A chlorine- and dichromate-free pyrotechnic strobe system for multiple colors

摘要

Classical pyrotechnic strobe formulations suffer from manifold environmental issues: they use perchlorate oxidizers which in combination with organic moieties form highly carcinogenic polychlorinated aromatics; the United States Environmental Protection Agency is considering to regulate strontium compounds as traditional red coloring agents due to health concerns and intoxications from green light-producing barium compounds result in respiratory and heart problems; furthermore, many strobe formulations employ potassium dichromate in order to improve the regularity and the sharpness of the flashes but this chemical is classified as a substance of very high concern by European Chemicals Agency. The present work establishes a pyrotechnic strobe system which meets the requirement for industrial use of strobe frequencies between I Hz and 10 Hz, can be adjusted to various colored flame chemistries and addresses the afore-mentioned problems.