Lighting Retrofit Smooths the Ride

As a designer and manufacturer of vehicle seating and interior trim parts, T.S. Tech North America, Reynoldsburg, Ohio, requires a high level of visual precision from its workers. Among its many customers, the company provides interiors for Honda Motors.

When it came time for the company to specify lighting for a new facility in Alabama, quality illumination was critical. In order to create the right environment for sewing and assembly, new lighting would have to achieve 90 foot-candles and provide natural-looking light.

The existing fluorescent lighting in the 154,000-sq.-ft. building near Boaz, Ala., radiated diffuse light that was not intense enough to provide the necessary brightness. High-pressure sodium lighting could give the required foot-candles, but it couldn’t offer the quality of light needed.

Company managers selected 450-watt pulse-start metal-halide lamps, rather than traditional 400-watt pinched-body lamps, because they were familiar with the benefits of this technology’s energy efficiency and white light.

“We wanted pulse-start metal-halide because this is the technology we used when we renovated our headquarters in Reynoldsburg,” explains Phil Kennedy, T.S. Tech Alabama’s plant manager.

It was determined that a standard, low-bay luminaire with a superior lamp would deliver the desired results. These were mounted 15 feet high and spaced 18 feet apart. Five hundred open-rated lamps were installed in all renovation.

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