subject: Light Bars Started Late And Advanced Fast [print this page] A vehicle, which needs to go faster than the other vehicles on the road to meet some emergency situation, obviously requires some sort of warning mechanism to get that message across to the other vehicles. Over the years, several means have been used for this communication. Of these, light bars are a comparatively late arrival.
Earlier, some of the vehicles relied only on passive warning mechanisms for warning other vehicles. This consisted of bold writing on the vehicle or marking the vehicle with different colors. Later, revolving lights called beacons became very popular as warning lights. Early models of light bars started as a combination of two or more beacons, and stationary lights, on a metal bar.
However, once the basic pattern of light bars was born, its development was very fast. Complete light bars units that contained beacons, mirrors, and sirens started getting mass-produced. Present day models may contain rows of lights, with four or five bi-directional rotators, and transparent polycarbonate lens. In shape also, light bars are variously V shaped, oval, dolphin shaped, or rectangular.
The development of light bars got a lot of impetus after LED lights came to play a dominant role in emergency vehicle lighting. Though incandescent halogen lights are also used in light bars, the brightness of LED lights, and its low maintenance cost, has helped in the production of high quality light bars with wide ranging color intensities and various flash patterns. As LED bulbs have a very long life, manufacturers are able to give long warranties for these modern light bars.
In the earlier models, siren was also incorporated within the light bars dome. Siren has now moved forward to go and sit on the bumper so that light bars have more space to accommodate additional lights. The additional lights that have entered the light bars are takedown lights, alley lights, traffic arrows etc. Of these, takedown lights help in lighting up the vehicle in front, alley lights typically illuminate the alleys on both sides, and traffic arrows are designed to guide traffic on the road by sequential flashing of its amber lights.
Very large light bars are available for use in fire trucks and larger police vehicles. Some are even designed to be raised more than 4' from the top of the vehicle for warning other vehicles on collision possibilities. The light controls provide for easy raising and lowering of the light bars. LED light bars can also be made thin and flat enough to be fitted under a visor to aid in stealth operations. There are also stealth light bars that remain flat atop the vehicle, practically merging with the roof.
Though roof mounted light bars are more common, there are light bars that have back mounting facility as well. It is mainly in large vehicles that light bars are kept back-mounted. These light bars may have brake-turning signals incorporated in it, to make it easier for the vehicles behind. Besides the built-in features that are available for light bars, users can request for fresh features to be added to it, or can do so themselves after purchase.
