Vertical beam width challenges

Sales director Jeff Gibson said that while higher intensities of light can be achieved by reducing the vertical beam width, this can create other problems.

Once vessels are out the beam of precision sector lights, the light is lost so it “is important that the observer always remains well within the beam,” he said.

“While it can be tempting to reduce the beam width to increase the light’s intensity and better performance on paper, it can significantly restrict the visibility of the light across the range of users,” he warned.

Case study

The Hydrosphere team recently had the chance to talk about the importance of beam width. It was invited to comment on the use of a precision sector light down to 400m where a narrow divergence product was being considered.

To achieve this with this product, the light would need to be very close to the eye level of the observer which caused multiple issues.

A tower measuring 25m clear of the water would have been needed. This tower would need to be a rigid structure as very little movement is acceptable when working with narrow beams.

Additionally, the cost of installation and servicing would be greater due to the height of the structure and the solution would have been useless for smaller vessels as they would be below the beam at short range.

Hydrosphere will be exhibiting at Seawork on stand PY69.

By Rebecca Jeffrey