Five Quality Aspects Of A High Performance Lightbar

By Author: Sunil Punjabi
Total Articles: 2554
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A high performance lightbar is a lot about the design and the best manufacturers pay a lot of attention to every single facet. That ensures that the light bars are reliable as well. The first aspect that is worth paying attention to is the chassis of the light bar. Usually, it is made of extruded or anodized aluminium. Powder coating is provided to the aluminium used for the chassis to offer some corrosion resistance. The base is usually made of polycarbonate. Sealed bases are used to protect the LEDs from moisture and vibration resistance as well. Composite nylon is another material that is used. Thermally efficient plastic which is good at dissipating the heat generated due to prolonged usage is used in some cases while ABS housing along with chrome flanges are preferred from time to time.

Apart from the housing, a light bar also has other intuitive features like rubber grommets and pads, compression gaskets and hard coating on lenses which provide different levels of protection. A good lightbar will provide excellent operational control which is critical during emergencies. Operational control is of ...
... many types which is why a switch box hardwired to the equipment or a MicroChip controller are used. More sophisticated the light bar more will be the number of controls present on the switch panel. There are buttons for the power supply, individual controls for the front facing and rear facing LED modules, buttons for controlling the intensity modes and switches for altering the flash patterns from time to time.

A high performance lightbar cannot be effective without versatility and that is one of the more important aspects of its design. The versatility is in terms of the flash patterns built into the equipment as well in terms of the different kinds of light heads which are provided as part of the bar. Full length light bars have work lights, alley lights and flashing takedowns apart from the normal LED modules and corner LED strobes. They have more than 50 flash patterns of different varieties, including sequential flashing, alternate slow and rapid blinking, random flashing, double, triple and quad bursts and in some cases multi-coloured flashing. The lights offer options in the form of standard, low and high intensity modes. Dimmers are also provided for energy efficiency. Steady burn and flash functions are sometimes built into the same LED light heads too.

The inspection of a lightbar cannot be complete without seeing the kind of mounting and installation options that it offers. Bigger light bars are usually permanently mounted using swivel brackets, mounting bolts and clips. Temporary mounting options using magnets are ideal for smaller, portable mini bars used for smaller vehicles. The bail brackets help in adjusting the height as well. Suction cups are also provided in some kits. You need to make sure you have 10 – 15 feet shielded waterproof cables and interconnect wires. Pigtail connectors are provided in some cases. Other paraphernalia in the kit include spare lenses, strobe tubes if required and extra LEDs too.

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