TFC Walsall LED Lighting Upgrade
Project location: Walsall, West Midlands
Project Background Brief:
TFC Ltd had decided to increase their storage capacity at their Walsall site, due to business growth and expansion and therefore needed new additional racking, so they chose to work with Rackit, who were to redesign and upgrade the racking storage within the industrial area of the premises.
With the redesign and relocation of the racking, this meant that the positioning of the existing lighting would not be suitable for the new layout, so a new installation was required. In addition to this, the existing lighting was costly to run as it was an inefficient metal halide high-bay system, with no lighting controls, and with the luminaires installed at height, regular maintenance challenges were apparent.
PPG Projects were appointed as the chosen installer by the lighting manufacturer, PowerLed (Sunpower Holdings), to install their new LED lighting to the warehouse and picking areas.
PPG Projects were also chosen to install new supplies and charging units for the clients forklift trucks, in addition to a full building EICR and Emergency Lighting test with remedial works in follow up.
Particular Challenges:
As with many industrial units, this site featured an apex roof with varying eaves and changes of height across the building. The buildings infrastructure also featured a high amount of steelwork and RSJ’s across the ceiling, meaning positioning of trunking and luminaires had to be carefully selected within the design, to ensure it’s mounting was physically possible and therefore the light levels would comply to the relevant lighting standards. To maximise the available storage within the new racking systems, Rackit wanted to utilise as much height as possible with their systems, meaning again that trunking and luminaire positions were limited.
During the planning stage, the end user customer raised a concern that illuminance levels within the existing racking were incredibly low, causing a safety concern for their employees who pick items from the shelves being unable to see clearly. Within the lighting design,the scheme was planned with the proposed racking included to show not only the light levels through the aisles where the forklift trucks andoperatives would be working, but within the racking shelves themselves where operatives would be picking from. A significant increase to a safe lighting level was planned and delivered.
Special project features:
With the premises featuring a number of skylights and an increased number of aisles as a result of the racking upgrade, PPG Projects proposed the installation of a lighting control system which would monitor both presence/absence and levels of daylight, per aisle, by the use of sensors. This was commissioned by our in-house engineers and installed to maximise the energy saving and sustainability aspect of the project, whilst ensuring safe levels of lighting across the active working areas of the site at all times.
