CausesofLightingFailure

The Eight Major Causes Of Safety Lighting Failures & How To Prevent Them

1. CORROSION

Cause      

• Corrosion is the results of water, dirt and other environmental elements of the road and surrounding conditions.

Solutions

• Corrosions around the bulb sockets cannot approach the bulb when it is sealed within a lamp housing; such as Grote’s standard and U.S. Series lighting products.
    
• To further protect against corrosion, all electrical wiring connections should be sealed against moisture with a non-conductive, non-sodium based grease. Areas like electrical contacts, circuit switches and junction boxes. The purpose of this sealant is to totally encapsulate the area to protect it from the elements.

1. SHOCK & VIBRATION/FILAMENT BURNOUT

Cause

• The constant road pounding caused when a tractor/trailer or truck is traveling down a highway is a major cause of shock & vibration. This causes filaments in the bulb to weaken and prematurely break.

Solutions

• Install a lamp designed with shock-mounted mechanisms to cradle the bulb and absorb the effects of shock and vibration that otherwise would be transferred directly to fragile bulb filaments.
    
• Advanced technology today includes baseless bulbs that are suspended and thus able to endure heavy-duty applications much more that the traditional S-8 non-shock -mounted bulb units or the standard J-slot bulb socket.
    
• The overall solution to eliminate shock and filament vibration problems is to upgrade the system to a complete Grote LED technology system which eliminates all filament concerns.

1. INADEQUATE WIRING & CABLE

Cause

• Cutting and splicing, or the merging of varying harness and wiring systems that are not designed to work together - thus breaking the system’s modularity.
    
• Trying to cut costs with varying systems or scrimping on product quality.

Solutions

• Suitable wiring can have a positive effect on product life and cost reduction. For example - a sealed waterproof wiring harness system, like the Grote Ultra-Blue-Seal™, should be selected based on the electrical load of the vehicle, applications and with regard to avoiding excessive voltage fluctuation. A larger gauge wire than required can be used in any circuit for minimal additional cost while at the same time offering reliable results.
    
• The quality of the wire is very important. Stranded copper wire, which has a greater capacity to conduct electricity should be preferred. Galvanic action can form oxides at crimp connections in aluminum wire limiting its ability to carry current. Copper wire can resist heat better than aluminum wire in the case of short circuits, thereby reducing the possibility of fire.
    
• There are harness systems available that exceed industry standards, eliminate troublesome splices, seal out the elements, provide a common ground and last the life of a trailer.
    
• Grote offers the widest variety of overall industry solutions in Grote UBS™ harness, Econo-Harness, Voltmizer harness and the industry’s future answer in male-pin harnessing.

1. EXCESSIVE VOLTAGE

Cause

• Excessive voltage is always a difficult problem for bulb life. It has been determined that as many as 60% of bulb failures are not in fact as they appear. Such deceptive indications have been the result of problems in the wiring system, either due to poor grounding or a problem inherent to the electrical system itself, that has produced a voltage surge and affected the lighting system.

Solutions

• Voltage should be checked regularly to insure the vehicle is operating within a safe range.
    
• Only one volt beyond the designed voltage will reduce the expected life of a bulb filament by more than 50%.
    
• An application solution is to bring down the overall power consumption of your entire system. This can also be accomplished by utilizing the power economy levels of LED lighting.

1. POOR GROUNDING

Cause

• Open chassis grounding to elements.
• Inefficient ground secure.

Solutions

• Installing a lighting product and harness system that uses an internal ground will help assure an absolute ground - forever. Grote’s UBS "elbow" actually offers a back-up grounding system for a ground return (continuous) system if there is internal problems.
    
• This internal ground also helps to eliminate rust and corrosion associated with chassis grounds.

1. LOSS OF BULB CONTACT

Cause

• In the traditional S-8 non-shock-mounted bulb units and the standard J-slot bulb socket, loss of contact is caused by corrosion and/or loss of spring tension.

Solution

• With the inception of the sealed baseless bulb lamp and soldered connections, product life is further enhanced.
    
• Grote’s bulb cradle mount system helps to alleviate shock and vibration that negatively affects the bulb. The shock-mount cradle system allows the bulb to move with the vibration impact.
    
• Again the overall solution to loss of bulb contact due to socket area is to make the move to LED technology which has no bulbs, no filaments, no internal wiring connections and is completely sealed.

1. PHYSICAL DAMAGE

Cause

• No protection to a lamp in an open area
    
• Heat generation with no method to dissipate the heat.
    
• Housing or lenses made of  inexpensive plastic compounds.

Solutions

• A super-tough high-impact plastic that’s impervious to heat generated by the bulb and damage resulting from typical use answers this problem.
    
• Lexan™ based lenses offer additional security against physical damage.
    
• Both lenses and lamp housings should be manufactured of a space-age plastic. Using recessed mounts and branch deflector designs further protect lamps from impact damage.
   
• Lighting guards are also perfect protects for the physical lamp, like Grote's offering  for our thinline LED markers.
    
• The anodized aluminum housing found on Grote’s 4" LED is also a method to dissipate the heat into the trailer, offer some security against theft and to withstand the impact before the lens or internal diodes.

1. ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS FOR THE FUTURE

• Studies have shown that when sealed cradle-shock-mounted bulbs and lighting devices are used along with sealed wiring harness systems, product life can be extended as much as 20 times beyond traditional unsealed bulb units in heavy-duty truck and tractor/trailer applications. That number increases exponentially when you move up even further and use both LED and male pin harness/lighting technology.
    
• Using an original equipment part that last the life of the vehicle, or Aftermarket product like the Grote LED which is warrantied for the life of the trailer, or alternatively requires little attention and minor cost after initial purchase, should be everyone’s goal.
    
• Technology is readily available today to design and produce lighting products that can offer 500,00 miles (800,000Km) and even more, of maintenance free service - and today given the implications of demand for less power draw and concerns with ABS, the lighting and harness product must be durable, high quality and long-lasting.
    
• By doing a careful evaluation of the total vehicle lighting system…its…problems and the methods to control and eliminate the above and other problems, product life performance can be extended and overall costs of vehicle operation reduced.

Article Courtesy of Grote Industries