Whelen Lightbar

Lightbars are an essential piece of equipment for law enforcement and emergency medical response vehicles. A Whelen Lightbar is one such lightbar these police, fire and emergency medical service vehicles might have installed.

The Whelen Engineering Company designs, develops, and markets audio and visual signaling devices primarily for fire and rescue, law enforcement, security, and military clients.

Emergency lighting, like a Whelen lightbar, is primarily used to alert other motorists that an emergency vehicle is in the area and potentially travelling at a high rate of speed. The lights rotate or flash in a pattern to help make the vehicle more visible to others on the road.

The Whelen lightbar line includes lightbars with halogen bulbs or LEDs (light emitting diodes).

The Beacon collection features single-light lightbars. Some beacons in the Whelen lightbar line are rotating models. In some, the light is constant, but stationary and a mirror spins around the light sources, creating the effect of a flash. In others, the light source is also constant, but the light spins around in the housing to create the effect of the flash. In the Cadet Series from the Whelen lightbar line, the beacon operates at 2 speeds—110 and 180 FPM (flashes per  in Cleminute). The light source is white light, so the color of the flash is determined by the housing. Most beacons are availabl in Clear/White, Amber, Red, Green or Blue. Beacon lights from the Whelen lightbar line can be permanently mounted, temporarily mounted, or magnet mounted, depending on the model.

The 2519 Series Strobe beacons feature an LED light source, and when this beacon is in operation, the light bulb actually turns on and off to create the strobe effect. It features 7 Scan-Lock flash patterns from 70 FPM to 120 FPM. CometFlash (70 FPM; default pattern); TripleFlash (80 FPM); DoubleFlash (90 FPM); SingleFlash (120 FPM); ModuFlash (60-120-60 FPM); ActionFlash (Comet-Single) and ScanFlash (Comet-Single-Triple-Single-Double-Single-Repeat).

LEDs, like those used on the Justice Whelen lightbar, are growing in popularity due to their energy efficiency, long life and compact size. LED lightbars are also being used more frequently because their low-profile construction makes them suitable for a variety of applications. LED lightbars, like the Edge Ultra Freedom Whelen lightbar, are also controlled by direct electronics, so they have the capability to produce many different flash patterns.

The Whelen lightbar lne also includes mini lightbars like the Responder, Guardian, Mini Edge, Mini Liberty and Mini Justice series. Mini lightbars offer the function of a full-sized light bar, but are better suited for smaller vehicles or non-emergency vehicles like a utility, security, fleet, construction or public works vehicle.

Full sized lightbars are generally used for law enforcement vehicles like squad cars and swat vehicles and emergency response vehicles like ambulances and fire trucks. The Full-sized lightbar offerings in the Whelen lightbar include models in the Justice, Liberty, Freedom, 9M, Outer Edge, Inner Edge and NFPA series. Most of the full-size lightbars in the Whelen lightbar line use LEDs, but the 9M series is halogen strobe based.

In law enforcement scenarios, a lightbar like the LFL Liberty Super LED Series Whelen lightbar enables law enforcement personnel to let other motorists know to use caution because they’re approaching an accident, construction zone, or a disabled vehicle. These lights also to alert a driver to pull over to interact with the officer. Whelen offers a variety of options for the Whelen lightbar line, including flashing take-down lights, Halogen alley lights and extended corners lights.

Officers involved in a traffic stop may utilize the takedown lights to light up and area before approaching a vehicle. And the alley lights help illuminate an area when the vehicle is in pursuit of a subject.

Recovery vehicles like tow trucks feature amber covered lights, like the Towman’s 9M series Whelen lightbar, to communicate caution to other motorists on the road.

D.R. Ebel is a certified supplier, installer and repairer of lightbars of all types and purposes of use, including the Whelen lightbar line. D.R.Ebel also stocks Whelen lightbar replacement bulbs.