incandescent bulb drop tests

[turbodog]

I started this thread to talk about incad bulbs and blowing when being dropped.

My basic idea is that the higher power bulbs (magcharger/stinger/surefire) are harder to kill since they use thicker filaments. Whereas the lower ones (stock mag/etc) blow on impact easier due to thinner filaments.

Now, in about 20 years of using lights, I have had bulbs blow so few times I have a hard time actually remembering it. What I can rememeber is lots of times I have dropped lights and not had them blow. I am actually quite prone to throwing my mag charger as a projectile, and have done so several times onto my garage floor and have it slide till it slammed into the brick wall. No problems noted except scuff marks...

Use a stock stinger also a lot as well. No problems with it either.

All in all, I have had more bulbs blow right off the charger than any other time I think.

 

[Ray_of_Light]

Turbodog,
watch carefully at the beam shape BEFORE and AFTER you throw the light...
Bulbs with G4 base are among the most reliable, since their filament usually do not go off center. PR base bulbs are the worst.
There is a reason for this behavior: many bulbs uses a "spacer" to keep the filament "legs" in place; this "spacer", that looks like a coloured glass blob, is necessary to avoid too fat legs for the filament, preventing it from unnecessary cooling. At same time, it makes the bulb prone to produce an off center beam, even for minimal drops.

Just as an example, look at P60 and P61 bulbs from Surefire. The former has the blob, the latter, not. If I drop my Z2 with P60 on the wrong side, the beam pattern is deformed. This is not true of the same Z2 when I use the P61.

Hope this helps...

Anthony

 

[Bullzeyebill]

I know that Streamlight LA's hold up very well in drop tests, also GB bulbs. They advertise "hard glass" halogen bulbs, as opposed to quartz halogen. Also, an SL repair tech told me that the halogen LA's hoding up better than the zenon bulb (Stinger series), and that some LE preferred halogen to xenon for that purpose.

Bill

 

[Size15's]

In my experience of [abusive] field-testing of SureFires, the High Output Lamp Assemblies survive drops and such far better then the standard bulbs which have in some cases suffered from deformation of the filament which will defocus the beam to various extents.

This is one of the reasons why I suggest that the P61 and MN11/MN16 bulbs are used. SureFire's standard output lamps tend to be longer thinner (curved) filaments compared to the high output lamps which tend to have shorter, fatter straighter filaments.

It is unusual in my experience for SureFires filaments to break when dropped. I have had more instances of multiple drops and throws causing the filaments to deform or in two cases, the Pyrex lens cracking.

The most stable SureFire lamp (most abuse-resistant) in my experience has been the P61.

Al