Lightolier, Seeing the light

Manufacturing in Action, Source : The Manufacturer US
Published : December 2001

Lightolier’s technology helps commerce, industry and home users to get more value from their lighting, Ruari McCallion reports.

If you want light indoors, you go out, buy a light bulb, plug it into a socket and switch it on. Simple, yes? Actually, no. There’s a lot more to lighting than meets the eye. In the office, the production plant, or at home, lighting can make a huge difference to efficiency, mood, and utility bills. Choosing the wrong lighting installation can more than double lifecycle cost—and even undermine productivity. The light source—be it a fluorescent tube or a tungsten bulb—is only the start. The fittings—reflectors, refractors and diffusers—are essential to getting the most from lighting systems.

Lightolier is a company that knows all about the subject. If a photographer “paints with light”, then Lightolier is a sculptor. It’s been in the lighting business since 1904, when kerosene lamps and gas mantles were state of the art. Originally established in New York City, it sold its first electric incandescent fixture about ten years later. From New York City, the company moved to New Jersey and then, in 1994, it established its head office and major production plant in Fall River, MA. It also has production facilities in Wilmington, MA, Fontana, CA, and (appropriately) in Edison, NJ. There is a major showroom, import, and distribution center at Elgin, II and distribution locations at Norwich, CT, Atlanta, GA, and Compton, CA. Sales total over $300 million a year, which is a significant chunk of the $1 billion a year turnover of parent company Genlyte Thomas Group LLC. It’s come a long way in 97 years, and design and innovation is at the core of its growth.

“We manufacture the fixture that reflects light from the bulb—reflectors, diffusers and directional fixtures,” Tom Daily, vice-president, operations said. Getting the most from lighting involves the constant generation of new ideas, and Lightolier is in the business of extracting as much from every lamp as is possible and the pressure to perform is as great now as it has ever been.

“The driver of the business is the cost of energy,” Daily said. Back in the 1950s, it took around five watts of electricity to light each square foot of space in the typical office. Lighting the same square foot of office space with today’s technology would involve less than one-and-a-half watts of electrical power—a cost reduction of around 70%. The quadrupling of the oil price in 1973/4 started the search for efficiency—and shortage of power generation capacity in California, for example, means that businesses, factories, and householders are looking for ways of getting the most out of their electricity dollar. Lightolier’s electronic dimmers, which are available for fluorescent as well as incandescent lamps, help control electricity use still further.

Over the years, Lightolier’s innovation has been helping its customers to achieve the efficiencies they need. Some steps in the process were straightforward: putting a reflector above a lamp sends light in the direction it is wanted, rather than wasting it on illuminating the ceiling. In the 1960s, the company invented track lighting, which concentrates illumination where it is needed. There are few retail stores in the US that don’t now use track lighting to display merchandise to best effect. Lightolier pioneered high-performance fluorescent lighting and invented the digital dimmer. And its products are designed with mood in mind, as well as efficiency.

“Incandescent bulbs are inexpensive to buy, and customers like their warm, yellowish light,” Daily said. Fluorescent lamps are far more efficient and run at a much lower wattage—but the light produced by a bare tube is harsh and unkind to complexions. The efficiency comes at the price of a light temperature that is cold. Lightolier addresses the problem with a reflector/diffuser unit that combines efficiency and warmth. “Our most popular downlight is a fluorescent that’s designed to look like an incandescent—but costs a lot less to run,” said Daily.

Lightolier’s fixtures come in three basic types: the recessed downlight, track lighting, and “Indirect Systems”—the square, rectangular, or round suspended fluorescent fixtures that are found in large spaces like airport halls, where 50-foot long fixtures are common. Commercial applications account for over 80% of the company’s output. Its housing market tends to be towards the upper end, the $1 million-plus home where sophisticated lighting control and security systems are to be expected. If you want to control your lights from your car keyring, then Lightolier can make the system for you—and more besides. The company supplied Bill Gates’ Seattle mansion, which has become a byword for advanced electronic infrastructure. Although some of the systems in that home were custom-made to Bill Gates’ requirements, Lightolier has 3,000-plus stock items in its catalogue, all of which are designed in-house, with the needs of their main customers—architecture practitioners—uppermost in their minds.

“There is a blueprint for lighting for every building,” said Daily. ‘There are parts of any specific building where needs are clear—in the lobby, for example. There may be tenant requirements for lighting as well as the constructors needs—we work very closely with lighting specifiers in order to understand what they’re looking for,” he continued. “New York customers have different needs than those in California, for example. They are constantly looking for products that are more energy-efficient, and emergency lighting is becoming more important.” Lightolier has spent money to make sure that it is at the leading edge of the science and engineering of light in practical applications. “We’ve invested in our own design technology to look at the photometrics—the shapes that reflect light in particular ways,” he explained. “The value added is to take a piece of aluminum and engineer its shape and finish so that the lamp source inserted will do what the customers want.” This philosophy was behind the launch, in May of this year, of the Aleron lighting systems and ATOM—the Addressable Track Module System. The Aleron family can incorporate ambient and accent lighting within the same, integrated system—track, non-track, or a combination of the two. ATOM allows individual dimming and switching of track luminaires on the same or multiple circuits and can work with the company’s Lytespan track heads on Radius, Basic, and Advent track. The ATOM module is installed between the track and the track head, activated by laser remote control, and can then be programmed individually or in groups by infrared remote control.

The consequence of meeting customers’ varying needs is that the engineering and production of the finished item has changed through the years to meet modern demands for varying runs, different finishes, and requirements for individual, rather than stock, solutions.

“Lightolier started making its fixtures by hand,” Daily commented. “Back then, the company went for fast-run processes: the manufacturing strategy from the 1960s to the 1980s was to see ‘how many pieces could be produced per hour.’ We used hydroform processes to form the downlight ‘reflector’ and various anodizing and finishing processes to deliver the strategy.” But the 21st century business asks more: more flexibility, more responsiveness, and more awareness of the cost involved in big inventory. “We’re now into CNC spinning, using Ill and M&M tools. We’ve invested heavily in these technologies. The per piece time is longer, but the fixture finish is better—which means higher quality, and each piece passes more quickly through the finishing process.” The technology is also far more adaptable than traditional techniques, which means that runs as low as 100 units can be produced quickly and profitably.

Working with other suppliers to commercial customers is an important aspect of Lightolier’s strategy, and the company signed a marketing agreement with office systems supplier Steelcase Inc. in March 2001. Steelcase’s recently-commissioned Workplace Index Survey found that 30% of knowledge workers polled suffered from headaches due to poor lighting. 85% maintained that better lighting would improve their mood and increase their energy levels. Improved mood and energy will, in turn, lead to improved productivity. The intention of the alliance between Steelcase and Lightolier is to address users’ needs for appropriate levels of ambient, task, and accent lighting that work with architecture to provide comprehensive solutions at an early stage of the design process. Doing so will enable the provision of effective workplace lighting from the day the office opens, rather than inefficient and expensive compromises added haphazardly at a later date.

“Our business is leveraging lamp technology,” Tom Daily told me. With every utility dollar valuable, Lightolier will be working hard at leveraging every cent from its technology, processes, and photometric technologies for its customers for many years to come.

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