The Siren Board

Just out of curiosity I would like to know who makes the worlds brightest strobe light? Is there a law that limits the amount of lumens that a strobe can produce?

I have no specs, but out of experience on the road I would say tomar. Tomar Strobes are very effecient. They do not use a fresnel lense. Mine were 2" by 4" linear tube sealed beam strobe units with huge strobe lamps inside. The tube in the bulb must have been 1/4 inch in diameter! The lense was clear and not fresnel but seemed to put light out at every angle. I liked Tomar's stuff. They make a mean LED too.

Whelen is my second choice. They have the fresnel lenses though that seem to knock down some of the light output by spreading it out everywere. Tomar's optics delivered the light in a more focused beam.

My favorite company for patterns and looks has to be Whelen with its simple low profile design. Tomar just looks ugly. Like a huge shoe box on the roof. Whelen has a selection of cool attention getting patters. Tomar just uses an alternating five flash pattern that is very boreing. With the bright lights and constant light output, Tomar can be blinding too.

The strobes used on some radio towers and runway guidance lights are extremely bright; many times brighter than the brightest vehicular mounted strobes (although some used on the towers are the same). I'm unsure of the power draw or specs on those, but I know Whelen makes the ones for radio towers.

holler wrote:Is there a law that limits the amount of lumens that a strobe can produce?

Unless you asked someone in the know or dug though pages and pages of legislation, you might be hard pressed to find an answer. I'd be guessing that there's some hidden rule that strobe lights for emergency vehicles may not be brighter than high-beam driving lights.

Paul from J. Marcoz might know...

There's no law on it that I'm aware of, but you wont be able to find anything that bright made for a vehicle.

A consensus standard such as an ANSI or SAE standard might have a limit, and many states adopt these by reference. In other words, there may be an indirect restriction.

Honeywell is one of the more widely known companies that make the very high intensity strobe lights found on radio towers and runways Instrument Approach Lighting systems around the world. Also, some of the wing mounted strobes that commercial aircraft used are ptretty bright. Both Honeywell and Whelen are the major players in this field too.