Blending

What is Blending?

• LED lights are often comprised of multiple optical surfaces, which must blend together.
• Sometimes this is done well, and the pattern is very “smooth” or “homogenous.”
• Sometimes this is not done well, and there are spots or “artifacts” in the beam pattern which can be distracting.
• In some respects, this concept is the opposite of Gradient, but it refers to how the light looks across the whole pattern, rather than just the edges.

How do we use it at Diode?

• We refer to this in the engineering process to talk about how “smooth” the beam pattern is.
• It is always good to confirm that there are no hotspots or weird shapes in the beam pattern.
• Other companies, specifically Baja Designs, refer to Blendability as a positive metric, to defend the fact that they are not focusing light well and they cannot achieve a higher gradient – the benefit being that the beam pattern is quite smooth.