In a major development for one of the UK’s largest trade-only sign industry suppliers, SignFab has revealed the launch of a new company with a flagship lighting system that seems set to intensify competition in this already heated market sector.
Named LUMAIRE, the new company and LED lighting product has been launched in reaction to a steep rise in demand for LED light sheet products from sign-buyers and designers. The market’s growth is being driven by the application flexibility of such products and their high-intensity, yet even, light output.
Up until now, when buyers are faced between a choice of slim design versus traditional depths in their lit applications, more often than not, budget restraints prevent the use of current options being utilised and design is compromised”
LUMAIRE’s marketing and business development manager, Simon Berry, spoke to SignLink prior to the products industry-wide launch: “LUMAIRE is a brand new, affordable, premium product that has been four years in development and has been designed from the ground up to be brighter, more appealing and more profitable for the LED light sheet market.”
He continued: “Up until now, when buyers are faced between a choice of slim design versus traditional depths in their lit applications, more often than not, budget restraints prevent the use of current options being utilised and design is compromised.”
This comment from Berry rings true, as a common pitfall when dealing with sign buyers and designers alike is their enthusiasm for a project’s technical and creative merits until they find out the normally high cost of utilising high-specification lighting systems.
Demand driven
With a number of key trade suppliers now developing light sheet products for sign-makers, their key application areas see them go into high-print quality textile lightboxes—which require even light distribution and low heat; bespoke sign-lettering applications; and even high-end architectural lighting schemes.
Berry continues: “Since its inception, LUMAIRE has always been about creating a high-end premium product that is sleeker, more aesthetically pleasing, more practical and certainly more viable in terms of cost and use compared to today’s market leaders. LED light sheet technology hasn’t altered much in the last couple of years. We have purposefully developed this product with end use in mind and the technology behind it is geared towards creating the best light output where display, graphics and desired ‘wow factor’ is needed.
Since its inception, LUMAIRE has always been about creating a high-end premium product that is sleeker, more aesthetically pleasing, more practical and certainly more viable in terms of cost and use compared to today’s market leaders”
“Typical application areas would include the following lighting applications; retail, point-of-sale displays, shelving, interior design, product displays, ceilings, wall panel, exhibition, graphic displays with many more options and real world applications that would suit slimmer lighting techn-ology.”
Indeed, looking back across the usage of such products in the UK and European market, their initial applications saw light sheet products go into areas such as exclusive fashion retailers and design projects. But, as with any technology, the systems merits and boom in demand for light sheets has seen research and development departments at companies like SignFab work to bring down costs and increase application flexibility—without compromising quality.
Technology focused
The launch of LUMAIRE into this verdant sector sees the new system feature a 6000k ‘Crisp Daylight’ colour ‘high-efficiency’
bar, which has been engineered from 5mm acrylic sheet and finished with exclusive aluminium extruded end caps—these double as the heat sink. LUMAIRE also reportedly features a ‘plug and play’ type connection for easy assembly and installation and finally a reflective backing sheet.
Our attention to detail and quality carries right through the production process and even into the packaging, where we want every aspect of LUMAIRE to be seen and recognised as being a premium product without the drawbacks of a premium price tag”
“Our attention to detail and quality carries right through the production process and even into the packaging, where we want every aspect of LUMAIRE to be seen and recognised as being a premium product without the drawbacks of a premium price tag,” claims Berry, who adds: “LUMAIRE works because all of its components are in tune with each other. The combinations of the crisp bright efficient LED colour strip, in conjunction with the uniquely engineered acrylic sheet have been designed to have a diffuser sheet placed on top. This means that a typical opal acrylic carrier sheet for any graphics acts as an enhancement to the light transmission. In our own tests we found that the brightness was nearly double that of the leading brands of alternative light sheets.”
A new dawn
With fluorescent and then individual LED modules largely dominating the sign lighting market, the evolution of light sheet products and their popular appeal seems set to once again change the face of this once stable industry sector.
While very flexible in their application, a key drawback of LED chains for certain applications was the number of modules that would need to be used in a chain to achieve even and bright lighting—leading to high costs and intensive fabrication. Conversely, fluorescent products, while cheap, produce high heat and have long been blighted with poor levels of even lighting and flexibility.
Where interior design and high end architectural applications are concerned, budgetary considerations are not as stringent, so it is more form over cost consideration”
With this in mind, Berry outlines the appeal of the new light sheet generation and LUMAIRE’s new flagship system: “It will allow the greater use of a slimmer lighting product where cost barriers have prohibited such use in the past. Where interior design and high end architectural applications are concerned, budgetary considerations are not as stringent, so it is more form over cost consideration. Here, LUMAIRE will benefit from its overall premium look and feel.”
While the use of light sheet products is growing rapidly, Berry highlights that more sign-makers need to investigate the technology’s merits and its potential to have a, ‘positive impact on sales growth’.
