Metal Halide & Sodium Lamps

A lamp symbolizes the light of dignity with wisdom. Lamps are also a symbol of guidance. There are various devices that produce light or sometimes heat such as a lamp, a device which is made up of an electric bulb together with its fitting and shade of cover.

Characteristics:

There are many characteristics of a good lamp such as intensity should be equal to +/-10% which totally depends on batch, the voltage should be equal to 20/21 Volts which is fully rated voltage, the color temperature should be 3100 to 3400’K, mean light should be 42 to 6000hour and many more.

Types

There are many types of lamps like:
• Incandescent lamps
• Tungsten lamps
• Halogen lamps
• Fluorescent lamps
• Compact fluorescent lamps
• Mercury Vapour lamps
• Metal Halide lamps
• High-pressure sodium vapour lamp
• Low-pressure sodium vapour lamp
• LED lamps

When we check a detailed description of metal halide lamps then we find that it’s a type of high intensity, discharge gas, discharge lamps which produces light through an electric arc by a gaseous mixture of vapourized mercury and metal halide.

The common metal halide compound which is used to make metal halide lamp is Sodium Iodide. The lamp consists of a fused, quartz, or ceramic are a tube that contains gas that is enclosed inside a larger glass bulb coated to filter out the ultraviolet light.

Uses:

Metal Halide used for general lighting purpose both indoor and outdoor, automobile headlight which is commonly known as Zenon headlamps and for indoor growing applications who needs a high-intensity light source for their corals.

Metal Halide lamps are quite versatile and they can be also used for a wide range of lightning. It is also known for its natural white light.

Metal Halide is made up of an arc tuber with electrodes in an outer bulb and a base.

Its color depends upon the type of metal halide salt which is used to make the lamp.

Function

Metal halide technology works by a passing electrical current by a mix of gasses, creating light. The bulb is made up of two primary parts namely: inner arc tube and outer bulb. When the lamp is off, the mercury and metal halide salts are liquidized inside the inner arc tube.

There are two electrodes are on each end of the inner arc tube. When current passes the lamp from the electrode to the other electrode it heats the mercury and metal halide salts content in the inner arc tube, converts it to gas, and their atoms move away from the electrical are by which they create light. This is why it takes 1 to 15 minutes to warm up a metal halide lamp.

Sodium vapour is a type of electrical lamp consisting of a glass tube containing neon and sodium vapour at low pressure in an excited state to produce orange light at a wavelength near 589nm. Basically, there are two varieties of such lamps namely
• Low-pressure sodium lamps
• High-pressure Sodium lamps

These lamps are used in street lighting, industrial lighting, and specialized manufacturing facilities which are used for plant growth. They contain mercury. They are also used as outdoor area lights such as on roadways, parking lots, securities areas. These lamps are some of the best efficient lamps in the world. They are very efficient in turning 1 watt of power into a whopping to 100lumens.

Characteristics:

Low-Pressure Sodium lamps have a borosilicate glass gas arc tube that contains solid sodium, a small amount of neon, and argon gas in a Penning mixture to start the gas arc. These arc tubes may be linear or U- shaped. When lamps start, it emits the dim red/pink light to heat the sodium metal and after a few minutes when sodium metal vaporizes the emission becomes the bright yellow color. The sodium vapour process is also referred to as a yellow screen, a film technique realize on narrow bond characteristics of Low-Pressure Sodium Lamps.

The color negative film is typically not sensitive to the yellow light from low power sodium lamps but especially black and white film is able to record.

Low-Pressure Sodium Lights has consistently maintained its invincible position as the most efficient light shows available on the Earth, but in recent years a slow decline shows in its market as many countries in the vicinity of important auto-nominal observation in the view of greatly reduced light pollution it causes.

Low-Pressure Sodium Lamps and High-Pressure Sodium Lamps belong to high-intensity discharge lamps that produce light by exciting gases and vapourizes metal with the use of current for exciting them to produce light.

During a research, it was observed that as yellow surroundings provided by a Low-Pressure Sodium Lamps installation enhanced the noticeability of arc head directional science lighted with color contrast sources. It is commonly used as outdoor lightning because the yellow color does not attract insects but it also distorts.

High-Pressure Sodium Vapour Lamps are quite similar to Low-Pressure Sodium Vapour Lamps as they both are a type of gas discharge light. The tube is made up of aluminum oxide and sodium metal is combined with many other elements like necessary which balance the yellow glass color with some white to light blue color emissions.

Deficiencies in This Lighting:-

• Sodium vapour light has the worst color rendering on the lamps market particularly Low-Pressure Sodium Lamps which are monochromatic it means that the object was eliminated by them because of shadowy black color appearances rather than the color you would see during sunlight.

• Sodium vapour light requires a warm-up time period. Once the arc is ignited it melts and evaporates sodium metal salts to the device was light doesn’t arrive at full power until the salts are fully evaporated into plasma.

These lights are very reliable and efficient for industrial and other purposes. One needs to make a smart choice according to the needs and feasibility.