NAVAIDS

See Sealite’s latest lantern at Seawork

16 years ago

At the beginning of 2009, Seawork 2010 exhibitor Sealite undertook a research and development program into the next generation of long range LED lanterns. This year sees the culmination of these efforts with the release of the Apollo-155 lantern series, an engineering accomplishment encompassing the latest in LED and optical research, electronics and thermal management.

Sealite’s new Apollo-155 lantern series offers range adjustable from 4 to 12 nautical miles.

The Apollo-155 offers extraordinary range which is adjustable from 4 – 12nm+ and is available with optional monitoring systems such as GPS, GSM, RF and AIS. This lantern is claimed to be the only single tiered lantern able to be sectored accurately in multi-colours and the only LED lantern able to operate as a rotating beacon.

Sealite founder and managing director Jeff Procter,commented on the complex arrangement of skills needed to produce the product. ‘It was all carried out internally with our mechanical, optical, hardware and software engineers. In addition, unique tooling was developed for the heat sink and lens die, considered a world first in its own right.’

Sealite’s in-house engineers custom designed a sophisticated thermal management system which has been incorporated into the Apollo-155. This complex aluminium extrusion is used as a heat sink for the 16 ultra-high intensity LEDs and LED driver board. Any heat generated is quickly dissipated through the cooling fins, maintaining the optimal temperature threshold of the LEDs.

The 16 segment, multi-focus lens of the Apollo-155 has 32 optical elements controlling the light emissions from the LED in a two dimensional manner. The 16x LEDs in each lens cover 45° horizontally and either 5° (as standard) or 10° vertically.

The Apollo-155 has been designed to accurately sector to 1° increments providing complete flexibility to suit most installation requirements. For example, 183° RED, 183° WHITE and 15° RED all in the one tier.

Sealite’s next generation software allows each individual LED to be controlled separately, enabling the LEDs to be activated in sequence to create a rotating beacon.

Sealite’s PC Interface allows the user to set every aspect of the Apollo-155 in exacting detail by connecting the lantern to a PC and using Sealite’s software to load the features required onto the lantern before installation. Some of these features include the ability to set the pulse shape of individual LEDs to mimic the incandescent globes these lights will replace, program the intensity and flash code of each individual LED, custom sectoring and the ability to set the Apollo-155 to become a rotating beacon.