Xenon strobe beacons are starting to become more energy efficient by using LED’s rather than a gas filled xenon tube. However the gas filled tube style are still very much available and on the market.
Gas-filled xenon beacons work by storing energy in a capacitor, which then discharges through a low-pressure xenon gas, producing a brief burst of high intensity white light.
What produces a flash?
A traditional xenon strobe beacon produces its flash in 5 steps:
1. The energy storage capacitor connected across the flash tube is charged from the power supply to a voltage.
2. The flash tube should typically remain non-conductive even when the capacitor is fully charged and therefore does not flash.
3. A separate small capacitor is charged from the same power supply to generate a trigger pulse.
4. The pulse generated by this trigger is enough to ionize the xenon gas inside the flash tube.
5. The ionised xenon gas suddenly becomes low resistance and allows the energy stored on the capacitor to discharge through the flash tube, resulting in a short duration, brilliant white light.
What limits their flash rate?
A typical flash duration is from a few milliseconds down to a fraction of a millisecond. For a typical xenon strobe beacon, the trigger circuit includes timing components to generate a repetitive pulse at say, once every second, such that the beacon produces a string of flashes 60 times a minute. Strobes handle slower flash rates easily, but flashing faster has limits – the typical maximum flash rate is 4 flashes per second plus it takes a finite amount of time to charge up the flash capacitor to its maximum voltage. Therefore, most xenon strobe beacons have a maximum flash rate of 3 flashes per second.
The xenon strobe beacon’s flash tube consists of toughened glass with electrodes sealed-in at each end. Various shapes are available such as U or linear. As these flash tubes handle high power density, they must be made of high-temperature resistant materials. Most also include a capacitive trigger electrode – a wire wrapped around the tube of a silver conductive coating on the outside of the glass).
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