AirLamp.....New? Well, new to me anyway

zespectre · Oct 26, 2013

Some web wandering brought me to the "Wolf Safety Lamp Company" with some serious intrinsically safe equipment for use in hazardous environments. Fascinating stuff all by itself but then I clicked into the "Airlamp" section.

What the heck is an "Airlamp"?

"Wolf ATEX Turbolite lamps are high power compressed air driven units for use in potentially explosive atmospheres. With a safety record of 75 years, Wolf Airlamps are one of the safest high power portable lamps for hazardous areas.

Used extensively in the petrochemical, oil and marine industries, Wolf Airlamps provide illumination in many applications including shotblasting, cleaning and coating of storage tanks and vessels, and for pipeline and structural engineering activities, offering a safer alternative to mains and low voltage lighting where explosive atmospheres present a serious risk to the workforce.

The Turbolite is powered, purged, pressurised and cooled by compressed air controlled by an integral regulator, which passes through the lamp head and drives the turbine wheel by means of three nozzle plates. The turbine drives a magnet rotor within windings, generating the 24 Volt ac electrical supply which powers the 250 Watt halogen bulb."

Wow, I thought that was pretty darned cool!

However...looking at the lux ratings and so forth I couldn't help but think that these people were severely behind the curve in terms of light levels. Can you imagine how hard you could push some of our LED arrays if you also had a steady stream of cooling air being pushed over the heat sinks?!?

gravelmonkey · Oct 26, 2013

I spotted those on their website a few years back, I think the whole purged and pressurised housing and generator turbine thing is awesome! Never seen any in use (where would you get an ATEX camera from?!). I've always assumed active cooling isn't more common in LED flashlights because of the additional power draw and the difficulty in waterproofing.

AirLamp.....New? Well, new to me anyway

zespectre

Flashlight Enthusiast

gravelmonkey

Enlightened

Similar threads

Latest posts