High-elevated runway lighting units are required to be highly dependable in harsh environments amidst severe weather conditions, and must be compliant with highly safety standardized dimensions in aviation. These high specific luminaires have sound engineering features, which afford them ability to tackle environmental adversities, and still deliver.
Extreme Temperature Resistance
Runway lights are subjected to extreme temperature changes, as low as -40degrees to 60degrees C in different climatic conditions. The housing has aircraft aluminum alloys and heat and cold stagnant seals that block ingress of condensation yet ensues heat degassing of LED modules. There are wide-temperature capacitors and conformal coated circuit boards in internal components that ensure electrical stability in the case of a rapid thermal cycle.
Corrosion Protection Systems
Installations localized at the coast or having a high humidity need multi-level protection:
- Marine-grade stainless steel fittings
- Salt spray resistant powder-coated surfaces greater than 1000 hours
- Optical chambers pressure-filled with nitrogen that does not allow internal corrosion
- Sacrificial anode protection of buried metal parts
Impact and Vibration Resilience
Severe mechanical stress is put on fixtures by jet blast and the service vehicles. Designs incorporate:
- Polycarbonate lenses 10J impact rating
- Shock reform mounting system
- Compartment Vibration-dampened LED assemblies
- Cable terminations with strain-relief
Optical Performance Maintenance
Optics that are precision engineered guarantee regular distribution of light in spite of environmental obstacles:
- Self cleaning lens coatings minimize ice/snow build-up
- Preventing intrusion by dirt into optical openings, there are hermetically sealed optical chambers
- Heating elements keep clean light exit faces in precipitation
- UV-stabilized materials are used to avoid yellow discoloration with the passage of time
Power System Reliability
This harsh environment requires heavy duty electric design:
- Up to 10kV surge protection
- Waterproof connector with IP67 standard
- Dual insulated wiring systems
- Constant-current drivers Wide voltage input
Such design factors support high runway lights that provide maintenance-free service life of over 50 000 hours even in the harshest conditions that the world has to offer. The combination of long-life target materials, safeguarding technologies and easy maintenance features enables lighting subsystems that reflect the toughest safety demands of the aviation industry as well as a low life-cycle cost.
