The registered trademark name of Damar branded shatter-resistant bulbs. Damar branded tubular fluorescent and LED bulbs are approved by the Food & Drug Administration. (Link)
Damar offers a wide variety of shatter resistant bulbs. Most bulbs can be Safe-Shielded and the only ones that can't are those having unusual shapes, very high temperatures or spectral output that would be rendered useless if they were coated.
The coatings come in three varieties, silicone rubber, fluorocarbon (Teflon) coated, PET and FEP tubing. The fluorocarbon coating is used for high temperature applications such as heat bulbs, oven bulbs and high intensity discharge bulbs like metal halide, high pressure sodium, etc.
Materials used on various bulb types:
• Incandescent:
Silicone & Fluorocarbon
• Halogen:
Silicone & Fluorocarbon
• Compact Fluorescent:
Silicone
• LED:
Silicone
• Fluorescent:
PET & FEP
Material Properties
Wavelengths filtered - the wavelengths filtered out by the material
Max ambient temperature - maximum temperature of the air around the bulb
Luminous transmittance - the percentage of luminous flux (lumens) that are able to pass through the material.
Silicone
Wavelengths filtered:
Max ambient temperature:
Luminous transmittance:
Fluorocarbon Coating
Wavelengths filtered:
Max ambient temperature:
Luminous transmittance:
PET Tubing
Wavelengths filtered:
Max ambient temperature:
Luminous transmittance: >99%
FEP Tubing
Wavelengths filtered:
Max ambient temperature:
Luminous transmittance:
Scotopic Vision
In layman's terms this would be simply referred to as "peripheral" vision. It accounts for the majority of vision that falls outside of the field of photopic vision. Photopic vision accounts for an approximately 2.5 degree field of vision that lies at the retina's center.
The process of burning a light source for 100 hours (a little longer than 4 straight 24 hour days) to fully normalize and stabilize the lumen output and the color temperature. Over the initial 100 hours of burn time metals inside the arc tube of a Metal Halide relocate and react until fully stabilized. Fluorescent bulbs have a similar stabilization period during which the light output and color temperature emitted by its phosphor coating stabilizes. Prior to or during this 100 hour period for HID and fluorescent bulbs there can be significant disparities in both color and light output from one bulb to the next (even from the same batch). This 100 hour period is far more commonly referred to as the "initial burn-in period".
Quality Control Testing
Four pieces selected from different cases of all incoming DAMAR branded bulbs are seasoned for the full 100 hours before they are tested in our integrating sphere/spectrophotometer for quality.
New Installations
This process is a critical milestone in a new installation of light sources such as HID and Fluorescent. It is not uncommon to concern about color disparity amongst newly installed bulbs (this is most commonly encountered with Metal Halide bulbs). It is important to be aware of the initial 100 hour burn-in period and the result of that time period, if burning a bulb for 8 hours per day, 5 days per week, 100 hours would require 2.5 calendar weeks of operation. Most concerns are likely that within the first week of operation during normal business hours and still haven't even reached 100 hours.
Pre-seasoning of Bulbs
A question that has been asked multiple times in the past is: "Why don't manufacturers complete the bulb seasoning prior to shipping to eliminate any perceived inconsistencies?" This is not done for multiple reasons but the most significant is that in order to burn every light bulb manufactured for a period of 4 straight calendar days (24 * 4 = 96) a tremendous number of fixtures, man hours, square (and cubic) feet of space and kilowatts of electricity would be required. No manufacturer does this as it simply isn't feasible.
Secondary
Most commonly this refers to the secondary "winding" or "coil" in a transformer. Essentially, it refers to the output side of a transformer. See Transformer.
Security Lighting
Security Lighting
See Fluorescent Starter.
Starting Circuit
Self-ballasted Bulb
A bulb that has an integrated mechanism, device or circuit that allows it to operate without an external separate ballast or transformer.
Examples: Self-ballasted Mercury Vapor, Self-ballasted Compact Fluorescent, Self-ballasted Metal Halide.
Series
Circuit
Shape
When speaking about light bulbs this is referring to the shape of the outer envelope of a light bulb. See Shapes (external document).
The International System of Units. The abbreviation "SI" came from French: Système International d'unités. This system of measurement began being developed in 1948 and was then published in 1960. It is the international system that established the meter and kilogram as standard measurements of length and mass respectively. It is from this system that the gram, millimeter, centimeter and kilometer are derived.
A mathematical function used to represent voltage and current. Standard alternating current frequency in the United States - 60 Hertz (Hz), or 60 cycles per second.
Single Contact (Base)
A bayonet base that, instead of having two electrical contacts on the bottom like a double contact bayonet base, has only one electrical contact on its bottom and then uses the metal shell of the base as an electrical contact to complete the circuit.
See also: Double Contact.
Single Envelope
See Double Envelope.
SKU
Stock Keeping Unit. This is not endorsed for use internally. The commonly used term is Item Number.
SLA Battery
Sealed Lead Acid Battery.
Slash Designation
A separator used in probably 80-90% of all product descriptions. Most commonly it is used simply to separate two bits of information. However, in some cases it represents a slash designation. These slash designations can be very confusing as they have absolutely no logical pattern or discernible meaning. Also, slash designations can vary in meaning from one product class to another.
These designations were established by a combination of General Electric and Westinghouse lighting. Their desire was to make lighting as inaccessible by the layperson as possible for obvious reasons.
Slimline Bulb
A double ended straight fluorescent bulb with Fa8 single bin bases.
A device that accepts and permits other devices to be fastened within it. In lighting a socket also delivers power to the device(s) that are installed. Because a socket accepts other devices, allowing them to be inserted/installed, sockets are inherently "female".
A metallic conductive material used in lighting as a fastener for electrical components. The most common solder is made up of a mixture of tin and lead. Tin can handle more heat than lead but lead is a superior conductor. Different applications require different mixtures. More recently silver is becoming a more common type. It is better than traditional solder in that it has a higher melting temperature, superior conductivity and contains no lead.
Solid State Ballast
"Ballast in which solid-state circuity and high frequency magnetics replace standard Core & Coil components used in electromagnetic ballasts." - Advance Ballast Glossary
A particular requirement stated by a customer that can include for example, a specific brand, product, component, manufacturing method, country of origin or performance characteristic
Spectral Power Distribution (SPD)
A graphical representation of the wavelengths emitted by a light source.
An example SPD is shown below:
Spectrophotometer
A device that is used to measure the output of a light source. It provides the lumen output, color rendering, the Spectral Power Distribution, wattage, voltage, current
Sphere
Sample Report
Spectrum
One word used to describe a named portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.
An effect that can occur in fluorescent tubes where it appears that "balls of light" are flowing along the tube. These aren't actually "balls" but are flowing waves. This is an often temporary visual effect that can occur in fluorescent bulbs, especially reduced wattage bulbs which are more susceptible to visual phenomena due to the fact that they make use of heavyweight internal gases like krypton as opposed to argon which is used in standard fluorescent bulbs. It doesn't necessarily point to a problem with the ballast or the bulb. It is commonly caused by using a bulb in lower ambient temperatures, during significant changes in temperature such as in the morning when air conditioning kicks on. Air flowing directly over a bulb regardless of the temperature can have an even more noticeable effect. This can happen in only one bulb being operated on a multi-bulb ballast as each bulb has slightly different characteristics. Using a bulb that has been resting in place in storage for some time or that hasn't been operated in a longer than usual period of time, humid environments, being underpowered, a ballast supplied with power that is out of phase or even the improper frequency can all becauses as well.
Click on the image below to view a video of this effect on the bulb in the middle.
This is often simply described as flickering. There are many reasons this can occur and they can differ based on the bulb type being used. Incandescent bulbs can be subjected to this effect because of vibration/shaking and a poor electrical connection or can appear to be flickering just due to the frequency of the vibration. This effect can be seen in fluorescent bulbs for a number of reasons and is more common with low frequency ballasts, especially significantly used ballasts. Faster of a fluorescent bulb is visually more noticeable when seen out of the corner of a person's eye (peripheral vision).
WARNING: This video has very pronounced flashing and may result in adverse health effects to those susceptible!
Read the preceding sentence before clicking this link!
Stroboscopic
This is a visual phenomenon that occurs in objects moving in a recurring fashion at an interval that results in a false perception. A common example is the motion of the rims of a vehicle. They can at times appear to be still or to even spin backwards. With fluorescent bulbs visual phenomena can occur, even with high frequency ballasts because as stated before the frequency falls within a particular range. This link shows the stroboscopic effect occurring with helicopter bladesorfalling water This link shows a very slow and exaggerated version of the effect to make it clearer what is actually occurring.
WARNING: This video has very pronounced flashing and may result in adverse health effects to those susceptible!
Read the preceding sentence before clicking this link!
An effect that can occur in fluorescent tubes where it appears that swirls of light are twisting along the tube. This is an often temporary visual effect that can occur in fluorescent bulbs, especially reduced wattage bulbs which are more susceptible to visual phenomena due to the fact that they make use of heavyweight internal gases like krypton as opposed to argon which is used in standard fluorescent bulbs. It doesn't necessarily point to a problem with the ballast or the bulb. It is commonly caused by using a bulb in lower ambient temperatures, during significant changes in temperature such as in the morning when air conditioning kicks on. Air flowing directly over a bulb regardless of the temperature can have an even more noticeable effect. This can happen in only one bulb being operated on a multi-bulb ballast as each bulb has slightly different characteristics. Using a bulb that has been resting in place in storage for some time or that hasn't been operated in a longer than usual period of time and humid environments can all be causes as well.
Click on the image below to view a video of this effect.
Switch
A device for making, breaking, or changing the connections in an electric circuit.
A bayonet base that, instead of having two electrical contacts on the bottom like a double contact bayonet base, has only one electrical contact on its bottom and then uses the metal shell of the base as an electrical contact to complete the circuit.
