The Role of Widget Lamps in Industrial Applications
Widget lamps are a specialized type of industrial luminaire that have many applications across the food, automotive, engineering, and pharmaceutical industries. The health and safety requirement to keep broken glass as far away from the production process as possible is the key driver behind investment in widget lamps. This is because, when dropped, the bulb in these traditional fluorescent luminaires is prone to smashing, which poses a threat to the integrity of the product and the safety of workers on site. The typical requirement for a widget lamp is to contain any glass or particles of glass in the eventuality of a malfunction, with zero glass able to escape the luminaire. Where glass containment is not possible or not a requirement, the widget can be classed as 'open rated,' providing a low-cost solution for many industrial applications. The objective of widget lamp design is to create high-efficiency and versatile light fittings that are resistant to the harsh environmental conditions where they will be situated. In the global market, many different varying names are used to describe widget lamps, including LED lowbay, robust compact, bulkhead, and more general terms such as resistant, vandal-proof, waterproof, and high-protection luminaires. The leaping-off point for widget lamps was the early 19th century, with the invention and commercialization of incandescent bulbs. After over a hundred years characterized by the mass production and ubiquity of incandescent bulbs, the first fluorescent lamps were released into the market. The development and popularization of this technology, due to its exceptional energy efficiency and brightness, continued to the 1980s, after which LED lighting began to filter into the market.
Widget lamps are an effective technical tool for indoor industrial and commercial lighting. Typically, they are ceiling-mounted in rows by wire and are composed of metal, glass, plastic, or polycarbonate. The bearings provide a metal or polypropylene tap with seals for a long lifespan and specially shaped actuators for the lighting mechanisms to match. Their design allows for a very low build-rating height that combines with zonal lighting systems to provide efficient lighting dynamics, with no central working to a fixture. With operating temperatures about -25 °C and relative humidity between 10% and 80%, they are sensitive to dirt, moisture, steam, smoke, or dust, and standard certification ensures resistance to impact. The primary considerations of a widget lamp are, of course, its light source connected to main power and the housing that surrounds it. A lighting system control may also consist of sensors for automatic operations, a timer for time operations, or programmable illumination and regular on-off switches with cables.
The point of light in a widget lamp is currently a) electric incandescent light bulb, b) light-emitting diode, c) fluorescent lamp with its ballast, or d) compact fluorescent lamp. The electricity utilization effectiveness of the widget lamp is a relationship between its brightness and the energy it consumes, as determined by its electric power. For the rated power of the units selected, the turn-on delay time can vary, but this product is directly influenced by the number and location of the lamps in a cascading system, as well as environmental conditions such as climate, flux, degree of vehicle and person occupation, lamp age and its switching period, and the design and comfort level. These and other end-use related requirements or needs of an industrial application will dictate the type of lighting system control. In its specific design, the behavior of the lighting system tends to point out the best way to operate the unit, but this needs quite a lot of art.
Driven by commercial deadlines and safety standards, modern-day industries need to stay operational round the clock. This requires up-to-date machinery and an unbending commitment to maintaining them. A key part of this is keeping assembly lines bright and fully lit, which affords employees maximum visibility to craft precision products. This environment requires lighting that can be easily handled and around which machinery can be organized; requirements that widget lamps are ideally suited to. Therefore, within manufacturing-based industries, widget lamps can often be found attached to machines such as commercial printing presses, as well as in part-car manufacturing, where robot welders are a common feature. These lamps are also used for illumination on construction sites, particularly across large, open-cut mines where widget lamps have been put to use in haul trucks and excavators. In the logistics industry, widget lamps' role is extremely high-pressured and, as a result, robust widget lighting is a feature of many vehicle mirrors, while also being used in forklift-mounted lighting.
Warehouse facilities are generally filled with high-area illumination LED fixture lighting. However, the use of widget lighting has been identified for areas such as pallet racking, which is prone to reflective glare. The primary function of these workspaces, and those commonly found in large logistics environments, is the fast pick and send of merchandise items. When this is done in a dark area, or areas with patchy lighting, personnel are prone to errors. A widget lamp can be used on shelf plant equipment to give them a clear view of the item selected as well as label details. The addition of a widget lamp provides sufficient quantities of high-intensity, high-color temperature illumination. Widget lighting has been previously seen in the industrial sector, with companies using them for service and inspection facilities, as well as gap lighting on assembly line workspaces. Widget lighting can also be used in environments requiring multi-axis lighting that serves as a drop light, or also to illuminate motion detection on conveyors or service stations. For other industrial applications, widget lights can also be used for spot cooling. There is further potential for the use of widget lamps in machine vision applications where integration and lighting direction are a requirement, or where the light beam angle needs to be controlled to reduce the level of background noise.
In general, the manufacture of widget lights offers numerous advantages. Products last up to 10 years when used around the clock, with approximately 90% of light still being produced after this time. The comparatively long service life is supported by LED technology. High energy efficiency and lower electricity consumption are further advantages. For example, widget lights can be used to achieve illumination levels from 300 to 1000 lx in the vicinity of industrial machines. At the same time, this ensures good glare reduction and reduces the likelihood of errors and accidents. In turn, this results in improved safety and effectiveness. The greater contrast permitted by the higher light levels allows better visual perception of different shades of the color of objects.
However, the use of widget lights can be limited. They often have a higher purchase price than conventional lighting solutions, although energy efficiency compensates for the higher one-time expense over time. It should also be noted that all lights require some type of maintenance throughout their lifespan. Home and company scheduling issues should be taken into account, as downtime to clean can interrupt production at certain plants. However, technologies or methods that fundamentally avoid the need do exist. Selecting the product best suited to a company's specific requirements and environment is crucial. Some of today's widget lighting solutions are distinct in that they are not simply broad-based goods, making them more versatile. Nonetheless, it is important to think about compatibility and current investments in order to ensure that a new modular light management system complements well with current equipment.
With the help of new technological innovations, a widget lamp has the potential to transform itself from the standard bulb of yesteryear to a sensor-rich luminous device of today. These and other networked devices are often referred to as smart. But can a widget lamp be smart as well as small, and what exactly does that mean? Smart, in the case of widget lamps, generally means networked.
The last decade has been marked by dramatic improvements in lighting technologies. But these innovations are now maturing and reaching the limits of technological advances. The result of this is a tunnel effect; innovations are now increasingly marginal. Not to mention that machine learning will potentially make other cheaper and in-depth assessment criteria.
We are currently living in an era of remarkable breakthroughs in electronic technology. The push towards ever smaller dimensions has made it possible to create not only microcomputers but an astonishing variety of other micro-sized electronic devices, which use not aggregated diskettes to store programs and data as well as miniature sensors and generators to detect and transmit information to their environment.
The demand for new lamps that also conserve energy and consequently reduce costs is high. This market demand is further stimulated by enhanced lighting due to the new conversion technologies. In a sense, what happened to smart fluid power applications seems to be replicated for lighting, though our research-based data does not allow us to provide statistics.
The evolution from the traditional widget lamp to the forthcoming smart lighting systems will be profoundly influenced by other innovative tendencies occurring in the materials market as well as in the manufacturing technologies. The most significant is the use of discrete components because of their capability of granting fast prototype development and exploiting the state-of-the-art available sensors and actuators. The possibility to use new materials and innovative structures, i.e., 3D structures, offers a revolution in the miniaturization of actuators and optical components because of the new degrees of freedom allowed. Moreover, they also guarantee innovative degrees in terms of usage environments.
55% off
55% off
48% off
48% off
