LED application in navigation light

LED navigation light is a new type of navigation light that has been widely promoted in recent years and is receiving more and more attention from the maritime sector. It is important to choose and use LED navigation lights properly. In addition to the application of LED light sources for planar applications to guide lamps, bridges and slewing lamps, more LED beacons are used in circumferential applications. At present, the definition of LED navigation light parameters by the navigation manufacturers of the world still uses the two indicators of light intensity and vertical divergence angle of the exit surface.

When used as a light source, LED monolithic devices usually have a certain angle of view, that is, to ensure the light intensity within a predetermined viewing angle range, and the intensity outside the viewing angle is greatly attenuated, and the light intensity/angle of view characteristic curve indicates that the LED single body The device is a directional light source, rather than an omnidirectional point source in a 4-dimensional angular space. A ring-shaped beacon light made with an LED device has a lens different from that of a conventional point source lens.

For LED ring beacons, LEDs are a special source of light. The LED monolithic device itself has a small optical lens. The lens concentrates the point source on the semiconductor chip into a beam of a solid angle, and outputs a nominal intensity within a nominal solid angle. For example, an LED device with a 30° solid angle, that is, a nominal light intensity is output at a solid angle of 30°, and when it exceeds 30°, the light intensity is attenuated relatively quickly. The LED ring-direction beacon light is to evenly arrange the LED devices with a certain angle of view on the circumference of a certain diameter. If we circle the circumference of the LED device, the LED ring is specially designed for the direction of the beacon light. A Fresnel lens is a special lens that uses the circumference of the illumination as the focal point of the lens; the focal length of the distance between the circumference of the illumination and the surface of the lens. Comparing the LED ring-direction beacon light with the conventional single-cone Fennel lens beacon lamp, the difference is that the lens focus of the former is at the center of the lens, and the latter is on the circumference of the illumination.

1. LED navigation light has good leveling light distribution characteristics

The leveling light index is generally expressed by the quasi-light distribution characteristic curve, which can visually see its peak-to-valley value on multiple concentric circles, and can determine the peak-to-valley percentage by precise positioning on the coordinates. In general, the closer the peak to the valley value, the better the level of optical rotation performance. The beacon light with excellent leveling characteristics has a peak-to-valley value of 10% or less.

2, LED beacon lights can use advanced drive circuit

Modern LED beacon lights must have high conversion efficiency drive circuit (usually using switching power supply), high-precision flash cycle with software; self-test circuit and intelligent control circuit with standard computer serial port, which can be easily connected Into various types of telemetry remote control systems or AIS systems.

3. LED navigation light has high light/electric conversion efficiency

LED beacon lights, under the same power, same divergence angle, the higher the light intensity value, the higher the light/electric conversion efficiency, the more power-saving in use. There are many ways to improve the efficiency of optical/electrical conversion, but mainly to design reasonable control and power drive circuits.

4, LED navigation lights have a good overall machine performance

The LED beacon light can be made into a water-tight structure of the whole lamp because it eliminates the mechanical moving parts of the conventional bubble changer. When the whole watertight structure is adopted, even if the entire navigation light is immersed in water, in addition to normal operation, remote monitoring can be realized by a non-contact method.

LED beacon lights can also be widely used in coastal and inland navigation aids, and can also be used as high-altitude obstacle lights and oil-plated explosion-proof lamps.