After years of research and development, PestWest is introducing its latest pioneering innovation and the very first LED fly unit of its kind. Pest Control News interviewed Product Design Engineer from PestWest, Neil McGowan, discussing what the Qualis is all about and how this particular trap will revolutionise the whole industry.
1. Let’s start at the beginning. How was the idea of the Qualis born?
The design brief was simple, we needed an LED fly trap that could compete with the performance of traditional fluorescent insect light traps, in terms of attraction and with all the added benefits of LED technology such as increased lifespan and energy savings.
2. The Qualis is PestWest’s first LED fly control unit, what are the main differences between this unit and others?
After many years of research and development, it was clear that high power surface mount type UV-A LEDs were not going to be a suitable choice for PestWest’s flagship LED model. Whilst surface mount LEDs had become cost effective and provide a good level of UV-A output with an acceptable lifetime, the high intensity of light from such a small point source was having a negative effect on flying insect attraction.
Another unique feature of Quantum X LED technology is that the LEDs are cooled by Helium gas which efficiently transfers the heat from the LED to the outer glass tube where it is evenly dissipated along its entire length and circumference. Traditional high power surface mount UV-A LEDs require the use of large aluminium heat sinks, which add cost and complexity to the design.
The enhanced characteristics of the Quantum X LED lamps allow them to be ran at a slightly lower power level than high power surface mount LEDs, without compromising on results, meaning that the Qualis consumes even less power than many other LED traps on the market.
3. How do you see Pest Control Companies and end-users benefit from these?
The benefits to Pest Control Companies are that they can offer
their customers an LED fly trap with a comparable performance
to a traditional fluorescent fly trap, with a huge reduction in power consumption. A Qualis fitted with two Quantum X LED lamps uses only a third of the power consumed by a traditional 30W fluorescent fly trap. Not only are the energy savings good for the customer, but they are also good for the environment. The other environmental benefit of the Quantum X lamps is that they are mercury free.
Pest Control Companies can also save time and money due to the longer service interval of the Quantum X LED lamps which is now three years, compared to annual lamp changes with fluorescent lamps.
4. Wow, 3 years is quite a longevity for the lamps compared to normally 1 year! Could you tell us a bit more about the process of developing the Qualis? And what has been the biggest challenge throughout the development?
Once we had decided to disregard high power surface mount UV-A LEDs, the focus switched to filament LED technology which could be packaged into a T5 21” tube.This allowed the design team at PestWest to develop an ultra slim trap with all the usual benefits that you would expect from a PestWest product, easy to service and clean, easy to install etc.
There were two main challenges when developing the Chameleon Qualis. The first was selecting the correct type of filament LED in terms of wavelength, substrate material and then finding the right balance of performance in terms of insect attraction versus lifetime. The second challenge was optimising the glue board technology to unlock the true performance of the trap. These challenges were time consuming with many hours, days, months and years of testing to fine tune the product to a level of performance we were happy to have PestWest’s name on.
5. Where do you see the industry going over the next 5 years in terms of LED units? Are there more to come?
The Chameleon Qualis with Quantum X filament LED technology has already made a giant leap over traditional fluorescent technology whilst also outperforming the current competition fitted high power surface mount UV-A LEDs.
