Without a doubt, new technologies are becoming a part of our every day environment. Some of them remain either perplexing, or unnoticed. Warning beacons are one of these technologies – they are bright and unmissable, but in many instances can be over looked as the hazard they are warning of is of more importance. This is the exact reason for their purpose.
Warning beacons are used very often in large industries, such as warehousing and retail, which make use of beacons every day. But still, quite often, they can actually go unnoticed.
What are Beacons?
Beacons are purposely visible devices that are made to attract attention to certain locations. One of the common examples is the lighthouse, that offers a fixed location which can be utilized to navigate into ports or around obstacles.
Beacons can be used for:
- Navigation
These devices guide navigators or direction finders to their destinations. Visual and sonic signals, radio beacons, and radar reflectors are only a few of the many kinds of navigational beacons.
Visual beacons ranging from a small and single-pile structure to big light stations or lighthouses can be found on water or land.
Usually, a lighted beacon is known as a light, while the unlighted beacon is called the day beacon. Aerodrome beacons, on the other hand, are utilized to specify the locations of helipads and airports. Whereas the handheld ones are used in aircraft marshalling. What’s more, they are even used by marshalls to offer orders to aircraft’s crew as they move around active airports, heliports, and aircraft carriers.
- Vehicle
A vehicular beacon is a flashing or rotating light attached to the top of vehicles in order to get the attention of pedestrians and surrounding vehicles. Further, emergency vehicles such as snow-removal vehicles, construction vehicles, tow trucks, ambulances, and police cars have beacon lights as well.
With regards to the lamp’s colour, it can differ depending on the country of application. For medical-emergency vehicle, fire trucks, and police cars the usual colours are red and/or blue. But for slow-moving vehicles such as tow trucks, construction vehicles, wide loads, and security personnel cars, amber is the usual colour.
- Warning Defence
Before, fires lit were utilized as beacons. As a matter of fact, it was used to signal through the land, and if enemies were approaching a fire would be lit to give warning.
For several years, such systems existed in various countries. Scottish, Greeks, Scandinavians, Romans, Spanish, and Chinese are some of the countries that utilized beacons as their security/defence communication.
Other Uses of Beacons
Beacons can be used for various different applications, such as;
– Cranes
– Aerodromes or Airports
– Fire Alarms
– Loading Bays / Warehouses
– Evacuation Warning
– Vehicles
– Construction Sites
– Theme Parks
– Wind Turbines
– Factories / Production Lines
These are just a few examples…
Conclusion:
As you can see beacons can be utilized for a wide variety of purposes. From navigation to warning defence – the list of benefits is endless when beacons are installed.