested in a customised Near Field Measurement System from leading US optics metrology equipment supplier Radiant Imaging. This highly innovative instrument provides the R&D team with the capability to completely characterise a huge range of light sources in terms of brightness, colour and angular distribution.
The Near Field Measurement System (NFMS) comprises an Imaging Photometer and a motorised Goniometer for measuring luminaires and other light sources of up to 25kg in mass and over a metre wide.
In traditional optical measuring systems the item under test sometimes needs to be a long way from the Photometer(maybe over 20m) creating significant practical challenges! The Near Field Measurement System overcomes this by photographing the Luminaire from nearby (circa 2m away) at a range of angles and calculating what the luminaire would measure if it were distant. This allows Forge Europa to accurately measure large and/or tightly focussed Luminaires within a moderately sized dark roomwith great flexibility.
The Imaging Photometer – essentially a calibrated CCD still camera - can also measure colour so that plots of colour versus angle can be generated and total integrated colour can be calculated.
In addition the Near Field Measurement System sums the light emission at every angle measured and thereby calculates total flux in lumens.
The system can automatically produce photometric image files in IES or EULUMDAT formats which can be used in illumination modelling software.
Furthermore the Imaging Photometer can also be used to measure luminance– for example the brightness of an illuminated sign or display. This is a very powerful feature as a single measurement can capture luminance and colour distribution across the whole surface being measured.
The NFMS is used exclusively as part of Forge Europa’s design and development process; enabling the R&D team to quickly evaluate the efficiency and performance of their LED based design concepts before progressing to production tooling and volume manufacture.
