Note*: Carmanah’s Marine, Airfields and Obstruction businesses have been sold to SPX Corporation. Read the press release here. Get in touch with these businesses for your support needs here.
The Carmanah light, distributed throughout the region by CMA (Marine), of Cape Town, has demonstrated not only its robust and reliable performance under local conditions, but also its advantages as a zero-maintenance solution for normal marine navigation and warning-light requirements.
The product is a solar-powered LED-based marine navigation lantern.
With no external batteries, hard wiring or switching systems to erode or corrode, and with the LED light source having a virtually indefinite life, this is a cost-effective marine lighting solution that can, in certain instances, justify its cost in the saving of hard wiring or external battery systems. Additional saving is possible, since routine servicing is elimi- nated.
These lights are available in red, green, white, amber or blue, the colour being set in the LED and, therefore, not liable to fade with time.
Any of the standard IALA flash characteristics can either be preset ex-factory, or else programmed into the unit through a hand-held infrared remote programmer, which can also be used to set light intensities and on/off lux levels.
Available with nominal ranges of between one and four nautical miles, the Three and Four NM Models can also be supplied as matched flashing sets using GPS synchronisation.
Carmanah lights have been supplied for service in such diverse situations as dumb barge navigation lights, wind farm turbine hazard markers and airport emergency hazard markers. In addition to their normal duties as cardinal or channel markers and jetty markers, the lights are used for retrievable drifting oceanographic survey buoys.
The 700-series lights were ori-ginally developed at the specific request of the US coastguard, becoming the first solar-powered LED-based lights to enter the US system, and subsequently to be adopted by many other navigation authorities around the world, including the National Ports Authority.
The polycarbonate, fully encapsulated lights are almost vandalproof, and are proving to be a solution to ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ lighting needs around the ports and harbours of South Africa.