Any research being done on HO incans?

[Welding Rod]

I have several good lights, all Surefires, including LED models and a M6. I like the intensity the HO incans offer.

Anyone know if Surefire is still putting any research into advancing incan technology, or is it pretty much considered obsolete?

 

[Monocrom]

Surefire has (sadly) put a hold on R&D into upgrading inca technology, in favor of concentrating on LED technology.

 

[knightrider]

Maybe when battery chemistry gets better? Longer runtime, more capacity, reliability, etc. I doubt that they will come back to improving incandescent but I can hope! The A2 seems to be the furthest the incandescent went with SF.

 

[Cydonia]

Good question. It seems AW with his multi mode hotwire mod switch and upcoming regulated hotwire driver switch (for Maglite mods) is the only one doing development on anything new at the moment into incan driver designs. As for the actual bulbs I would have thought from all my reading here that if some method or technology were economically viable it has been done already. I would think companies like Welch Allyn and others have gone deep into what is possible already.

 

[lctorana]

HO?

Is this

• a 1:87 scale model of a torch?
• a vietnamese torch?
• a Ford V8 muscle torch?

H for Halogen. O for...

...Oxygen? surely not
...Osram?

No, I give up.

 

[adamlau]

HO = High Output .

 

[lctorana]

Thanx.

That would have done my head in all night.

 

[js]

SureFire isn't doing any research or developement of incans, but there are companies out there who are doing some amount of R&D. It's small comared to the R&D being expended on CFL, LED, HID, etc., but it's still happening.

What would be interesting would be to see a production incan based on the Osram IRC technology. IRC = Infrared Reflective Coating. It lets the visible light pass through the envelope, but reflects the heat back towards the filament. This results in a 25 perecent (or more) increase in efficiency, depending on what filament lifetime you are aiming for. Right now the Osram IRC lamps are 12V, which need significantly over 12V to be driven to levels that we here on CPF like, e.g. 3200K CCT. So this is impractical, or at least an issue. If we could get Osram to make a 6V IRC lamp, with an eye towards over-driving and the resulting heat-management issues that might arrise, we could come up with an incan that would achieve over 40 LPW instead of 30 LPW, and with decent filament lifetime to boot (50+ hours instead of 15 or 20).

But even that just doesn't compare to LED and HID efficiency, so what company would bother? Incandescent technology isn't obsolete yet, and is still quite useful in certain situations, but it's an outmoded technology that is destined to fade away unless some startling new improvement comes along to rescue it from that fate. Which is possible, of course, but unlikely. Even if there is such an advance waiting in the wings, we won't find it unless we look for it--and no one is looking that hard for any such advance.

In other words, the short answer to this question is: NO.

 

[SureAddicted]

I really hope this isn't the case. As long as they still release the incan models, we will/should be able to get replacement parts for them. This isn't always the case though, for some strange reason they aren't manufacturing the E2E BK bezel anymore, and it was on the market only 3-4 years ago. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come.

 

[Monocrom]

I really hope this isn't the case. As long as they still release the incan models, we will/should be able to get replacement parts for them. This isn't always the case though, for some strange reason they aren't manufacturing the E2E BK bezel anymore, and it was on the market only 3-4 years ago. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come.

I know it's small comfort for some, but at least with Surefire incas; you can usually find good aftermarket LED drop-ins for them.

20 years down the road, it won't be as though your favorite inca Surefire will be collecting dust on the shelf due to a lack of no-longer-made inca bulbs.

Let's be honest, we all know PK is working on an LED drop-in for the M6.

 

[jtr1962]

The two basic areas where LED falls short of incandescent thus far have been output and lack of red in the spectrum (the rest of the LED spectrum is pretty decent). The former is largely being overcome with the new 4-die LEDs from Cree and Seoul. I'm sure we'll eventually have single-die LEDs giving us at least 1000 or 1500 lumens. Color rendering is finally starting to get some serious R&D dollars as witnessed by LEDs like the Nichia 083. After all, if LED hopes to seriously penetrate the general lighting market, it's going to need to show reds decently. My guess is within a year or two LED matches incandescent for red output but is better overall because it also renders cool colors better. And output per emitter will get into the same ballpark as 30 to 50 watt HO incandescent. In short, I agree with js that incan is not yet obsolete but will slowly fade away much like 8 track tapes, CRTs, and also mechanical hard disks. Like I've said in other threads already, incan had a great run. Well over 100 years is nothing to be ashamed of. Few technologies last that long before being replaced by something better. What it's being replaced by is essentially the holy grail of lighting. Solid state lighting, of which LED is but a small part, has the potential to tune the spectrum to whatever we wish, perhaps even using a single emitter, and at the same time can offer efficiencies near 100% in theory (in practice probably 75% within a decade, 90% within two).

 

[js]

SureFire will continue to support its incandescent lights for many years to come. Heck, you can still buy a 6P for crying out loud! The HA-BK stuff was always a specialty thing, so it's not unexpected that they wouldn't keep parts on hand for every single special run, like a purple A2 or something.

But short of that, you'll be able to buy parts for your SF incans for a long time to come. It doesn't hurt to stock up on spare LA's right now, though, just in case.

 

[FredM]

I don't understand why everyone accepts unregulated incan lights. Imagine if all of the C series incans or something now were regulated.

It would be so awesome.

 

[js]

FredM,

Indeed it would be! But not if it meant that SF went out of business. Incans are fast becoming a niche market in high end flashlights. Just not enough of a market for the regulated SF incans to support the R&D and product development that would have been necessary. Just feel lucky we have the A2.