fdm lighting led lighting offers new opportunities - hera usa · describes hera’s stick-led as...
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34 | CabinetMaker+FDM
www.CabinetMakerFDM.com | September 2013 |
by Alan RichmanLIGHTING
LLet there be light. That Biblical pronouncement
gives a pretty good pedigree to everything else
that has come after in the world of illumination.
This includes LED lighting, which some consider
“the next revolution in cabinetry.”
Chris Johnston, national sales manager for the
Commercial Division at Nora Lighting in Com-
merce, Calif., says, “Once a fad, LED is now an ac-
ceptable and viable means to illuminating a home
or business. Just in the past year the technology
has advanced tenfold, improving the light output
while reducing the cost to the end user.”
Joey Shimm, director of marketing for Outwa-
ter Plastics Industries, in Bogota, N.J., agrees that
LED lighting “is on the fast track to replacing all
other light sources.” This is in spite of what he
calls “initial growing pains, new-to-market high
cost and less than desired early performance.”
The future of LED lighting is so assured in the
mind of Art Kubach, a principal at TC Millwork in
Bensalem, Pa., that he says the ability to seamlessly
integrate LED solutions into finished products
means professional woodworkers will have to “re-
ally think differently about how they engineer and
build things.”
LED, of course, stands for light-emitting diode,
defined as a semiconductor device that emits vis-
ible light when electric current passes through it.
Features and benefitsThe reasons that LEDs are attractive to
cabinetmakers and their clients include all of
the following, according to Jenna Kaba, market-
ing coordinator for Norcross, Ga.-based Hera
Lighting.
LEDs are low profile and sleek fixtures that
can easily be incorporated into furniture and
cabinets. Features include low energy consump-
tion, no heat or UV, long lifetime of 50,000
hours, high color rendering,good quality of
light, and low voltage. (See sidebar above for
full list.)
In this long list, one that must stand out for
Considered by some to be the next revolution in cabinetry, LED lighting is changing the world of cabinet design, while pumping up profits for professionals.
LED lighting offers new opportunities
Nora LED puck lights shown in a kitchen application.
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wood professionals is the added-value oppor-
tunity. Kaba says, “Lighting adds value to any
kitchen and automatically makes it appear high
end.” Because the lighting now comes as part of
a “complete package with cabinetry,” increased
profits should result, she states.
Emphasizing the small size of many LED
products, Johnston notes that they can be incor-
porated rather easily into tape lighting, edge-lit
panels and other formerly hard-
to-access applications.
Paraphrasing the Star Trek
prologue, he says, these thin,
f lexible light sources are “going
places where no light has gone
before. Under furniture, behind
pictures and mirrors, around
outdoor seating areas and plant-
ers, along bar tops and shelves,
in home theaters, and of course,
coves, niches, and under, in and
on top of cabinets. Offered in standard, high-
output and color-changing tape light versions,
the technology allows for endless possibilities.”
Who has whatShimm says Outwater’s Tri-Mod LED backlight-
ing panels are only 1/16th inch thick, making
them “a great way to uniformly backlight graph-
ics, posters and promotional messages without
Hera LED application for a built-in bar.
Features and benefits of LED lighting
❯ No heat or UV❯ Add value to kitchens with
ambient and task lighting❯ Long lifetime of 50,000 hours,
which means never having to change a light bulb
❯ High color rendering, good quality of light
❯ Low voltage so there is no fire or shock risk
❯ HVAC/energy savings❯ Shatterproof❯ Plug and play systems that can
connect to one driver❯ UL-listed as a complete system❯ LM79-tested
Gera Glasablage is used in
a shelf lighting application.
Hera LED application for a built-in bar.
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any hot spots or uneven light dispersion.” He sees
stores, restaurants, museums and exhibit booths, as
well as commercial and residential buildings as good
settings for these uses. In addition, he says, the panels
can also be readily used to illuminate all types of
translucent surfaces, including onyx or Corian coun-
tertops and backsplashes.
“With this in mind,” Shimm continues, “It is no
surprise that LED light-
ing has realized broad
acceptance by numerous
industries that had initially
shunned its use. It has rap-
idly evolved into an obvious
choice.” Based on steadily
increasing sales figures for
LED lighting over the past
few years, the manufacturing
community appears to agree.
LED product varia-
tions are numerous. Kaba
describes Hera’s Stick-LED
as miniature linear LED
lighting with an integrated
connecting system. She
says, “These ultra-compact strips of LED lighting are
perfect for furniture, cabinets, displays and closet
interiors.”
Hera also offers a TwinStick-LED, an R55-LED
and an AKOD-LED. The R55 is the next generation
of LED spotlight, “an improvement for the KB12-
LED,” says Kaba, but able to use the same mounting
hole. Luminous efficacy is 55 lm/W, she reports.
“The brand new AKOD-LED (full name Af-
fordable Kitchen, Office and Display Lighting) is a
complete LED lighting solution which offers a very
low profile and integrated on/off switch,” says Kaba.
Although it is “specifically designed with office
applications in mind,” she says it also works well in
residential cabinets and retail displays.” The product
comes in three sizes and offers dimming capabilities.
At Nora Lighting, the LED line includes: tape
lights; edge-lit panels; puck lights; retrofit downlights
for home and office; track and rail fixtures for home
and retail sites; pendants; step and brick lights; and
emergency/exit signs.
“The new versatility and choice of LED fixtures
have made them a practical solution for all installa-
tions from home and office to commercial, retail and
institutional lighting,” says Johnston.
He is particularly high on the Standard, Hy-Brite,
High Output and RGB color
changing tape lights, as well
as the Nora LED Lightbar
Plus linear lightbar, which
may be installed under cabi-
nets and features powerful
400-plus lumen output per
foot while only consuming
an energy-saving 8W per
foot.
And how about those
compact (2 ¾ inch wide and
½ inch deep) slim-line pucks
that are designed for display
shelves, furniture cabinets,
jewelry cases and other ac-
cent niches? Johnston says
they install with a single screw bracket, can be “daisy-
chained,” and are dimmable, with a dimming power
supply.
“At TC Millwork,” says Kubach, “Our latest of-
fering is a three-watt puck that is very low profile.
It produces almost 1,000 lux at 16 inches with color
rendition at 93.5 right on the black body curve. This
is basically considered museum-quality lighting using
very little energy.”
He adds, “We will be launching and incorporat-
ing the first OLED (organic LED) strip light into our
Smartwall shelving in the third quarter of this year. We
feel that this will be where indoor lighting goes in the
near future. What makes OLEDs special is the fact that
they are self-emissive, as thin as your credit card, will
soon be producing 80 lumens per watt (135 lumens
LED LIGHTING
Nora LightBar Plus closeup and kitchen application.
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www.CabinetMakerFDM.com | September 2013 |
per watt within a year). And they
are not single-point lights, which
is a big detraction with LED from
a visual perspective.”
TC Millwork’s Smartwall
deserves a fuller description. As
reported by Karl Forth in 2012,
“LED technology is at the heart
of TCM’s Smartwall. Using the
company’s Leggero lightweight
shelves, proprietary wiring har-
nesses are built into a shelf core
and wired to embedded LED
puck lights. The shelf then makes its connection to
the powered standards. The lit shelves can be placed
anywhere on the wall and it lights up and connects
automatically. ‘You bring the light directly to the
product. It’s totally seamless
and wireless for the customer,’
Kubach says.”
Forth said TC Millwork makes
a wide variety of display prod-
ucts for use on their Smartwall,
to include straight and slanted
shelves, shadow boxes, step
shelves and a lit clear shelf with
a proprietary design strip LED
light with a groove that it fits
into. There are no wires, only two
magnets that are used with the
contact points inside the shelf.
At Interzum this past May,
Gera Leuchten of Sankt Gangloff in Thuringia, Ger-
many, presented its modular Gera Lighting Systems
4 and 6, as well as the LED-based Avion standard
lamp, which was unveiled along with an optimized,
LED LIGHTING
Outwater Plastics offers this ribbon flex light.
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electronic control for lighting colors.
The company said its ScanAndLight technology,
which measures and controls the light of each lamp
in the surrounding room, can now be adapted “even
more effectively” for the well-being of particular
users. In a press release, Gera stated, “Targeted mi-
croelectronic control of the LED color components
permits the creation of a constantly adapting light
mood throughout the entire room, which is perceived
as being completely natural by the human eye.”
The new version of the Gera ScanAndLight solu-
tion is even more flexible and mobile than in the
past, according to the company. The control data now
are simply transmitted to the light sources wirelessly,
whereas they needed to be sent to a computer for
further processing in the original version—with each
individual light source connected by means of cables.
Now, the data can be controlled either by means
of a simple wall switch, a remote control device
or—irrespective of location—using mobile terminal
devices such as smart¬phones, PC tablets and laptops.
In addition to creating various room ambiences, the
revised version offers the benefit that the lighting
systems can be controlled and monitored as part of
an overall building automation system. This permits,
for instance, timer-controlled lighting as a form of
burglary protection.
Turning its attention to color, Gera Leuchten intro-
duced a simple light control for adjusting white color
components by means of a sensor switch. “We have
once again dramatically increased the range of white
and color gradations. With the new electronic control,
adding white can result in lower color saturation and
hence generate gentle pastel hues,” explained Thomas
Ritt, the firm’s designer and product manager.
Getting in on the actWhere are the customers most likely to purchase
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LED lighting? Kubach responds,
“I think retail, museums, and
office furniture are going to be
your easiest sales and deliver the
biggest ROI.”
The Pennsylvania millworker,
who also offers his own line of
lighting products, says every retail
store fixture is a potential site for
LED lighting. “Your aim should
be to bring the light to the prod-
uct, and LED technology enables
you to do that,” he explains.
Kubach goes on to warn
cabinetmakers and furniture
manufacturers that lighting is not
the place to stint on quality. “The
quality of the light is everything,”
he says. “There are many inex-
pensive LED knockoffs in the
marketplace. And when you plug
them in, that’s just what they look
like—inexpensive knockoffs.”
What’s the point of creating a
very high-quality fixture or piece
of furniture if you then introduce
a poor light? You would only
defeat your own purpose, he
points out.
With fine quality LED lighting
in place, you minimize customer
service callbacks, says Kubach.
“Don’t cheat on the light engine,
The key is to select a unit with
the highest color rendition, best
lumens-per-watts performance,
properly heat sunk, and integrat-
ed into a good looking housing
with great optics—for as little
glare and best light spread as pos-
sible,” he says. ❮
LED LIGHTING
Alan Richman, former editor of Wood
Digest and Cabinet Manufacturing &
Fabricating, is a New Jersey-based
freelance writer specializing in the
woodworking industry. He has been a
contributor to CabinetMaker+FDM since
2007. Contact him at alanrichman@
yahoo.com.
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