Tanning lamps are the part of a tanning bed, booth or other tanning device which produces ultraviolet light liable for tanning. While there are factually hundreds of dissimilar kinds of tanning lamps, they can regularly be classified in two basic groups: low pressure and high pressure. Within the industry, it is ordinary to call high pressure units "bulbs" and low pressure units "lamps", even though there are many exceptions and not everyone follows this example. This is probable due to the size of the unit, rather than the type. Both types necessitate an oxygen free environment inside the lamp.
Fluorescent tanning lamps need an electrical ballast to offer power. While the resistance of a glowing lamp filament inherently limits the present inside the lamp, tanning lamps do not and instead have negative resistance. They are plasma devices, like a neon sign, and will pass as much current as the external circuit will offer, even to the point of self obliteration. Thus ballast is attractive to manage the amount of electricity that flows through them.
The primary purpose of the tanning lamp is to make a suntan by means other than exposure to the sun. This is talented in a tanning bed, tanning booth, tanning canopy or free standing sole bulb tanning unit. The excellence of the tan (or how similar it is to a tan from the natural sun) depends upon the spectrum of the light that is generated from the lamps. Most tanning lamps produce much more UV than the sun on a typical day. This gives the user an earlier base tan, but one that fades sooner and offers less defense from the sun than a natural tan.