NASHVILLE. Light maker Optronics International introduced two new products at the 2015 Technology & maintenance Council (TMC) annual meeting: the light emitting-diode (LED) based “SuperLamp” and the “LampLock” anti-theft lighting system designed primarily for intermodal equipment.
Brett Johnson, president and CEO of Optronics, said the company spent two years developing its new “SuperLamp” LED – one he touted as a “super-tough, super-long-lasting” lamp that offers extreme chemical and ultraviolet (UV) ray resistance that allows the “true promise of lifetime LED lighting” to be fulfilled.
The four-inch round LED SuperLamp (seen at right) stop/tail/turn lamp is built to withstand assaults on its internal electrical components even as a specially-formulated coating and bonding system protects its exterior lens and housing, Johnson noted.
“The electronic circuitry within today’s LED lamps is vulnerable,” he explained, which is why Optronics undertook a wholesale “redesign” of the basic LED stop/turn/tail lamp to make its electronics immune to the effects of transient voltage, electromagnetic interference (EMI) and electrostatic discharge (ESD).
Johnson added that Optronics testing the exterior housing of the new “SuperLamp” against the caustic effects of 45 different fluids and chemicals, including six fuels (such as a diesel), nine lubricants, 11 operating fluids, and 15 caustic cleaning agents.
Optronics even subjected its new “SuperLamp” to a 10 minutes “gravel bombardment” test to prove out the resilience of its exterior coating, Johnson added.
The lamps also feature solid-state, surface-mount device (SMD) technology that will allow the LEDs to continue to function even if the unprotected circuit board is completely submerged in water, he said.
The LED SuperLamp meets all FMVSS 108 photometric requirements for visibility and safety, and each lamp will come with a lifetime warranty, Johnson noted, with four-inch round grommet-mount red and amber lamps and six-inch oval red and amber lamps will be introduced first, followed by flange-mount versions.
Johnson noted that Optronics developed its new “LampLock” anti-theft offering for trailer lights (seen at right) in part due to research by an Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) task force that determined in a report last April that the four largest intermodal equipment operators spent over $13.5 million in 2013 to replace and repair over 1 million damaged or stolen stop/turn/tail trailer lamps.
“The intermodal chassis industry won’t switch to LED technology until there’s adequate protection against lamp protection,” Johnson said.
Thus after nine months of development, Optronics plans to roll out its “LampLock” system primarily as an aftermarket upgrade.
The system is comprised of a specially designed single-diode LED lamp, an integrated anti-theft ring and a foam rubber gasket. In the case of the four-inch round lamp, an available locking PL-3 receptacle grips the connector plug body, increasing resistance to detachment due to shock and vibration, the company noted.
“It’s clear that vanishing lights is a big problem for intermodal carriers, and this issue has plagued fleets and owner-operators within the shipping industry for years,” Johnson noted. “So the customer directive is simple: they want a lamp that, once installed, is impossible to remove without being destroyed.”
