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 Green
light
The future of
lighting is brilliant, energy efficient, environmentally “green” —
and shining today in Racine, Wisconsin
by Tom Hammel
New cars with High
Intensity Discharge (HID) headlamps help drivers see better into the
night. The Light-emitting Diode (LED) fixtures being built by Beta
Lighting in Racine, Wisconsin help companies and cities see better,
too — all the way into tomorrow.
The growing global need
for energy efficiency and the burgeoning LEED certification
(Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) movement is driving
commercial LED installations across the United States and the world.
The timing couldn’t be
better. As the global industrial and institutional hunger for energy
efficiencies reaches critical mass, LED technology has reached
sufficient efficiencies of light output (lumens per watt of power)
to be a viable light source. And that efficiency is growing.
“The lumen output from
raw LEDs is improving almost on a quarterly basis,” said Mike
Krueger, applications engineering manager for Ruud Lighting’s Beta
LED division.
Presently, high
brightness LEDs offer enough lumens per watt to compete with
traditional light sources. Starting with the right LED is essential.
Beta LED partnered with Cree in Raleigh, N.C., a leader in
high-output LED production.
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What is Beta
LED?
Beta LED, a brand of Beta Lighting, a Ruud Lighting company,
was established to dedicate resources to the emerging use of
LED for general illumination. Beta Lighting provides the
lighting market with high-quality, specification-grade
luminaires for both interior and exterior lighting
applications. Headquartered in Racine, Wis., Ruud Lighting
operates a 450,000-square-foot manufacturing facility and is
ISO90001:2000 registered.
For additional LED information, visit
www.BetaLED.com. |
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But while raw lumen
output is one element of the equation, another is how well a fixture
using LEDs can actually illuminate a given area. This has been a
challenge for LED fixture developers because LEDs tend to radiate
light in every direction at once like the sun —not very effective if
you want to put it into a street lamp
Beta LED has solved this
through their exclusive NanoOptic light control featuring lenses
that harness LED lumens into directional beams. Beta LED can now
produce fixtures with light loss ratios of less than five percent.
That’s right, five percent.
“This optical control
over that raw LED is another part of what makes Beta LED unique,”
Krueger said. “Getting the maximum light out of that LED is one
piece of the puzzle. Directing that light is the second. This
directionality is the key to why Beta LED products are so much more
efficient.”
The only remaining
detriment is heat, but here, too, Beta LED has developed
industry-leading thermal management technology. Thermal scans of
Beta LED fixtures in operation, and of the thermal heat sinks
themselves, bear out Beta LED’s claim.
“When you couple
efficacy of the source, optical control of the light produced, and
thermal management all into one unit, you have a highly energy
efficient source of illumination,” Krueger sums up.
Beta LED calls this its
Total Systems Approach to LED light fixture manufacturing.
Initial cost
Because they are so new to the market, LED commercial light fixtures
presently cost more than traditional lighting systems such as High
Pressure Sodium (HPS), metal halide or mercury lamps. However, that
higher initial cost is being offset by accelerating ROI curves
thanks to lower maintenance, longer life, “green” environmental
advantages and significant energy savings.
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The Sunrise
BP gas station in Racine, Wisconsin is the world’s first
all-LED illuminated gas station. Since it it went into
service, several other stations across the United States
have followed suit. |
A bright(er) idea
LEDs are essentially solid state semiconductors. They have no arc
tube, filament or bulb, are “instant-on,” and are vibration and
impact resistant — ideal for applications like parking lots and
structures that require impact-resistant fixtures.
LED architecture also
provides immensely longer life than other light sources. Strictly
speaking, an LED never burns out completely; however, all light
sources dim over time. Here again, LEDs have an edge — they maintain
a higher percentage of lumen-per-watt output over the course of
their lifetime. An LED fixture’s average delivered lumen output is
46 percent greater than HID over 60,000 hours of use.
The Illuminating
Engineering Society (IES) defines an LED as “used up” when its lumen
output declines 30 percent. A typical LED will burn 50,000 hours
before reaching that cut-off point. For statistics buffs, this means
an LED fixture burning 24 hours a day will last 5.7 years before it
dims to 70 percent efficiency.
Want to burn it to
death? Add another 50,000 hours.
In real world
applications, LEDs typically outlast metal halide bulbs by a minimum
of five to one. This longevity alone translates into significant
energy savings, greatly reduced maintenance and reduced cost of
ownership over the product’s lifetime.
These savings can be
dramatic. By switching to LED lamps across its eight-building
Hillsboro, Oregon campus, Intel Corporation is saving more than
eight million kilowatt hours per year. Based on U.S. Department of
Energy figures, the energy saved at that facility in one year would
run everything in your house until the year 2735.
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In Racine, every
day’s outlook is cloudy — and employees love it. In response to
employee requests for a more open, natural feeling work environment,
owner Al Ruud commissioned an artist to create a “sky full of
clouds” to hang over the large assembly area. In addition to lifting
employee spirits, the clouds absorb equipment noise for a healthier
aural environment, and also diffuse light from the ceiling fixtures,
making it easier on workers’ eyes. |
Night vision light fixtures
And there’s more. Because of the way human eyes work (remember those
rod and cone lectures from junior high?), people see “better” in
some LED applications, especially in low light.
Scotopic vision
(essentially, seeing with your rods as opposed to your cones) allows
us to perceive acceptable light levels with LED lighting at lower
lumen outputs than with other forms of lighting.
It’s amazing but true.
This means manufacturers can build LED fixtures with lower wattage
diodes. The combination of all these benefits produces energy
savings in commercial installations from 33 to more than 70 percent
over HPS and HID — while producing “better” light in the process.
And when we find light
easier to see in, we find it more comforting. A study done in
Raleigh, North Carolina in early 2007 shows that people feel safer
in parking structures lit by LEDs.
From LED to LEED
By design, LEDs contain no mercury to haunt the future in landfills.
They are made from fully recyclable materials. Even Beta LED’s heat
sinks contain 77 percent recycled aluminum.
Manufacturing and
municipal facilities and cities seeking LEED (Leadership in Energy
and Environmental Design) certification can earn credits for
installing LED lamps.
Ruud Lighting, the
parent company of Beta LED, is pursuing LEED certification,
specifically LEED for Existing Buildings (LEED-EB). Ruud is working
directly with Madison, Wis.-based Leonardo Academy — the creators of
LEED-EB requirements — to evaluate every aspect of its environmental
footprint to reduce waste and protect the environment.
As part of this process,
David Barth, director of corporate processes and Environmental
Health and Safety (EHS) for Ruud Lighting has been analyzing
everything the company uses to eliminate waste and recycle as much
as possible.
“LEED-EB certification
covers so much,” he said. “We earn points for having carpool parking
spots, parking spaces for hybrid or alternate use fuel vehicles and
for bicycles. We have showers and changing rooms for people who ride
their bicycles to work.
“Energy usage is a big
part of your footprint, and that includes how we use our water,” he
added. “A pond in front of our building collects runoff from the
parking lot. We use that water to irrigate our plants and we get
LEED credit for that.”
Runoff water that
doesn’t get used for irrigation goes into a marsh behind the
building — no further runoff is created and no water goes needlessly
into the sewer system. It’s an involved process and every bit of
help counts. Ruud partners with JohnsonDiversey to audit cleaning
products used in the facility and recommend green alternatives.
“It’s important to
partner with people who have been through this process, who
understand it and who can help us understand it, too,” Barth said.
Seeing green
What it all comes together into is the most advanced, energy
efficient, longest lasting, maintenance reducing, cost saving and
environmentally green product we have seen yet. Literally, we have
seen the green revolution and it’s lit by LED.
In applications like
traffic lights, LEDs are already the norm, but they are popping up
in more places all the time. The next time you are filling up at a
gas station and notice your car looks extra nice, glance up. You may
be filling up beneath a canopy of LEDs. As LED technology advances,
there will be billions more.
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Lean, mean and built to last
Beta LED’s parent company, Ruud Lighting, focuses on lean
maintenance, high-performance tools and a long-lasting
product finish
Harnessing the
benefits of LED technology for general application lighting
has helped Ruud Lighting stay on top. But beyond new
technologies, there are many initiatives behind the scenes
that continue to help Ruud maintain its competitive edge.
And it all starts with a focus on being lean.
Really lean maintenance
The Ruud Lighting facility occupies approximately 450
thousand square feet on a 1.3 million square foot campus and
is serviced by a team of five maintenance personnel. Ruud
accomplishes this by contracting major system PMs and
repairs such as electrical and HVAC, but Ruud maintenance
still touches virtually every piece of equipment in the
plant.
“We split
maintenance into two areas: plant and assembly,” said Scot
Siebers, industrial engineering and maintenance manager. “We
have two assembly maintenance technicians, one specializing
in robotics and the other one in electronics, along with any
general tooling issues in the assembly area.
“We also have
two plant maintenance mechanics and a groundskeeper. There
is a PM schedule for all critical equipment in the building,
from pneumatic screwdrivers to fixture relamping to backup
generators to robotic cells.”
Siebers also
supervises two industrial engineers. With such a lean staff,
maintaining PMs is critical, and Siebers uses a surprisingly
lean tool to manage them.
“I use the Task
feature in Microsoft Outlook,” he says. “It’s very simple
and works very well for us. It organizes and assigns
everything; I know who is doing each PM, when it is due and
when it’s done. It also keeps a historical PM paperless
record in Outlook, so when I get audited during an ISO 9001
recertification, they can see our maintenance history over a
five-year span.”
Although Siebers
maintains the PM entries, the maintenance personnel can
access the system to look up the last time a machine
received a particular service.
Smarter tools
Getting more out of the everyday tools used in assembly is
an ongoing challenge. Siebers has recently added a Chicago
Pneumatic electric “smart” tool to one of the assembly lines
and is pleased with its performance. Its precise control and
data-logging capabilities allow Ruud Lighting to track the
placement, applied torque and other values of every screw
assembly the tool is used to produce. This represents a huge
step forward in production reliability.
Cordless power
tools are also making an “impact” on Ruud’s assembly
processes. Although 80 percent of assembly tools still run
on air, cordless power tools have advantages in certain
applications.
For one, there’s
no air hose. Virtually all air tools in the plant are fed by
overhead lines. These are ideal for vertical workbench
applications, but in operations that demand greater range of
motion, air hoses can become cumbersome and even trip/fall
hazards.
“We have a lot
of air screwdrivers and nut runners, but we have been moving
more heavily into cordless tools over the years due to
better battery technology,” Siebers says. “Panasonic’s
3.6-volt and Dewalt’s 7.2-volt have been real workhorses for
us, and now Hitachi’s 3.6-volt is taking over in some areas.
Panasonic has a smart charger that alerts you if you have a
bad battery or one that won’t hold a charge anymore.
“Hitachi’s
3.6-volt batteries are giving us even more power than
Panasonic’s,” he added. “Tool weight is a big issue here. If
I give the assemblers a new cordless screwdriver that is
even six ounces heavier than their old one, they’ll
instantly tell me it’s too heavy. We go right down to the
ounce selecting cordless tools because we use them nonstop
and frequently wear down the batteries.”
Siebers said he
is also shifting some jobs to Chicago Pneumatic impulse air
tools because they are much quieter and transmit far less
vibration to the hand than the impact air tools they are
replacing.
Longevity inside and out
With product lifespans that are measured in years — and
closing in on decades with the emergence of LED technology —
Ruud realizes the importance of durable fixtures that will
last long. To ensure this, Ruud’s proprietary DeltaGuard
finishing process is timed to the second to produce the
highest quality, most weather- and impact-resistant finish
in the known universe.
How do we know?
Supervising it all is Delta finishing manager Bill Chojnacki,
hands down the most animated engineer we have ever met.
After speaking with him about the processes he controls, we
believe it’s as good as advertised.
“We have 18
treatment stages, an aluminum process and a steel process,”
he began. “We have 67 load bars in our finishing system,
each one 29 feet, eight inches long. We can paint parts two
feet wide by three feet deep by 29 feet, 8 inches long and
our computer program maintains data on metal, color, bake
temperature, bake time, cooling time, buffer times when
changing paint colors, and more for each part. Workers can
access all this info on screen. We use a slide rail transfer
system and the paint system cycles every three minutes, so
we average a couple hundred load bars of product a day.”
All this in the
first 30 seconds of our conversation; then he really starts
talking. Whew! |
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Tools that make a difference
Air tools are the workhorses of Ruud’s Beta LED
plant in Racine, but cordless power tools are beginning to
see use as well for certain applications. Beta LED’s brands
of choice are:
• Air and impulse tools: Chicago Pneumatic/Desoutter
• Assembly robots: ABB
• Cordless tools: DeWalt, Hitachi, Panasonic
• Floor finishes: Ashford Formula
• Hose and reels: Coilhose Pneumatics
• Labeling machines: Brady
• Racking: Prest Rack in main plant;
Frazier in distribution center
• Work stations and cells: 80/20 Inc. |
This article appeared in the April/May 2008 issue of
MRO Today
magazine. Copyright 2008.
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