Over the years, LED technology has been transformed and gradually became the lighting standard for the industry, but some people still prefer to use flashtubes today, particularly the Xenon flash tubes.
Is there any difference between LED and Xenon Flash? What are other types of noble gases used for filling lamp? How the Xenon flash lampwork and what are spectral output? What are the primary industries that use Xenon flash lamp?
Haseeb
The introduction of LED technologies paved the path for the development of lighting devices. They are widely used in many applications from street and home lighting to industrial vision or even car lights. Many people still prefer to use Xenon Flashtube today-particularly in case of emergency vehicle lighting, warning signals and strobe illumination due to its advantages, leisure and benefits compared over LEDs.
They are as much energy efficient as LED technologies and can provide better brightness. Despite the continues developments in LED technologies, the Xenon flashtube still remain in the market and is still considered as one of the industry lighting standards.
Xenon Flash lamp filled with Xenon gas, one of the brightest light sources available today. It is an electric arc lamp that works in pulsed mode or produces brief flashes of intense light.
On the other hand, LEDs are semiconductor which acquires the capability of producing lights upon its exposure to current. They usually operate in continues mode.
Xenon flash lamps are the ionised gas lamps which emit light in various spectral lines when the electric current is passed through the tube. Their function similar to that of a neon lamp but only the colour of emitted light is different.
The elementary module of the lamp is the flash tube which is capable of producing an intense, incoherent and short-term white light. Flashtubes consist of glass with both ends of two electrodes filled with a gas. Due to the high voltage present, the Xenon gas ionises and produces a flash of light.
Xenon gas present inside the flashtube ionises due to the high voltage current and emits a flash of light. Typically, the light momentum generally ends for 1/1000 of a second.
A violet coloured light is produced by a Xenon lamp. Some of the Xenon’s other radiation wavelengths are UV, blue, green and IR. The radiation emitted is commensurate with the density. Some of the other used noble filling gas includes Xenon, Krypton, Krypton, Xenon and on occasion the Argon.
Electronics Guru
Xenon Flash lamps are designed to produce instant high power lights for specific industrial and scientific applications.
Scientific applications: They are used in scientific research as stroboscopes. In the automated optical inspection (AOI) system, these are highly efficient light sources.
Industrial applications: Several industries used them in welding, cutting, drilling and marking. Other industrial applications include stroboscope light source, specimen scanner light source, high-speed camera light source, colour analyser and photomask light source.
Medical application: These flash lamps are used in endoscopes and blood test. The high output intensity is enough to illuminate the viewing area, and its continues light output allows clear images to be acquired. Xenon Flash lamps are used in various surgeries such as eyes surgery or kidney stone surgery. They are also used for cosmetic surgeries, i.e. in hair removal, removal of tattoo or skin transformation procedures.
Miscellaneous applications: Xenon flash lamps can also be used in clubs, aircraft anti-collision lighting, TV and radio pylons, stage lighting, alarm systems, high-visibility running lights and in emergency vehicle lighting.
Xenon flash lamps are also an ideal source for solar simulators due to Xenon lamp white light emission similar to sunlight. Solar simulators are used in photochemistry and photobiology research to verify the quality of solar cells and for monitoring material degradation.