Lighting a large fabrication shop.

[dhutch]

What would be the best type of lighting for a large fabrication shop or workshop?

A freind of mine owns a boat yard where they build narrowboats, there unit is around 120*60ft (26*18m) and currently poorly illuminated with around 10 6ft striplights. During summer its find as there are clear sections in the roof but its now coming round to winter when its gloomy at best.

In my mind it is toss up between mercury vapor fixtures or metal halide floodlights, although they have re-lit a large area at work with clusters of floresent tubes but my experience is limited so Im interested if there is anything else to consider, as well as how many lights would be needed and the best way to arrange them.


Daniel

 

[jj4091]

http://www.designlights.org/downloads/highbay_guide.pdf This is just one of many hits if you google "designing industrial lighting systems"

 

[ricicle]

Induction lamps !

 

[dhutch]

http://www.designlights.org/downloads/highbay_guide.pdf This is just one of many hits if you google "designing industrial lighting systems"

Blooming heck! Yes ok, theres a fair amount of data out there if you search for lighting design guides, didnt even think to look for that.

Appear most 'open fixtures' are Metal Halide too, not just flood lights, I always assumed anything that looked like that (below) was merc vapour as the ones we had where.

Will do some reading and come back.

Induction lamps look very nice, but intial costs appear very high indeed.

Daniel

 

[RF Lighting]

It's hard to say without seeing it, but I'd imagine low bays would be the way to go.

Either mercury vapor, metal halide or even better, LED. They are more expensive at first but the reduced running costs and increased lamp live will more than cover the initial extra expense.

 

[dhutch]

Either mercury vapor, metal halide....LED

But not florescent?

I'll have to do some sums on the running costs.


Daniel

 

[jj4091]

Either mercury vapor, metal halide....LED

But not florescent?

I'll have to do some sums on the running costs.


Daniel

No need for sums, just look at the ratings for them, flouros are cheaper to run but don't give the same o/p.

 

[dhutch]

Not the worlds best image, but I have lifted this from there website which gives and idea of the work area, size of a boat (7ft wide and a simular hight) and height of ceiling.

Obviously while the lights can be arranged to suit a certain position better, the boats do move around so lighting would have to be fairly even to get good light on the boat sides inside and out.

Untitled

• dhutch
• 9 Oct 2012
• 1

Daniel

 

[bernardgreen]

When lighting a workspace where rotating machine such as lathes, drills etc the ordinary flourescent light can strobe a rotating item and make it appear stationary or rotating only slowly.

Some high intensity LED lights can also also create a strobe effect as they are pulsed on and off. Care is needed in selecting them.

 

[dhutch]

When lighting a workspace where rotating machine such as lathes, drills etc the ordinary flourescent light can strobe a rotating item and make it appear stationary or rotating only slowly.

Some high intensity LED lights can also also create a strobe effect as they are pulsed on and off. Care is needed in selecting them.

Yes, although I understand this is also the case with Metal Halide and other such discharge tubes. Currently the lighting is florescent (as is my garage) and ive not noticed an issue, but its worth a thought for sure. I have read about mixing which phase the lights are on in a number of the guides I have found following jj4091's suggestion which may be an option as the yard does have a three phase supply.

One obvious failsafe is for all machines to have an incadesent light on it, which also doubles as an indication that the machine is live, although obviously that doesnt cover handheld rotary tools.


Daniel

 

[dhutch]

It's hard to say without seeing it, but I'd imagine low bays would be the way to go.

Presumably they give out a wider angle beam than a highbay? And ofcuase are less deep/tall in themselfs so suited to a lower ceiling? What sort of high would you transition from one to the other? 5meters?

 

[dhutch]

Well, done some asking about and have just been offered the 24 400w highbays that are coming out of one of the offices are work, where they are filling in a mezzanine floor.

I dont know if there origanal to the building (70s) and they arent new but all work, and two are newer replacments. They give a white light, so im guess they are presumably mercury vapour, rather than the newer metal halide but I havnt seen them properly yet. Says holophane prismpack on the side, stand about 2.5ft tall, grey and square plastic box.



Daniel

 

[SimonH2]

Don't forget about access. I believe some types of lighting has fairly heavy control gear ... cue story from an ex colleague ...

He used to work in a paper mill, and access to the lights was difficult - you could just put a tower (or forklift and man-cage) underneath due to all the machinery and conveyors. So access costs could become significant. I don't know what the fittings/technology was, but he said the control gear for each lamp was fairly heavy. They eventually relocated the control gear to the side of an arial gantry where it could be accessed without additional equipment - just needed a longer cable from control gear to lamp.

All lights need some maintenance sooner or later, so it's as well to consider how you will maintain it once installed. There is a lot to be said for using plug/socket connections so that a fitting can be easily swapped out - as in take a 'new' fitting up, swap it for the old one, overhaul the old on at ground level (that's if it's not just a simple tube change).

 

[RF Lighting]

I especially like using 13A sockets for hard to access light fittings in factories etc.

Fit a 3A fuse in the plug on the fitting then if a ballast fails short circuit like they always do, you only lose the faulty fitting, rather than the whole row, or the whole installation.

 

[canduit]

When lighting a workspace where rotating machine such as lathes, drills etc the ordinary flourescent light can strobe a rotating item and make it appear stationary or rotating only slowly.

Does this still apply to 'modern' high frequency control gear with an electronic ballast?