Barnegat Lighthouse - Rotating Beacon
In 2008, Vega Industries was approached by the non-profit
group, Friends of Barnegat Lighthouse, to quote for a new light which they
would install for the 150th anniversary of the lighthouse in January 2009. A
multi-tier VLB-44 LED beacon was considered, but the VRB-25 was finally
selected because a revolving beacon would closely reproduce the flash of the
original light.
The VRB-25 installed at Barnegat Lighthouse is a 6 panel
unit, rotating at 1rpm which produces a flash once every 10 seconds, the same
as the original light. The VRB-25 contains a 6 place lampchanger and uses 100W
lamps with a range of 21.7 nautical miles.
Download Barnegat Lighthouse Case Study
Port of Durban Lead Light Application
As part of the Port deepening project the Port of Durban was looking for new entrance lights that could provide a day time range of around 6NM. The lights needed to be flexible enough to be able to be used for the temporary channel while the dredging was being undertaken, as well as marking the final channel once the project was completed. Vega PEL lights with oscillating boundary were the favoured solution in order to provide lateral movement information to the incoming Vessels.
The challenge was how to provide the required day range considering the standard 3.5 degree subtense PEL light could only deliver around 3NM for the red and green sectors.
Download Port of Durban Case Study
Diego Garcia - 3.5 Million Candela PEL Light
Vega
has supplied and commissioned a new design of PEL Sector Light on Diego
Garcia. This small atoll in the Indian Ocean is a deep-water anchorage
for large vessels in the US Navy.
There is a navigable opening 250 yards wide in the
submerged part of the reef - barely three times the width of some
vessels. Strong ocean currents swirl past the entrance, and on entering
the channel there is often a reversal in current direction, requiring a
heading correction of more than 20 degrees. For safety, transits are
made only in daylight.
A special optical projector using two 24-inch
diameter lenses was developed by Vega to compress the light from a
PEL-6 condenser into a beam just 1.6 degrees wide. The signal is
visible at 10 miles in daylight.
Port of Long Beach - Marking the Narrow Back Channel
Very large container ships like the MSC Texas (shown) need to be guided through this tight channel to access the loading facility.
Pilots were seeking an accurate signal to show lateral position and movement.
With room and budget for only one tower, a PEL Sector light at each end was the only choice.
Gaillard Cut - 2 Way Traffic in Panama Canal
The Gaillard Cut in the Panama Canal comprises seven short reaches as the canal passes through the mountainous spine of the country.
This section of the canal was widened to 500 feet to allow 2-way traffic and greatly increase the carrying capacity of the canal.
The steep banks of the canal made it impossible to achieve enough resolution with 2-station range lights. Fourteen PEL Sector Lights were installed, one at each end of each reach, to provide the required precision for 2-way traffic to pass safely.
Port Louis (Mauritius) - Release City Airspace
The traditional rear leading light into Port Louis was on the hill behind the city. The viewline passed directly over the central business district. A proposed high-rise building would obstruct the pilot's view of the rear lead.
PEL Sector Lights were used to provide comparable navigation accuracy into the port without the need for pilots to see a light on the hill behind the city, thus freeing up airspace in the CBD for a new Reserve Bank building.