Every job that uses heavy equipment juggles productivity and safety. You can’t afford to take chances with worker wellness, but some safety measures can add pressure when project timelines are tight. The solution? Safety measures that can actually enhance worker productivity while also keeping them safe – and modern heavy equipment lighting combines the best of both worlds.
Emerging lighting technologies that keep workers safe
Bright, efficient light emitting diodes (LEDs) on heavy equipment have become the leading way to enhance visibility on worksites – and the features of well-optimized LEDs go far beyond adding light to dark areas. These are just a few types of lights that can improve safety and visibility on jobsites:
- LED danger zone lights like theJ.W. Speaker Model 777highlight unsafe areas around a vehicle or piece of machinery, clearly displaying colorful no-go zones on the ground and showing workers and other vehicles where it’s not safe to walk or drive. These LED lights can even be customized to display warning symbols to provide direct instruction to workers, rather than simply illuminating an area.
- LED work lights like theJ.W. Speaker Model 526can toggle between different color temperatures, which is critical for visibility in conditions that affect line of sight. In dark conditions where brightness is paramount, for example, it can display a standard bright white to place light where it’s needed; and in dusty or foggy conditions, a warm white light cuts through to illuminate the path ahead.
- Sensors in LED work lights can even help operators see over hills and other terrain. By selectively illuminating individual diodes in the light’s array, they can shine in a downward direction as the equipment crests the hill, illuminating the terrain on the other side of the hill instead of shining upward in the direction the equipment is facing. It works the other way, too: if a piece of equipment is moving down a hill, LEDs can shine upward out of the ditch to throw light into the vehicle’s path and illuminate terrain and obstacles.
LED roof bars and strobe lights shine brighter and use less energy, with multiple strobe settings and color temperatures to provide heavy equipment visibility from every angle. TheJ.W. Speaker Model 538 LED strobecan light up red or green to remind the driver to buckle up before hitting the acceleration, and theModel 529 LED Big Stripecasts a safety strip of light that creates a highly visible keep-out zone to keep workers and other vehicles at a safe distance on any jobsite.
