Industrial Lighting — Designed with Lumen Calculations

Industrial lighting is not simply about making a space visible; occupational safety, product quality control and worker fatigue all depend directly on lighting quality. Error rates rise at a poorly lit assembly bench, and a layout that casts shadows creates a safety risk around machinery. Contech designs factory and warehouse lighting by calculation rather than by estimating luminaire counts.

A design starts by classifying areas according to the work done in them. General production floor, precision assembly bench, quality control station, warehouse aisle and loading dock each require different illuminance levels; lighting everywhere to the same level is both energy waste and insufficient in some places. Once target illuminance is set, lumen calculations account for ceiling height, surface colours and racking layout, producing luminaire count and layout. Racking aisles are a special case in warehouses: luminaires distributed evenly across the ceiling leave the aisle floor dark between high racks. There, luminaires are aligned parallel to the aisles with narrow-beam optics. On production floors, shadowing and glare matter; a luminaire directly in an operator’s line of sight spoils visual comfort even where illuminance is adequate. Colour temperature and colour rendering are chosen for the task. Quality control and colour discrimination points need high colour rendering; general production areas do not require such a high figure. In areas subject to vibration, luminaire mounting method and IP rating are assessed separately. On the control side, zonal switching, occupancy sensors and daylight sensors can cut energy consumption markedly; warehouse aisles and rarely used areas are where this pays off most. Emergency lighting and exit signage are positioned to the escape route plan with their supply kept separate. After installation, site measurement is carried out: whether target illuminance has been achieved is verified point by point with a lux meter, and the measurement report is handed to the plant.