Newcastle-based logistics company, Ramage Transport Ltd, have overcome the challenge of providing high quality lighting in vehicle paint shops with the help of local manufacturer, Hadar Lighting, part of the Ashington-based A-Belco Group.
Whilst car paint shops encounter similar conditions of a hazardous environment filled with paint overspray and propellant, Ramage Transport's problems were compounded by the size of their paint shop, a 30m x 15m building with a 5m pitched roof allowing access for the tractor units. They therefore needed lights at different heights to ensure pure enough light for the high standards of colour rendition required and lights which could be easily and quickly cleaned.
Ramage Transport's Operations Director, Robin Ramage, explained, "It is slightly unusual for a haulage contractor to have their own paint shop, but we take great pride in offering a first class service, the physical embodiment of which is both the mechanical condition and appearance of our vehicle fleet. Our staff need the very best light to ensure the best finish and we also need to be able to easily clean the lights' covers to ensure any overspill doesn't build up and reduce the light quality."
"We have always had a problem with lighting a building of this height to the standard required for a good paint job - wellglass or floodlight fittings do not produce a pure enough light for good colour rendition yet the height of the building means that it is at the very limit of fluorescent light capabilities. What particularly impressed us about the Hadar lights was not only their ease of installation, but also the quick fix lamp envelopes can be easily taken down, cleaned and new tubes installed without the need to isolate each one thanks to the spring loaded flame path built into each appliance."
Hadar supplied some 30 HDL100 double fluorescent luminaries certified for Hazardous Area Zone 1 together with portable hazardous area lights to enable closer inspection of the tractors from the service bay. Since installing the lights, Ramage have found that a considerable improvement in light quality has been achieved and the problems they previously encountered have been eliminated.
Established in 2005, A-Belco Group's Hadar Lighting Division is a specialist manufacturer of hazardous area products for the oil, gas, petro-chemical, pharmaceutical and marine industries worldwide offering the design and production of products for Zone Classification Areas 1, 2, 21 & 22, Gas and Dust.