ANSI C136.31 - American National Standard for Roadway and Area Lighting Equipment

Luminaire Vibration Testing is under the ANSI C136.31 test standard, which provides the minimum vibration withstand capability, and vibration test methods for roadway luminaires like LED street light, shoe box light, area light etc.

A roadway luminaire such us LED street light is a completed light fixture assembly consisting of LED chips together with housing and driver. Generally, these roadway luminaires should resist two types of vibration: wind induced, and traffic induced vibration.

Luminaire Vibration Testing

This test standard indicates how the light fixtures are attached to the shaker table, and then there will be a low-level sine sweep performed to determine the resonant frequency, usually from 5Hz to 30Hz.

After the resonant frequency of the lighting fixtures determined, sinusoidal stop-vibration of the lamp assembly will be carried out. As this test is a mechanical performance evaluation, but not a functional test, there is no need to switch on the light fixture during the test.

There are acceleration levels based on two applications: one is normal, another one is Bridges/overpasses. The acceleration level depends on the housing material of street light.

Nowadays, we usually adopt the following materials,

• Die casting Aluminum
• Cold forging Aluminum
• Extruded Aluminum
• Sheet Metal Aluminum

Sinusoidal dwell between all acceleration levels are specified at peaks of 1.5G and 3.5G.

Although a separate light fixtures test item can be used for each axis, the fixtures must be tested at least 100,000 times on each of the three axis.

Finally, there should be not any damage to the housing or brackets, changes in electrical spacing, or looseness of any part of the luminaire. There may be a safety problem caused by any mechanical damage.