TPL Vision’s Modular Approach to Machine Vision Lighting

August 26, 2025

In the fast-moving world of machine vision, high-quality image capture is essential, and it all starts with the right lighting. As one of the most critical components in any vision system, lighting shapes accuracy, reliability, and speed. Modular lighting takes this further by offering flexible, future-proof solutions that adapt to changing needs. It is cost-effective and it delivers high-performance lighting for even the most demanding applications.

The modular light range at TPL Vision is designed to optimise versatility, with components that can be easily disassembled and reassembled. Unlike many alternatives, our modular lights are engineered so that even during alterations, the LEDs and circuit boards remain protected, never exposed to dust, water, or other contaminants. This ensures reliable protection and long-term durability, eliminating common weaknesses, like Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) interference, found in other modular designs.

What is Modular Lighting?

Modular lighting is a term used for illumination systems designed with interchangeable parts like lenses, diffusers, colour filters, and mounting configurations for flexibility in machine vision applications. The modular approach allows users to customise, upgrade, or reconfigure the lighting output without replacing the entire unit.

By offering rapid adjustments and tailored configurations, modular lighting provides seamless system development, enhances inspection performance, and supports a wide range of industrial use cases. It also means customised lighting solutions can be created, often with minimal lead times and no extra costs, making it ideal for scalable inspections.

Key Benefits of Modular Lights

Flexibility and Customisation: Users can easily adapt their beam angles, wavelengths, diffusers, and mounting options. This configures the lighting for different types of applications without having to change the whole unit.
Future Proofing: Over the course of time, inspection needs will change, and modular lights can be upgraded or reconfigured instead of being replaced. This helps extend the life of a vision system.
Reduced Costs: With just one modular product, users can cover many types of use cases which lowers overall purchasing and warehouse costs.
Improved Maintenance Upgrades: You can replace or upgrade individual components without having to take apart the entire module. This reduces downtime and service costs.

Challenges in the Market

Challenge 1 – Uniform Illumination: Homogeneous lighting is needed in machine vision to ensure consistent image quality and eliminate shadows and glare. Modular lights can be combined to create homogeneous lighting patterns that reduce hotspots and shadows and provide accurate detection of features or defects across the entire field of view.

Challenge 2 – Scalability: As production lines develop, lighting systems need to be able to scale up or down. Modular units make it simple to expand or downsize, without the cost or disruption of replacing the entire system.

Challenge 3 – Flexible Lighting Needs: Different inspection tasks require varied lighting angles, intensities, and colours. Modular lights can be reconfigured easily to match specific application demands without needing a full lighting overhaul.

Challenge 4 – Protection During Upgrades: Switching lighting components can expose LEDs and circuit boards to dust and moisture, risking performance issues. TPL Vision’s modular lights are designed so these parts remain protected, preventing contamination and ensuring no EMC interference.

Modular Bar Lights

At TPL Vision, our Modular Bar Lights (like the M-EBAR and M-TBAR) are some of our most adaptable solutions from our modular range. Modular bar lights can be configured to suit almost any machine vision application. Our products help thousands of customers globally to effectively illuminate industrial automation and logistics applications across many industries, from pharmaceutical, food and beverage manufacturing to the automotive industry, and much more.

Key Features of Our Modular Bar Lights

Interchangeable Angle Changers – Users can adapt the beam angle quickly post-installation with no disassembly needed.
Curve Effect Support – Providing smooth and uniform lighting over wide or distant fields of view.
Best Balance of Brightness and Homogeneity – Delivering consistent, shadow free illumination.
Cover All Applications – With just a few part numbers, users can quickly adapt to new tasks.
Colour Flexibility and OverDrive – Versatile illumination intensities and wavelengths from one light unit.

Modular Ring Lights

TPL Vision’s Modular Ring Light Range offers flexible illumination for a wide variety of machine vision tasks. Each of these modular solutions (like the Modular Ringlight and the M-HPRING and M-TRING) are designed with a modular platform so they can easily offer different lighting methods using interchangeable diffusers and angle changers. With the perfect balance of brightness, homogeneity, and beam profile for any application, modular ring lights are ideal for any inspection or imaging task.

Key Features of Our Modular Ring Lights

High Intensity Illumination – To support high-speed and fast moving applications as well as tasks on reflective surfaces where shadows must be minimal.
Suitable for Use in Harsh Environments – Their robust design ensures reliable operation under the most challenging conditions.
OverDrive Lighting – This provides increased brightness and precision.
Compatibility with Angle Changers (M-HPRING and M-TRING) – Users can effectively customise the direction of their lighting for different use cases.
Various Lighting Techniques (Modular Ringlight) – Users can apply Direct, Low Angle, Dark Field, and Dome Lighting methods using a single unit.

Modular lighting is a great addition to machine vision applications providing precision and adaptability. Through combining flexibility, scalability, and cost efficiency, it allows manufacturers to meet evolving inspection challenges. With TPL Vision’s modular solutions you can adapt instantly to new tasks and maintain peak performance across all your applications.

Related products

Modular M-HPRING
- Versatile 76 mm ring light
- CW and Strobe OverDrive
- Angle Changer compatible
Modular M-TRING
- Powerful 37 mm ring light
- Direct attachment to C-mount lenses
- Angle Changer compatible
Modular M-TBAR
- Tiny bar light
- Angle Changers flexibility
- 64mm long
Modular Ringlight
- Powerful, modular ring light
- OverDrive, sectors, bicolour
- Dome + Low Angle accessories
Modular M-EBAR
- Modular bar light
- Angle Changers flexibility
- Sizes up to 500mm