Poor Warehouse & Distribution Center Lighting: An Overlooked Cause of Forklift Accidents

Forklifts can weight up to 10,000 pounds and may carry loads of up to one half their weight. This means a 10,000 pound forklift may carry 5,000 pounds, which totals 15,000 pounds. In busy warehouse & distribution centers, rushed forklift operators travel up and down warehouse aisles at speeds of 8 mph. At such a speed, a 15,000 pound forklift-load combination cannot stop on a dime. It shouldn’t come as a surprise then, that forklift accidents are all too common and cause many fatalities.

Some of the contributing factors to forklift accidents are:

  • Forklift operator distraction.
  • Floor worker distraction.
  • Insufficient operator training.
  • Loads obstructing the operator’s visibility.
  • Limited driver visibility when operating a forklift in reverse.
  • Poor warehouse lighting.

When accidents occur, the fault is often placed with the forklift driver. The typical remedy is to either replace the driver, or require that he receive more training. Other contributing factors are given less attention, especially inadequate warehouse lighting.

Warehouses with lighting levels below 2 lumens per square foot are accidents waiting to happen. This minimum lighting requirement also applies to the dimmest areas. Here are four suggestions for solving this problem:

  • Use effective lighting technology. Of the different lighting technologies in use, LED lights put out the most illumination for the power consumed. They are also the most compact and rugged, and have the longest operating life.
  • Your warehouse should have highly reflective walls, ceiling and floor. Light colored walls, ceiling, and a clean polished floor serve to scatter and further distribute your overhead LED lighting.
  • Add additional lighting to the darkest areas of your warehouse if required. This step ensures that you meet the 2 lumens per square foot minimum.
  • Change your forklift lights to LEDs. The bright white light combined with the forklift’s movement serve to catch the attention of floor workers.

These warehouse & distribution center lighting changes will reduce accident rates, which should reduce your workers compensation premiums and keep your workers and forklift operators safe.

Design Considerations for Manufacturing Lighting

Many elements go into creating a successful manufacturing facility, and good lighting is one component that should not be overlooked. Good lighting in an industrial facility can keep workers safe and more productive, and a cheerful, well-lit workplace can be good for morale. However careful consideration must be given to the lighting system, since not just any lamp will do.

Cost

In today’s global manufacturing environment there is a level of competition unknown to our predecessors, and companies must keep costs low in order to come out on top. Outdated lighting can eat up large amounts of energy and require frequent, costly bulb replacements. Less money spent on operating costs means higher profits overall, so products that offer great performance while keeping plant energy and maintenance costs low are an excellent investment.

Adequate Lighting

Poor light levels can make it more difficult, or even dangerous, for workers to do their jobs. Many tasks performed on the production floor require great attention to detail. In addition, safety is of the utmost importance in a manufacturing facility and workers must have adequate lighting to avoid any potential hazards. Manufacturing plants often have high ceilings, so lights must be powerful enough to reach the work floor. Consideration should also be given to color and placement of lights to optimize lighting levels in the facility.

Resilience

Finally, the conditions found in an industrial environment are harsher than those of, say, a shopping mall or high school gymnasium. Manufacturing lighting must be resilient enough to withstand harsh conditions like high humidity, heat, vibrations, chemicals and large equipment that could damage it.

At Relumination, our seasoned professionals are well-versed in manufacturing lighting design and will work with you to design a lighting layout that is ideal for your facility.

Light Without The Heat – Our Cold Storage Lighting Solutions

Cold storage facilities offer a unique energy challenge. The budget costs associated to operate these warehouses using outdated equipment has risen dramatically. The very essence and source of light produces heat and traditional methods for illumination are not energy-efficient or easy to maintain in those conditions. It has been a challenge and cost-prohibitive to the average business owner. Until now.

Technology has made great strides to provide energy-efficient and money-saving improvements to lighting solutions for cold storage. In addition to LED fixtures that now run much cooler than traditional fixtures, they also use over 75% less energy. The load on your overall system is substantially and consistently reduced.

Options are available that allow you to operate the system on a timer to minimize the heat production and lessen the impact on your refrigeration system. This provides savings on both sides of the system. Top notch controls allow you to maintain your facility to run at peak performance.

These improved options also reduce maintenance time and cost. They are designed to last longer with fewer disruptions or down times to change bulbs in often hard to reach places. The bright bulbs offer better working conditions for your employees and improve performance and mood.

We here at Relumination strive to provide our customers with the most innovative and efficient resources for their business. Our years of experience and advanced knowledge have prepared us to offer proven results.

LED Lighting: Perfect for Business Signage

Many of the properties that make LEDs unique also make them ideal for business signage lighting. This includes signs on the business premises and those placed elsewhere for advertising purposes. Five of these beneficial properties are discussed next.

  • Energy-efficient. While most people are familiar with this benefit, it doesn’t make it any less true. With LED lighting on your advertising signs, you can go ahead and leave them on longer because their energy consumption is so low. LEDs use 60% less power than fluorescent lighting for the same lighting levels.
  • Longer lasting. While fluorescent signage lighting requires replacement several times per year, LEDs will run for years before requiring replacement. The maintenance savings are substantial, especially on large, difficult to access elevated signs such as highway billboards.
  • Rugged. LEDs don’t use fragile glass tubes or filaments inside glass bulbs. They are solid state devices, which means your outdoor signage is less vulnerable to bad weather such as wind storms. This significantly reduces long-term maintenance costs in many parts of the country with highly variable weather.
  • Unidirectional light. Light from LEDs don’t radiate in all directions as does light from fluorescent tubes. LEDs put out unidirectional light that travels in a single direction. This property is useful when lighting a sign with an external light. Often this consists of a light source positioned on the ground and aimed at a sign above. Most of the light emission from the LED light source reaches the sign and therefore isn’t wasted. The fuller white light also shows the sign’s true colors.
  • Low heat output. For indoor signage, this saves on air conditioning in the summer and is less of a fire risk than hot incandescent lighting.

Give Your Customers A Better Experience With An Upgrade To Your Grocery Store Lighting

Many grocery store owners are always looking to find ways to get their customers to see that their grocery store is more than just a place to buy their basic grocery necessities. One of the keys to attracting shoppers and keeping your food fresh is to implement appropriate grocery store lighting.

There are a variety of ways to use LED lighting to your advantage. Lighting can enhance the customer experience, and it can also highlight all of your products in the store. We want to give you some ways on how grocery store lighting can upgrade your grocery store in a variety of ways.

Utilities

When you invest in a lighting system like LED lighting, the cost that it takes to operate and maintain the lighting will be reduced significantly. Can you imagine what you can do with the extra savings that you used to spend on your utility bill? You will be able to utilize those extra funds to improve your grocery store.

Brighter Display

You want your grocery store and its products to be more appealing to your consumers. When your grocery store has LED lighting, every department will have bright lights that will showcase your store’s products. If you want to showcase fresh fruits, meats, etc. in the best way possible, you should definitely use LED lighting. If your products look appealing in the store, consumers will be more likely to purchase them. They will also be more likely to return to the store for another shopping trip.

As a grocery store owner, you need to give your customers a great customer experience.

Three Benefits of Warehouse Lighting with LEDs

Warehouse operation can make or break a business. For many companies, it’s the bottleneck that slows down their customer fulfillment process. Therefore the warehouse manager should exploit every opportunity to improve warehouse productivity. One such opportunity is LED lighting. Here are three reasons to change your warehouse lighting to LEDs:

Emits a Fuller Spectrum of Light

LED lighting is similar to daylight except that it doesn’t have the harmful UV levels of sunlight. LED light is white and brighter per watt consumed than other commonly used lighting. This is particularly important in a warehouse environment because product picking errors are costly in terms of customer returns and lost business. A well illuminated warehouse is important for avoiding injuries where forklifts and workers on foot work side by side.

Increases Worker Productivity

LED lighting contains a blue light component that improves mental alertness in the same way as exposure to natural sunlight. This is an important consideration if you wish to boost the productivity of night shifts. The body’s circadian rhythm is cued by the presence or absence of the blue component of sunlight. Blue light signals the body that it’s daytime and triggers wakefulness, while its absence signals nighttime and triggers drowsiness. This effect of LEDs can potentially reduce night shift accidents.

Easily Used In “Smart Lighting”

LEDs are easily used with motion sensors and timers that can dim or turn them off in warehouse areas not being used. Unlike many other types of lighting, LEDs are readily dimmed, brightened, and turned on or off without their damage or reducing their operational life. They don’t require warm up periods, which means they turn on instantly. When combined with the low energy consumption of LEDs, smart lighting substantially lowers your warehouse lighting costs.

Tips for Exterior Lighting and How to Keep Safe During the Winter

As the days get shorter and the nights longer, having exterior lighting is more important than ever. Whether you own an office building or an apartment building, you need to make sure that the office workers or apartment tenants stay safe. People will be leaving work when it’s dark, and ice and snow can create dangerous situations.

Exterior lights should be placed along all walkways around your building, by steps, and near the entrance. Having lights near the entrance will make the building look more welcoming. You also want lights in the parking lot so that people can enter and leave their cars safely, and so that they can see where they are going (around one in five collisions occur in parking lots).

Lights should also be installed all around your building, especially near any entrance points. This will keep your building safe at night from intruders.

When installing exterior lighting, you need to consider a number of things. First of all, the outside surroundings usually don’t reflect light as much as indoor furniture. This can cause the light to shine heavily on one area without lighting up other areas. You want the light to cast a glow over a large swath of land. You also don’t want the lights to be too bright and end up shining through the building’s windows.

Of course, all exterior lights must be able to withstand the outdoor weather conditions such as rain, snow, heat, and frost.

Environmental Sustainability: Why LED Lighting Is a Step in the Right Direction

Economic sustainability requires that business activity not cause environmental deterioration or depletion of natural resources. For the most part, this hasn’t been the case for the last 150 years. Energy inefficient technologies accelerate the use of non-renewable fossil fuels that spew carbon dioxide and other pollutants into the atmosphere. However, more recent technologies are reversing this trend. These include LED lighting, which is having a positive effect on reaching environmental sustainability in a number of ways. Here are four of them:

LEDs Put Out More Light with Less Power

Lighting can account for a third or more of the energy consumption in buildings. This hefty energy consumption is due to huge inefficiencies in old lighting technology such as incandescent and fluorescent lighting. LEDs are far more efficient than either of these two lighting technologies.

From a sustainability point of view, LEDs reduce fossil fuel consumption and place a smaller energy load on renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power. This makes renewable energy sources and their reliance on battery storage technology more economically viable. Technological improvements in renewable energy, batteries, and LED lighting will only make renewable energy still more competitive in the years to come.

LEDs Have a Greater Service Life Than Other Forms of Lighting

LEDs have a substantially greater service life than either incandescent or fluorescent lighting. This reduces LED light replacement, which reduces the environmental impact of their manufacture since fewer lights are required. The resource and energy consumption of their manufacture and packaging, as well as the fuel consumption of transporting raw material and finished products are reduced.

The greater service life of LEDs also reduce their disposal into landfills. LEDs don’t contain environmentally damaging substances such as the mercury used in fluorescent lights.

LEDs Produce Less Heat

The extensive lighting of buildings place a heavy heat load on air conditioning systems during warm weather. Because LEDs put out substantially less heat, air conditioning systems do less work and therefore consume less energy.

LED Light Output Is Easily Controlled by Sensors

LED lights are easily dimmed and switched on and off by sensing technology such as motion sensors. These prevent unnecessary lighting in unoccupied areas of buildings, which further reduces energy consumption.

How Manufacturing Lighting Benefits from LED Technology

Increased global competition has forced manufacturers to produce their goods more efficiently. Increased efficiency demands less time intensive, resource intensive, and energy intensive manufacturing processes. In terms of energy efficiency, it is useful to expand your attention beyond the manufacturing process to include the energy consumption of the entire plant. You will find that keeping your plant well-lit over multiple shifts consumes significant energy. If you aren’t using LED lighting, then you stand to gain substantial energy savings. Why turn your money into waste heat using old and inefficient lighting?

Beyond the energy savings, LED technology benefits your manufacturing operations in many other ways including:

  • Increased worker productivity. LEDs produce a white light that is similar to daylight except that it doesn’t contain UV light. This reduces eyestrain and worker fatigue. This similarity to daylight also boosts worker mood, alertness, and productivity.
  • Increases accuracy in production tasks. The colors of objects as they appear to the human eye depend on the lighting source. For example, candlelight renders colors differently than daylight. The fuller spectrum light of LEDs improves the worker’s color perception, which is important in many production tasks. This reduces mistakes.
  • Reduces maintenance costs. The longer working life of LEDs translates to reduced maintenance costs. This includes labor costs and the cost of using specialized equipment for reaching high ceilings and other hard to reach areas. LEDs are also vibration resistant, which increases their longevity in vibration filled environments.
  • Reduces air conditioning costs. The extensive lighting of manufacturing facilities produces waste heat that adds to the air conditioning load. Using cooler LED lighting reduces your air conditioning costs and increases worker comfort.
  • Increases the professional appearance of your facilities. While a well-organized and clean manufacturing floor is important for projecting professionalism, it isn’t enough when the area is dimly lit. The bright white light of LEDs remedy this. The appearance of your facilities affects worker morale and influences the decisions of touring VIPs.

All the above benefits as well as reduced energy consumption serve to increase the efficiency and productivity of your manufacturing plant, which in turn increase your business’s competitiveness.

The Future of Lighting

Imagine a world where light switches don’t exist. Your factory floor is illuminated only when and where it needs to be. Your administration offices feature light fixtures that have more intelligence, providing services, such as public address, WiFi, and security, and they’re incredibly energy-efficient. This is the future of lighting. And you can make it happen today.

Already in the marketplace, there are light bulbs and lighting fixtures which produce some of these effects. High-efficiency LED bulbs are already available for most industrial and commercial needs, and they aren’t even custom-designed. You can find LED bulbs designed to fit most existing receptacles, and while the price is currently slightly prohibitive, it will go down. LED bulbs that replace the old tube fluorescents are already available, and in the near future will have additional features.

Light fixtures that detect motion are also already available, but this is a flawed technology in that it only activates lighting when there is motion in a room. Future lighting fixtures will contain heat and motion sensors, turning on lights when a warm body is in the room, even if that person isn’t moving enough to trigger the motion sensor, enabling good lighting for office workers, and reducing the turn-off time once everyone has left for the day.

Lightbulbs containing WiFi repeaters or security cameras are also already available, although these are consider niche products, your business could definitely benefit from converting to the secure wireless connections offered by these ‘near-future’ systems, especially once they’re integrated into a single bulb or fixture. Costing slightly more to implement, the cost savings add up over the increased lifespan of newer bulbs. And newer bulbs are living longer and longer with every iteration.

Consider the future of lighting your workspace now, and invest in better illumination for the future.