This article explains in basic terms what SAE standards, what we need to know for warning lights.

What does mean for SAE?

SAE Society of Automotive Engineers. SAE International is a global association of more than 130,000 engineers and related technical experts in the aerospace, automotive and commercial-vehicle industries.

There are 2 main SAE certifications we need to know:

• SAE J595 refers to directional flashing optical warning lights. A flashing optical warning device, which is only visible from a particular direction, it means that the light source produces directionally aimed and provide an illuminated area from 20° right to 20° left in a horizontal plane and from 10° up to 10° down in a vertical plane.

• SAE J845 refers to the omnidirectional or 360-degree optical warning. The devices, are visible from all directions. And that warning light provides in a horizontal 360-degree are and vertically from 5 degrees up to 5 degrees down. Some devices like the lighthouse and emergency vehicles

Conclusions:

• The SAE J595 warning light can be seen only from a singular direction( from 20° right to 20° left in a horizontal plane)
• The SAE J845 light can be seen from all directions (360 degrees).