{"id":2543,"date":"2026-11-02T16:10:23","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T16:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/bioimaging\/?p=2543"},"modified":"2026-11-03T08:46:16","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T08:46:16","slug":"equipment-new-coolled-illumination-systems-across-bioimaging-hubs-epifluorescence-microscopes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/bioimaging\/equipment-new-coolled-illumination-systems-across-bioimaging-hubs-epifluorescence-microscopes\/","title":{"rendered":"CORE EQUIPMENT: New CoolLED illumination systems across Bioimaging Hub&#8217;s Epifluorescence Microscopes."},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_2545\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/bioimaging\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/492\/2026\/11\/pE-300-white-with-pod-SQ-1024x1024-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2545\" class=\"wp-image-2545 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/bioimaging\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/492\/2026\/11\/pE-300-white-with-pod-SQ-1024x1024-1-e1793636393838.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"758\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/bioimaging\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/492\/2026\/11\/pE-300-white-with-pod-SQ-1024x1024-1-e1793636393838.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/bioimaging\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/492\/2026\/11\/pE-300-white-with-pod-SQ-1024x1024-1-e1793636393838-624x462.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2545\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Above: The new coolLED PE300 illumination sources purchased through generous Medr (HERC) funding.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The Bioimaging Hub has recently received generous <a href=\"https:\/\/www.medr.cymru\/en\/\">Medr<\/a> (HERC) funding (\u00a324k; lead applicant Dr Tony Hayes)\u00a0 to upgrade the legacy illumination sources on its widefield epifluorescence\u00a0 microscopes from mercury (Hg)-based gas discharge lamps to next generation LED.<\/p>\n<p>By 24 February 2027, exemptions that have allowed Hg in metal halide lamps under international hazardous-substances law, like the <a href=\"https:\/\/environment.ec.europa.eu\/topics\/waste-and-recycling\/rohs-directive_en\">EU\u2019s RoHS regulations<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legislation.gov.uk\/uksi\/2012\/3032\/contents\">equivalent UK legislation<\/a>, will expire. After that date, new Hg\/metal halide lamps can no longer be manufactured or placed on the market under those exemptions. Replacement lamps will therefore become increasingly rare and difficult to source. This phase-out is a deliberate move by regulators globally to limit the use of Hg, a hazardous substance that poses serious environmental and health risks throughout its lifecycle \u2013 from manufacturing and transport through to disposal.<\/p>\n<p>Next generation LED has several advantages over Hg-based illumination:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>LED contains no-hazardous chemicals and is therefore much safer to use than Hg (Hg vapour is rapidly absorbed by the lungs and highly toxic, causing widespread tissue damage, particularly affecting the brain). Hg-based lamps also operate at very high internal temperatures of up to 760<sup>o<\/sup>C with a risk of their glass enclosure shattering or exploding and releasing toxic Hg vapour into the environment.<\/li>\n<li>LED is extremely bright, stable and long-lasting, providing consistent output over thousands of hours without the need for frequent lamp changes (Hg lamps have a typical lifespan of around 100- 200 hours, depending upon wattage).<\/li>\n<li>LED provides instant high intensity illumination, and light output can be easily adjusted (i.e., there is no warm-up or cool-down time or light intensity drift like Hg-based illumination sources).<\/li>\n<li>LED is more sustainable with low power usage, cooler operation and long life, reducing energy consumption and environmental waste.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We are currently working with a supplier to install <a href=\"https:\/\/www.coolled.com\/products\/pe-300white\/\">CoolLed pe300 white<\/a> illumination systems across our equipment portfolio before Christmas 2026. This system is generally considered the go-to, industry standard replacement for Hg vapour illumination and we have experience of this model which has been retrofitted to one of our existing workhorse multimodal microscopes.<\/p>\n<p>The CoolLED illumination units are designed to operate for a minimum of 25,000 hours of continuous use without additional consumables, service or repair. For a typical laboratory environment, this translates to around 20 years of operational life. This contrasts with 100-200 hours from a standard 100W Hg vapour illumination lamp, which comes with huge cost to the environment and potential risk to user.<\/p>\n<p>Further details to follow.<\/p>\n<p>AJH 2.11.2026<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Bioimaging Hub has recently received generous Medr (HERC) funding (\u00a324k; lead applicant Dr Tony Hayes)\u00a0 to upgrade the legacy illumination sources on its widefield epifluorescence\u00a0 microscopes from mercury (Hg)-based gas discharge lamps to next generation LED. By 24 February 2027, exemptions that have allowed Hg in metal halide lamps under international hazardous-substances law, like [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":908,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/bioimaging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/bioimaging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/bioimaging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/bioimaging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/908"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/bioimaging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2543"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/bioimaging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2556,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/bioimaging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2543\/revisions\/2556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/bioimaging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/bioimaging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/bioimaging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}