Subscribeatg airports are pleased to announce that further developments in LED Technology now enable the ICAO CAT III Taxiway centreline offset and curved applications to be achieved.
A breed of more powerful 3-watt LED arrays can now be installed in the ZA280 inset taxiway fixture. By increasing the LED power from 3 to 9 watts per direction can provide the additional light required for these more demanding specifications.
The ZA280 will now be offered with either 1watt LED arrays for straight sections or the 3-watt LED's arrays for the offset and straight applications.
To manage these more powerful LED's has provided additional challenges to the thermal aspects of the design. The LED arrays are mounted on a insulated metal substrate with superior thermal qualities that ensures that the maximum operating temperature of the LED's are not exceeded even in hot climates.
Recent testing for FAA type approval showed that these LED devices could withstand prolonged operation at temperatures of 55 degrees centigrade with minimal degradation of the light performance. At temperatures below freezing additional resistor heaters can be added as an option to remove ice and snow from the optical surfaces and thus ensuring the safe operation of atg airports LED products over a range of temperatures.
In existing AGL installations, the new 3 watt LED arrays based ZA280LED fixture may be operated from the atg airports Power convertor the ZL836 which matches the dimming performance of the LED's with the existing Tungsten Halogen current response. The ZL836 is an interface constant current device that is installed between a conventional Airfield Ground Light Transformer and the LED Airfield Light by a secondary lead of up to a length of 100 metres.
The ZL836 also features a field switch options that can be enabled or inhibited by a separate 48V DC supply and thus can be used as an interlocking control circuit for the stop bar and taxiway centre line lead on lights.
As LED Technology gains further acceptance in to airfield ground lighting equipment it is expected that eventually that AGL LED based fixtures will be operated directly from isolating transformers and field switches without the need for any interfacing electronics, the intermediate brilliancy levels being created from different current levels. atg airports already has a range of transformers that can meet this role in preparation for such new LED based lighting schemes.
The introduction of higher power LED's into the curved and offset taxiway centreline applications is an exciting development for the Airfield Ground light Industry as it signals the potential step to the introduction of LED's in to runway applications such as the elevated threshold or elevated end and eventually the complete runway.
For further information, please contact: products@atgairports.com