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PROFESSIONAL
Rescue Services LEISURE
Caving
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THE UNIQUE NOVA DESIGN
The thermal advantages of Luxeon LEDs (compared to arrays of 5 mm LEDs) are now very well known.
Back in 2000 research at Speleo Technics showed that the high thermal resistance of conventional head torches made them a very poor housing for the new high-powered LED technology. The conventional design with tungsten filament bulbs radiates most of its heat along with the visible light whereas LED heat has to be conducted away. No matter how efficient an internal heatsink it would still be in series with the very high thermal resistance of the plastic shell. Mining type headpieces are effectively limited to a 1 Watt LED before unreliability becomes a serious issue. Sophisticated electronics were also likely to be needed and it was obvious (with our extensive caving experience) that they were unlikely to remain reliable within conventional head torches due to (inevitable) water ingress when used in a caving environment.
Something new was required
At Speleo Technics we have unequalled experience in the field of elastomeric encapsulation. Its water and shock proofing have proven themselves over 25 years of FX light production. It was therefore an obvious candidate for building reliability into an LED head torch. How to remove the heat?
We incorporated a heatsink, which extends beyond the encapsulation and to which the LED is directly attached. Obvious, isn't it! Not at the time. We were the first to be designing in this field and it was highly innovative (see below) The result is a head torch with around 1/5 of the thermal resistance of conventional ones This means that the LED temperature rise is 1/5 of that which would occur in a conventional headpiece We guarantee Nova headpieces to be waterproof to –50 Metres (fresh water). This is in addition to our normal 3 year guarantee Nobody else has achieved this combination of properties
Why doesn’t everybody do it this way? We realised the importance of our invention and took out a patent PCT/GB2003/001699 Speleo Technics is a design led Company and we realised the importance of solid patent cover. We are however actively seeking licensees in other areas Back to LED arrays
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