THE LASER LIGHT REVOLUTION
NEW VISIBLE LASER TECHNOLOGY PROMISES TO LIGHT THE WAY TO THE FUTURE
If you have a host of the latest in LED lighting adorned all over your rig, you may think that you’re at the top of the lighting game. Yes, having all those lights all over your vehicle can give it a cool, purposeful look, but sorry to break it to you, your impressive light setup might already be obsolete. This is because LED technology is about to be eclipsed by something that promises to be much better. Baja Designs in conjunction with SLD Laser have dropped the latest in auxiliary automotive lighting technology for your vehicle, a tech called “laser light.”
Not just a catchy marketing gimmick term, from what we’ve witnessed first-hand, laser light takes a dramatic leap forward in lighting technology and promises to change how we look at vehicle lighting, especially in off-road applications, forever. From what we have observed, laser light has the potential to change the lighting industry just like how LEDs made halogen lighting mostly outdated.
Laser light’s advantages over other forms of light are dramatic. It can deliver more than ten times the brightness of LEDs as well as extend illumination range of a mile or more. Add to that greater power efficiency and highly directional output attributes that LEDs just aren’t capable of and you’ve got something really special lighting your way.
Light emitted from a laser light comes from a laser chip and not a traditional bulb. Because the light source emitted from the laser chip is much finer and narrower than that of a conventional source, laser light chips can be paired with much smaller reflectors that achieve far greater results than with other forms of lights. This allows laser light to be remarkably compact, especially when compared to halogen, LED and even HID lighting sources. A reflector for each laser chip is just 1.5 inches compared to a size of up to 10 inches as required for a conventional lighting source.
Smaller reflectors mean that designers can now create smaller lights that take up less real estate on the vehicle. Baja Designs brings us this technology with their latest line of laser light equipped lighting. They claim that laser light has a 350-percent greater projection distance than conventional lighting sources with extended range, highly directional lighting output, and incredibly compact design. The greater brightness and directional light control also mean less light sources would be required than before. This should come as a relief for those that don’t like the look of trucks decked out like Christmas trees.
As proven at the 2018 SCORE Baja 1000, which is considered by many as the world’s toughest off-road race, the First and Second Place finishers in the Trophy Truck category were equipped with Baja Designs LaserLight units that were powered by SLD Laser components. “This new SLD LaserLight technology gives you more penetration and confidence when racing in the dark because you can count on being able to see deep down the course when you are going 110 or even 120 mph,” says Cameron Steele, SCORE Trophy Truck Winner 2018, “It’s pretty epic.”
The Baja Designs OnX6 Hybrid Laser/LED Light Bar and XL Laser lights are the first to offer this breakthrough technology to those seeking auxiliary lighting. The XL Laser light projects four laser chips through a proprietary High Speed Spot optic. This allows the light to produce an extremely tight 1.5° pattern and a light throw distance that has no rival.
Baja Design’s OnX6 Hybrid light bar combines laser light tech with LED lights to take advantage of the strengths of both LEDs and laser diodes. Baja Designs aimed to cover all the bases with a single light bar that illuminates near, mid-range, and long distances with a single light. Baja Designs is currently the only aftermarket company to offer laser lighting.
All this amazing technology does come at a cost however. Both XL Laser and OnX6 Hybrid light bars start at a grand a piece. While the pricing for laser light can cause you to do a double take, its advantages are clear. Unrivaled distance and brightness coupled with power and space efficiency look to outclass other lights currently on the market. Considering that you may only need one light instead of many, the cost of a laser light becomes a bit more palatable.
Seeing the benefits of laser light technology first hand, we anticipate that OEMs will want in on this action sooner than later. That said we’re mostly excited to see how laser light technology will push aftermarket lighting design forward for off-road vehicles.
For more information on Baja Designs LaserLight technology and products, visit: bajadesigns.com.