| You might have noticed two things in particular about PhotoTech systems; The unusual LED system, and the price. They do cost a fraction of other LED systems with the same amount of power, and part of the reason is our unique channel LED system. Most LED system use panels for the LEDs. These are fine systems, typically costing $30,000 to $100,000 . The panels are high density, and a bit tricky to cool, requiring elaborate cooling schemes and external ballast and rectifier (ie: driver) assemblies. This has been the standard for making LED beds for a few years, and every part is unique and custom made for that part of the bed. It is a very expensive way to manufacture LEDs, but it works and initially it was the only way you could achieve good power levels. Pretty much every manufacturer follows this same pattern. Except PhotoTech. We have a history in manufacturing that goes back decades, but our manufacturing philosophy is very different. For starters, we adhere to ISO standards where possible. Instead of making every part unique, we try to use highly available parts where it makes sense. We want our systems to be easily serviced by the average person. Because of this, PhotoTech is demonstrably the easiest and least expensive system to maintain. Let's start with the LED design itself. Traditional system use panels with multiple LEDs that are bolted down in several places, requiring a technician to completely disassemble the system to repair a small outage. No one like to think about a failure, but over the course of the product life, it can happen. This traditional design requires a technician to drive (or fly) to you for the system to be repaired. When he gets there, he isn't sure if it a failure of the LED board, or the power supply or the cooling system, unit he tears into the LED light therapy bed. As you can imagine, this is very expensive. PhotoTech uses LED channels instead of panels. The shape of these channels is exactly like a 6 foot x 1 inch tube, with the familiar two prongs on the ends. This is the same set up your fluorescent lights use at the office: Just twist and remove, insert a new one, then twist into place. It's as easy as changing a light bulb. This is the kind of simplicity that separates PhotoTech from everyone else. Additionally, instead of using offboard drivers, we put the driver inside the channel. If there is ever a failure, it can ONLY affect that one channel, since each channel is isolated from the others and has it's own power supply. We use the same type of channel is all our systems, including units with 9, 16, 24, 32 or more channels. Because of this, we produce a LOT of channels, which drives the cost down per unit, due to our volume. Our focus has been to use industry standard parts, like our frame. We've produced tens of thousands of this frame for other uses in Europe, Russia, America and Japan. It just makes sense to use a frame that everyone already loves and has proven to be durable. It is 100% solid steel, with welded steel ends and frame, and a powder coat finish. Built in Europe by our Belgian partners, it is very roomy (the standard frame is 39" wide), and has a parabolic design to maximize how much light reaches you. We put the cooling system inside the bed instead of on a panel. Each of our channels uses passive cooling, as the back half of the entire channel is an aluminum heat sink. The cooling fans aren't attached to the panel or channel, they are build into the system, cooling the entire system evenly. This ensures longer life because the heat isn't concentrated in one area. The fans themselves are industry standard 4" cast fans with ball bearing shafts. High CFM, quiet operation, readily available and inexpensive because they are so common. This is what we mean when we talk about design philosophy. If a custom part is the best solution, then use a custom part. If it isn't, then use industry standard parts. Our LEDs and drivers are custom, most of the other parts are industry standards. And that is a big part of the reason why we can sell a $40,000 light therapy system starting well unver $10,000. |
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