Wipro Lighting, a part of Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting Group was started in 1992 to manufacture and market lighting products. Today Wipro Lighting is one of the leading names when it comes to thought and reliability in the country’s LED lighting industry. Wipro Lighting has a wide range of LED product offerings and profitable presence across application areas including modern workspaces, industries, retail, healthcare, pharmaceutical firms, roads & highways and landscapes.
When we speak of factory lighting, the first thing we think about is well-lit spaces to ensure worker safety. Factories are places of heavy-duty work and so there is a need to use lights that are sturdy enough to withstand extreme working conditions and high temperatures while consuming less energy. Across the globe, energy conservation is considered one of the most important concerns, and Wipro’s energy efficient and smart lighting solutions for industries significantly contribute to conserving energy and provide for environmental sustainability. At the same time, ergonomic quality of industries is crucial for efficient performance of visual tasks.
According to the company, at Wipro, industry experts have been brought in to build lights keeping these key parameters at the centre of its development. Wipro’s factory lights are sturdy, durable, easy to maintain, and are ideal for high temperature environments as well. In order to explore as how important is this industrial lighting segment for the company, we at LED World came in contact with Anuj Dhir, Vice President & Business Head, Wipro Commercial Lighting Business, Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting. Following are the excerpts of what he shared:
What are the typical illumination requirements of a factory/warehousing premises? What specifications are asked for in General?
In factories & warehousing, worker productivity and safety are the major concerns. As the entire space needs to be lit up properly, majority of the illumination requirement will be horizontal lux levels of Boolux fame.
This is true for uniform illumination of the entire space. Also certain tasks like cutting require machine specific/process specific lighting in order to help workers supervise the work in detail. Warehouses need vertical lux levels to identify stored items. Typical illumination level requirements on vertical planes are 150-250 Lux.
From savings perspective, energy efficiency & the cost of the luminaire play a major role in luminaire decision making in industries. Total cost of ownership (TCO) takes into account CAPEX (capital expenditure) as well as the OPEX (operating expenditure). This includes the initial cost as well as installation, maintenance and operational cost of the luminaire.
- For new projects, lesser no. of luminaires with higher savings are preferred. Higher efficacy leads to lesser number of luminaires, thus lower consumption of energy.
- For LED Refurbishment Projects, lower wattage higher savings is the key. In such projects, replacement of the luminaires happens 1:1. Higher efficacy leads to lower wattage per luminaire due to its high lumen output.
Is the modern day LED solution ready to replace MHLs in such premises? What major change does/may the new lighting solution bring in those places of manufacturing activities?
Modern day best-in-class LED technology with high efficiency LM80 compliant LEDs can easily replace existing conventional metal halide lamps (MHL) given many advantages like instant start, high lumen output, high PF, better CRI and options in colour temperature, along with minimum energy saving of 55-60%. MHL solutions have a lifespan of 8-10K burning hrs compared to LEDs which have lifespan upto 50K burning hours. This leads to 5 times savings on the capital cost of the luminaires.
LEDs combined with LENS optics provide multiple beam options are suitable for mounting heights of 6m-25m. This choice provides for uniform and glare-free lighting and effective light distribution ensuring high performance.
How has the incorporation of smart technology changed the lighting panorama in these spaces?
Connecting the factory floor to Internet of Things (IoT) allows humans and machines to communicate with each another and work as one unified team. With Industry 4.0, manufacturers can gather and analyze real time data to identify patterns and insights so decisions can be made quickly and efficiently increasing productivity and Overall Equipment Effectiveness.
Modern day industrial luminaires should easily integrate with Intelligent Controls & Sensors, Dimming solutions (DALI/ Analogue) and IoT based solutions further enhancing the safety, productivity and the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
LED luminaires can be easily dimmed and incorporated with smart technologies like connected lighting system. Various strategies like Intelligent Wired & Wireless Controls, Time based Scheduling, Motion Based Control, Day light harvesting, Asset Tracking and Stocking etc. are possible with industry 4.0 compatible smart lighting solutions.
How much saving (in terms of percentage) can it bring to the owner of any such premises?
Simple refurbishment of conventional fixtures like MHL to LED can bring up to 55% energy savings. LED technology combined with smart & automated lighting solutions can provide energy savings up to 80%.
Have you supplied your lighting solutions to any such places recently? How has been the response far?
Since last 25 years, Wipro has been supplying energy efficient fixtures like Highbays, Wellglass and Bulkheads to heavy industries, manufacturing plants, food & beverage industries as well as warehouses. Our latest offerings like Highbays – Xpressbay, Radial UNO, Radial Pro Plus with efficacy up to 150lm/W, linear weather proof luminaires like Capsule, linear trunking fixture like Xline Pro are popular in the industry due to their properties of excellent thermal management, longer service life, flexible mounting options, quick and easy installation.
These are designed to deliver optimum performance under harsh industrial environment to provide significant & sustained energy savings over the product life cycle resulting in enhanced productivity & safety. Compatibility with smart lighting and ideal for refurbishment, make our luminaires popular in the industry & warehousing market.
What is the share of warehouse/factory lighting in your total sales? How do you assess the prospects of this segment in time to come?
Industry & Warehousing segment occupies about 25% share of our total lighting sales. As far as prospect is concerned iindustrial and warehouse LED lighting market is expected to witness significant growth over the next few years. With rising energy costs, high efficiency, reliability, and longer life span are expected to drive LED demand over conventional technologies. High brightness level, condensed size, low power consumption and robust nature are some of the other factors projected to trigger industry lighting growth.
With growth of online e-commerce portals, increasing no. of warehouses are coming up. These warehouses require optimum usage of energy. Smart & Connected lighting solutions are the key to growth in warehouse lighting section.
Technological advancements with green lighting options, growth impetus for LED lighting solutions with higher energy efficiency standards have led to increased demand in this sector.
