This guide introduces our range of illuminated Bench magnifiers used for industrial & electronics inspection, health & beauty, and jewellery trades. We hold stock from Daylight, Vision-Luxo and Waldman offering same day shipment and expert technical advice when you need it. This guide is designed to help you choose between the different models. Do contact us if you need advice.

Key Features of Bench Magnifiers

  • Basic, mid and high level models
  • Designed with ergonomic flexible arm technology
  • Large, high quality optics for comfortable viewing
  • High quality crown glass or hard coated acrylic lenses, distortion free
  • Perfectly balanced stands, with edge clamp of weighted base.
  • Energy efficient LED illumination, dimming on all models, some with segmenting
  • Ultra Violet (UV) and Electro Static Dissipative (ESD) versions available for specific applications

Magnification

Choose between 3.0 and 5.0 dioptre models, which equate to 1.75x and 2.25x magnification.  To increase magnification further secondary lenses are available on some models, which can increase power to 10 dioptre (3.5x) for inspecting small areas. Generally, 3.0 and 3.5 dioptres provide the best balance between magnification and working distance for most uses.

What is Dioptre?  The convention is to express magnification for bench magnifiers in Dioptre but this can be confusing as many people only understand Magnification. However, it is easy to convert dioptre into magnification, simply divide dioptre by 4, then add 1.  For example 5.0 dioptre = 5/4 + 1 = 2.25x. So objects viewed through a 5.0 dioptre lens would appear 225% larger than normal.

We are frequently asked for a higher power magnifier, i.e. one with greater magnification, but also with a large lens. This is not possible. Increasing magnification power makes the magnifier less convenient to use as the lens diameter, field of view and working distance all decrease. Usually, bench magnifiers are low power between 1.75x and 3.0x. If you need higher power then you should consider a stereo microscope or digital microscope instead.

Lens quality

For the best clarity and sharpness of image with no distortion look for bench magnifiers fitted with crown glass lenses which provide superb resolution and colour rendering. The alternative acrylic lenses are usually lower in cost but also offered by most of the major manufacturers. For example The Daylight Company produce both glass (e.g Omega 7) and acrylic (e.g Omega 5) lens magnifiers.

It is important that acrylic lenses are hard-coated for protection, but even then care should be taken not to clean them with alcohol based products as this can cause cracks. When choosing a cleaning or disinfection product, please make sure it is described as “without IPA (isopropyl alcohol)". Another indication to look out for is “compatible with Perspex / Plexiglass (Acrylic / PMMA)”.

Illumination

Bench magnifiers are not just magnifiers with light, but need to be powerful illuminators with excellent light output and good colour rendering capabilities. Look for:

Excellent bright and warm light
Up to 7,400 Lux* illumination
Fully adjustable and dimmable
LED 50,000 hour life span
Shadow-free circular light sources
3D lighting aids depth perception (Wave and Quadra models only)
Models with UV light are available for specialist applications

* Lux is a measure of the light intensity over a specific area. 1 Lux is equal to 1 Lumen per square meter.

Arm construction

Our bench magnifiers are especially designed for maximum flexibility and ergonomic operation. They offer three important head movements, horizontal side-to-side, up and down movement and rotation.

Our bench magnifiers from Daylight and Vision-Luxo use a spring arm balancing system which allows quick and efficient positioning. Some models from Vision-Luxo (Wave and KFM) achieve this stability without the need for knob tightening. Result – one handed ‘Move and Stay’ operation.

Applications

Industrial Inspection

  • Robust & balanced arms
  • Glass lenses
  • Flexible illumination

Electronics

  • ESD Safe coating
  • UV Light for conformal coating
  • Stable arms

Health & Beauty

  • Perfect daylight
  • Ergonomic movement
  • Clarity

Jewellery

  • Balanced arms
  • Bright illumination
  • Optical excellence

Don't hesitate to contact us by phone +44 1625 541336 or email [email protected] for more help.