focus on Laboratory Products


Improving Lighting Systems by Monitoring their Temperature Profi les


FLIR Systems


Pure lighting pleasure. That has been the mantra of lighting specialist Delta Light for many years. The Belgian manufacturer of architectural lighting has always tried to delight its customers by combining an appealing lighting design with thorough research and development. A continuous focus of the R&D team is ensuring the fi re safety as well as improving the durability of its lighting designs. To achieve this, the team uses thermal imaging technology from FLIR Systems.


Delta Light is a true trendsetter in architectural lighting. By always coming out with innovative lighting designs, the company has built itself a worldwide reputation. Delta Light currently employs some 200 people at its head offi ce in Wevelgem, Belgium, and the company is active in over 110 countries.


“A Delta Light product is always a combination of innovative system design, the right light ambiance and quality materials,” said Koen Dequae, Quality and Standards Manager at Delta Light. “In terms of quality, we are especially interested in the durability of a lighting system. One of the most critical factors of durability is temperature. In order to better monitor the temperature profi le of our products, Delta Light decided to purchase a thermal imaging camera from FLIR Systems.”


Critical Temperatures


Delta Light has been able to present attractive growth fi gures over the last few years. Thanks to this growth, the company decided to make some essential investments into the R&D department, of which a FLIR E30 handheld thermal imaging camera was one. Already familiar with the concept of thermal imaging, it didn’t take Delta Light very long to conclude that this FLIR camera was the best fi t for their application in terms of performance and cost-effi ciency.


“Monitoring the temperatures of our products is critical in the design, development and qualifi cation phase,” said Koen Dequae. “We now work with LED lights that have a lifetime of up to 100,000 hours. If you realise that a temperature raise in the lighting system of a mere 10 degrees can reduce the LED lifetime by half, then you know that keeping the temperatures under control is essential.”


The Delta Light R&D specialists have an immediate overview of the temperature values of the total lighting system design in the blink of an eye.


International Safety Regulations


Delta Light uses the FLIR E30 camera to look at the LEDs, at the electronic power supply of the lighting systems – both proprietary and third party – and at the temperature profi le of the lighting system as a whole. The latter is essential to be able to design and manufacture lighting products in accordance with international (IEC-60598) and North-American (UL- 1598) standards. The thermal imaging camera from FLIR helps the R&D team achieve that.


“These safety standards stipulate that a lighting system design cannot exceed a certain temperature,” says Koen Dequae. “To make sure that is the case, we look at the entire design and look for the hottest point. If that hottest point does not exceed that temperature, we meet the standard.”


Thanks to the FLIR E30 camera, Delta Light can now perform these qualifi cation tests in house. The company does no longer need to rely on external agencies to do that. That saves Delta Light a lot of time and effort in the qualifi cation phase.


Thermal Imaging Versus Thermocouples


The use of thermocouples is still required if you want to meet certain international standards. However, these wired sensors have some signifi cant drawbacks which make the work of R&D specialists diffi cult.


Delta Light is a premium brand for architectural lighting in residential buildings, offi ces, showrooms and for outdoor lighting.


“To meet the required safety standards for our products, we heavily rely on fi nding the hottest spot on our lighting design,” said Koen Dequae. “However, with thermocouples that is not always very simple. Just by moving a thermocouple just a few millimeters on the lighting design, the temperature values can present signifi cant differences. In other words, relying on thermocouples alone for temperature measurement is not suffi cient. Only using thermocouples is like groping in the dark.”


LABMATE UK & IRELAND - AUGUST 2014


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