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Illuma Lighting, Shine a light

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Manufacturing in Action, Source : The Manufacturer
Published : February 2005

Julia Smith puts Illuma, one of the UK’s largest independent lighting companies, under the spotlight

Lighting can mean many things beyond chasing away the shadows. Providing a safe working environment is an obvious, but frequently overlooked function of good lighting. But what about using light to create drama and ambience? Or using the effects of light to make a brand statement or create the right corporate identity? This is the more intelligent realm of light that Illuma has made its home for the last two decades. The company is a market leader in the cutting edge of light – the uniquely challenging display and architectural segment of the lighting market.

Since 1981, Illuma Lighting has been designing and manufacturing a comprehensive and constantly evolving range of lighting fittings. The company’s range of products includes down lights, track, spotlights, up lights, commercial fittings, and emergency lighting. Everything that is needed in fact to make a visual statement with the effects, subtleties and contrasts of light.

Illuma is a company that has long understood that top quality, well-planned lighting can offer more than functionality. Clever lighting can bring even more than a good aesthetic feel to a working environment. Lighting that has been well thought out and executed can also reduce overall expenditure on energy costs. Even more importantly, in countless research tests it has repeatedly been shown that good lighting can stimulate people in such a way as to increase both their motivation and their productivity.

Listening and responding to the evolution in customer requirements and tastes, matched with an understanding of lighting technology has produced a very specific formula. Firstly, Illuma aims to offer the market an exceptionally wide degree of choice. Whatever a customer’s lighting requirements, it is Illuma’s intention that they need look no further. Quality and reliability is the second dimension, followed by a recognition that all products must be quick and simple to install.

Lighting installation is usually just one fact of an overall project and prompt on-time delivery is acknowledged as vital in enabling overall project plans to meet time deadlines. Technical support and back-up is then available anywhere in the country as part of an ongoing after-sales service. What it amounts to, Illuma believes, is a product and service package that represents outstanding value for money.

Good lighting starts with good design. Illuma is keen to point out that it is important to consider maintenance of the lighting installation from the outset. If the ceiling is high and access is difficult, it may be better to use lamps with a particularly long life, such as compact fluorescent or discharge lamps as these will require less attention and need replacing less often. Customers have a number of options. They can follow the DIY route using the beam diagrams and simple instructions provided by Illuma. Or, at the more sophisticated end of the spectrum, they can use their own lighting software loaded with Illuma’s photometric data. Another alternative is to take advantage of Illuma’s in-house lighting design team who offer a wealth of experience in meeting the most challenging requirements.

The ‘right’ lighting for an installation often depends on the complex interaction of a number of different products. As a starting point, Illuma introduces all customers to its in-house planning module, ‘Lighting Design: Preparing a Scheme’, adapted from the CIBSE (Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers) Code for Interior Lighting. This gives the recommended light level for many typical applications.

The next step is to choose the lamp and fittings that will provide that light level most efficiently. Customers can easily obtain online the physical characteristics and performance data of the lamps that can be used in Illuma fittings. Each type of lamp has its own advantages, and it is important to choose the right type of lamp to create the effect you require.

There are also a number of golden rules that Illuma makes sure its customers are aware of – before they purchase. For example, when lighting shop windows, it is important to avoid the ‘mirror effect’ that happens when the light level outside is brighter than that inside. From a lighting perspective: planners must note that the brighter the light outside, the brighter the light required inside. For applications like this, it is worth considering dimming and/or multiple circuits to vary the light level in the window at different times for the most effective and efficient results. At night, very little light is needed to create a dramatic and eye-catching effect. During the daytime, more light is needed to create the same effect, while on a sunny day you will need three to four times the light level to compete with the light outside.

Illuma is on a permanent quest to create the best impact with its lighting schemes. Staying at the cutting edge of a market like this means responding to the challenge of being able to introduce a steady stream of new and exciting products to the marketplace. Floodline HO is one of the latest, designed to take the traditional concept of floodlighting on to the next level. It offers the perfect blend of energy efficiency, long lamp life and uniformity in a sleek, low profile housing.

Floodline HO integrates the latest generation of ultra-compact, linear fluorescent lamps that are four times more efficient than halogen. A computer-designed reflector maximises the optical efficiency and produces exceptional, uniform illumination of perimeter walls and displays. It incorporates the latest electronic ballast for maximum energy efficiency and quiet operation and offers a lamp life of up to 20,000 hours.

Innovation and flexibility are easiest to find in private family owned companies and Illuma is the largest independent player in its market. This is a company big enough to cope with the largest and most demanding requirements, but also small enough to genuinely care about providing outstanding products supported by exceptional service.