Light Up the Night with Opti-Brite LED Headlamps
BY AsphaltPro Staff
Let’s take a look at safe lighting on some basic equipment, such as haul trucks, trailers and tack wagons. Optronics International, Tulsa, Oklahoma, displayed its most recent launch for the first time at the 2016 AAPEX Show in Las Vegas recently. The Opti-Brite LED Headlamps offer retroreflective LED tech engineered to emit a wider, brighter beam for increased visibility and safety. The rear-oriented LEDs interact with precision-engineered metallic parabolic reflectors to create a beam pattern that is ultra bright, with broad, smooth, photometric characteristics that approximate the color temperature of natural sunlight, improving visibility and reducing eye fatigue.
“No other headlamps have this stunning conspicuity feature on one side and our ‘retroflective’ optics on the other, orienting the LEDs producing the headlamp beam backward, and letting our advanced reflector geometry do the work of projecting the beam forward,” Brett Johnson, president and CEO of Optronics International, said.
The new LED headlamps come in three formats that cover a wide range of vehicle makes and models. The HLL93HLB series fits a seven-inch round format and has both high and low beam functions built in. The HLL79HB high-beam lamps and HLL78LB low-beam lamps—pictured here—fit 4- by 6-inch rectangular formats and are compatible with four-lamp systems with separate, dedicated high-beam and low-beam lamps.
The new Opti-Brite LED Headlamps are designed to allow users to easily upgrade their headlamps from standard halogen and HID sealed-beam to a higher-performing, higher-style and longer-lasting LED light source. The lamps use standard H4 three-blade connectors, and it takes just minutes to convert any vehicle with compatible headlamps to the new LED technology.
“Our new Opti-Brite LED Headlamps are plug and play,” Marcus Hester, vice president of sales and marketing for Optronics International, said.
All lamps are engineered to accommodate both 12- and 24-volt electrical systems. The new lamps have an expected service life of 30,000 hours, 15 to 30 times that of halogen and HID headlamps.
The lamps feature durable, powder-coated, die-cast aluminum housings and tough polycarbonate lenses that have an application of a special coating that protects them against exposure to UV rays and harsh environments. The coating also defends the lamps against the cracking, fading and yellowing associated with some LED headlamps.
“In addition to these more traditional headlamp formats, we’re in discussions with several OEMs now regarding custom and modular LED headlamp designs,” Johnson said. “The reduced maintenance and downtime associated with LED headlamps will ultimately make them a reality on virtually every commercial vehicle in the future.”
The new Opti-Brite LED Headlamps are expected to be available in the first quarter of 2017. The lamps meet or exceed all FMVSS 108 and CMVSS 108 photometric requirements for visibility and safety. The lamps employ a solid-state, surface-mount device (SMD) design that protects their electronics against moisture, shock and vibration. Like all LED products from Optronics, Opti-Brite LED Headlamps come with no-hassle, one-diode lifetime warranty protection that will replace the lamp if even one diode fails.
For more information, contact Dorian Drake at (914) 697-9800, or visit http://www.doriandrake.com/.
Customize Your Own Lights
At the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) mid-year meeting in Seattle way back in July, the association gave a 2015 Asphalt Operations Safety Innovation Award to Payne & Dolan Inc., Waukesha, Wisconsin, for its lighted spray bar for a tack truck. Realizing the possibly hazardous situation created by the 13-foot-long spray bar projecting beyond the sides of the tack truck, an employee decided to wrap the spray bar with an 18-foot LED light powered through an inverter connected to the vehicle’s battery. The lighted bar reduces a trip hazard for those in the work zone and makes the truck more visible to drivers at night.