Technology

The CapLamps.co.uk range represents many years R&D by the manufacturers, and the products themselves combine solid, high quality engineering with the latest LED lighting technology and lithium-ion and lithium-ion polymer battery chemistries.

LED Lighting Technology

Light emitting diodes (LEDs) are a semi-conductor lighting technology. Introduced in the 1960s, early LEDs emitted low-intensity red light and were typically used as panel indicator lights. Modern LEDs are available across the visible, ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths, with very high brightness and are used in a wide range of applications, from torches, to car lights, to domestic lighting.

LEDs present many advantages over incandescent light sources including lower energy consumption, longer lifetime, improved robustness, smaller size and greater durability and reliability. For mining caplamps and safety lamps the benefits of LEDs include:

• Lower energy consumption: LEDs use far less power when compared to incandescent bulbs, meaning we can provide lamps with 12 hours continual run-time weighing less than 1/7 of traditional lead-acid lamps.
• Long life: the working life of an LED is typically around 100,000 hours; that's 11.5 years of continuous light, day and night. Most filament bulbs expire after just 1,000 hours and often far less if subjected to any impact.
• Robust: the filament in a normal bulb is a very fragile object, easily broken by a sudden shock or jolt. An LED is encased in virtually unbreakable high strength optical grade resin. There is no glass or filament to break, making LED light sources perfect for rugged or demanding environments.
• Cost of ownership: the long life and reliability of LED light sources reduces maintenance costs, especially in large installations.
• Safety: the low level of heat produced and low voltages used by LEDs make them a far safer source of light. No glass to break, no hot filament, no gas and no noxious fumes. The intrinsic toughness and reliability of LED light sources mean that they are less likely to fail at the times when you need them most (usually in an emergency), thereby raising the user's level of personal safety and security.

Lithium-ion (Li-ion or LiIon) Battery Technology

Lithium-ion (Li-ion) is a type of rechargeable battery in which lithium ions move from the negative electrode to the positive electrode during discharge, and reversely when charging. Different types of lithium-ion batteries use different chemistry and have different performance, cost, and safety characteristics.

Lithium-ion batteries are common in consumer electronics, with one of the best energy-to-weight ratios, no memory effect, and a slow loss of charge when not in use. In addition to uses for consumer electronics, lithium-ion batteries are growing in popularity for defence, automotive, and aerospace applications due to their high energy density.

Lithium-ion Polymer (Li-Po or LiPo) Battery Technology

Lithium-ion polymer batteries are technological evolution from lithium-ion batteries. The primary difference is that the lithium-salt electrolyte is not held in an organic solvent but in a solid polymer composite such as polyethylene oxide or polyacrylonitrile.

The advantages of lithium-ion polymer over the lithium-ion design include adaptability to a wide variety of packaging shapes and ruggedness.

Lithium Iron Phosphate Li-FePO₄ Battery Technology

The latest innovation in LED mining lamps Li-FePO₄ offer the energy density, weight and size benefits of Li-ion but are proven to be far safer in critical situations; coupled with a working life of 1,000 charging cycles, double that of other battery types.