Secondary Standard Lamps
for Optical Radiation, Photometric & Pyrometric Measurements

A range of Secondary standard lamps for radiation and photometry measurements, that can be aged and calibrated to suit individual requirements.

The Polaron group has manufactured specialised glass, high and scientific products for over 20 years and is therefore well equipped to carry out the precision manufacturing of the vacuum and gas filled lamps used as secondary standard.

Polaron's Special Lamps (PSL) manufactures a full range of specially designed secondary standard lamps for Optical Radiation, Photometric and Pyrometric measurements. These are available aged and calibrated for individual applications by the National physical Laboratory or other Standards Institutes.

Special Lamps Brochure

Reference optical radiation sources are used in the production of photometers and other optical radiation detectors, spectroradiometers, photographic equipment and optical and optical fibres, as well as assessing the appearance of coloured objects (fabrics, paints, filters etc.). They may be calibrated as secondary standards for the measurement of:

PSL specialise in the production of very high quality incadescent standard lamps. The highest standards of construction and testing - such as rigorous cleaning and baking schedules - and a policy of continual technical development ensures the production of lamps with excellent stability (very low decremental rates), tailored to meet specific applications.

Transfer standard lamps are available for the measurement of photometric properties such as luminous intensity, luminous flux, illuminance and colour temperature. They are available with various filament and envelope configurations, optimised to the required measurements geometry - the lamps for use as irradiance field and a precise datum for distance measurement, while those for luminous flux show very uniform spatial distribution.

Pyrometric lamps can be used as standards for high temperature radiation measurements and are manufactured in a range of designs, with both tungsten ribbon or ‘Black Body’ filaments.

Lamps can be supplied with graded silica or Pyrex windows depending on the wavelength range over which measurements are required, and electrical connections are also in several forms, including E40 screw caps, flying leads and special water cooled bases to improve reproducibility.

Lamps are available either vacuum or gas filled with research grade argon; the latter operates at higher temperatures (and correspondingly higher colour temperatures). Filaments are tungsten.

Individual lamps and filaments are constructed to meet customer requirements and can be calibrated as required. Please contact us for details of performance characteristics, electrical requirements and nominal dimensions.

Polaron has over thirty years experience in manufacturing specialised glass, high vacuum and scientific products. The acquisition of G.E.C. Special Lamps Division led to the formation of Polaron Special Lamps to produce secondary lamps, based on designs developed by G.E.C. Hirst Laboratories and the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington.