Runway Lights & Airport Lighting

Runway lights outline the runway so the pilot can see it at night and safely land the plane. In large airports, runway lighting is controlled by are controlled by the Air Traffic Tower. Lights are low, medium, or high intensity in order to work in both day and night and varying degrees of weather-related visibility.

There are several kinds of runway lights. Every one of them is extremely important to the ultimate success of locating the runway and landing the aircraft safely.

Approach Lights
These runway lights are actually a system of strobe lights and light bars that signal to the pilot where the beginning of the runway is located and where final approach should begin. ALS, or approach lighting systems, are used mostly in airports with instrument approach procedures. They help pilots line up aircraft with the runway.

These lights are vital to the safe landing of planes because distance and perspective are commonly distorted by the angle and speed of the plane. The ALS, using its white bars and flashing strobe lights, creates a field of clearly differentiated signals that work like visual cues for the pilot to use in lining up the plane for landing.

Centerline Lights
Centerline lights are recessed runway lights embedded in the surface of the tarmac itself. They are spaced 50 ft apart and run the entire length of the runway. They are white in color up until the last 3,000 feet, where they begin alternating between white and red. Then, for the last 1,000 ft, they are solid red.

Runway Edge lights
In airports that rely upon instrument approach procedures, the length of the runway is bordered by white elevated lights on both sides, while the last 2,000 feet of the runway is bordered by amber edge lights.

Touchdown Zone Lights
These runway lights show where the wheels of the plane need to touch down.

Runway End Identification Lights
These commercial lights assist the pilot in picking out the runway when it is surrounded by all other sorts of airport lighting and city lights. They also help distinguish the runway from surrounding terrain and increase its visibility in bad weather.

Lights at the end of the runway look red to a departing aircraft and green at the threshold the runway to approaching aircraft.

Taxiway Lights
These runway lights distinguish adjoining taxiways from the runway itself. Light types include taxiway centerline lead-off lights, taxiway centerline lead-on lights, and land and hold short lights.

RLLD Commercial Lighting provides an increasing number of LED and Solar Powered models of these Airport runway lights that are that are self-maintaining, energy efficient, and more reliable than traditional transformer-based lighting fixtures.

Many types of airport lights are becoming increasingly and more readily available in solar powered and LED form. Talk to an RLLD Commercial Lighting Designer about the availability and viability of these particular models for your particular application needs.

RLLD Commercial Lighting carries a wide variety of industrial & commercial lighting fixtures. If you can not find what you are looking for contact us toll free at 1-866-654-3961 and we will find it for you. Our GSA Advantage lighting home office is located in Houston, Texas with warehouses located throughout the United States that enable us to service all 50 states including Sault Ste Marie, MI (CIU), Cleveland, OH, (CLE), College Station, TX (CLL), Port Angeles, WA (CLM), Charlotte, NC (CLT), Columbus, OH (CMH), Champaign, IL (CMI), Hancock, MI (CMX), Cody, WY (COD) and Colorado Springs, CO (COS).

Airport Lights & Aviation Lighting

Every airport stands a rotating beacon that guides planes to the airports at night. As the pilot nears the airport, many different types of specialty airport lights then guide and direct the landing of the plane. These lights include runway lights, taxiway lights, obstruction lights, and lighted signs.

Most airport lights are intended to shine at different levels of intensity and are available in many different colors. The colors are significant and are very crucial to airport safety and operations. Some colors signify what type of airport a pilot is flying toward. For instance, green and white lights are used at civilian airports, whereas green and white flashing beacons are used for military bases. Yellow lights that then flash light are used to guide seaplanes.

Airport lights are most commonly are used between twilight and dawn. If daytime weather conditions become adverse, however, beacons will also be used to signal pilots that they need to use their instruments for landing and takeoff.

Here are a few of the many airport and aviation lights we offer:

• LED Elevated Lights
• Point Surface Floodlights & Perimeter Lights
• LED Heliport Lights
• LED Obstruction Lights
• LED Helideck Semiflush
• LED Flashing Beacons
• LED Rollover Lights

Runway lights are the most important type of airport lights. Blue lights mark the outline of the runway from the air. Green marks the approach end of the runway. Red lights show where the end of the runway is. In most airports, the lights that run along the sides of the end of the runway are white, but they gradually change to amber as you near the departure end. Recessed, or inset lights, are installed down the center line of the runway to show pilots where the middle of the runway is.

Just before you reach the runway, there is an area known as the threshold of approach that marks the location where the pilot must begin the final descent of the plane. Flashing strobe lights are used here to mark this critical junction. Air traffic controllers are in charge of controlling the strobe lights intensity. The highest luminance is set for times where the weather makes visibility very poor. In clear weather, the strobe light is much lower in brightness to avoid distracting the pilot during landing.

Airport signs are also vital to airport operations and safety. There are different types of unlighted and lighted signs. Direction, destination, and boundary signs feature a black legend on a yellow background. Mandatory instruction signs have of a white legend on a red background.

Again, we can see how color coding is used to mark vital areas of transit and boundary. The majority of taxiway and runway location signs, for instance, have yellow legend and a black background that makes them prominently visible. Taxiway ending marker lighted signs are yellow and black as well. One-half distance signs have a black background and a white legend.

Increasing numbers of airport lights are now being manufactured in solar powered and LED form. Talk to an RLLD Commercial Lighting Designer about the availability and workability of solar and LED models for your airport.

RLLD Commercial Lighting carries a wide variety of industrial & commercial lighting fixtures. If you can not find what you are looking for call us toll free at 1-866-654-3961 and we will find it for you.

Our home office is located in Houston, Texas with warehouses located throughout the United States that enable us to service all 50 states including Sault Ste Marie, MI (CIU), Cleveland, OH, (CLE), College Station, TX (CLL), Port Angeles, WA (CLM), Charlotte, NC (CLT), Columbus, OH (CMH), Champaign, IL (CMI), Hancock, MI (CMX), Cody, WY (COD) and Colorado Springs, CO (COS).

Interior Lighting Design & Designers

How does this term apply to the industrial world?
There are three types of facilities arenas in which interior lighting design is necessary: factories, warehouses, and offices. All three arenas require systems to be planned prior to the purchase of any equipment to save on energy costs, contribute to worker efficiency, and to maintain a safe work environment.

Why would an industrial firm need to think about office lighting?
Virtually every facility, no matter how devoted to manufacturing or distribution it may be, has office space of some type. Management and administration requires this separate space to oversee production and to make mission critical decisions about the company.

If we don’t have that many offices, do we need the same type of lighting that non-manufacturing corporations use?
Yes, but you probably don’t need as much because you have less square footage and fewer physical places to light. This can be good news to your pocketbook, and should also motivate you to invest in the photometric plan that will help you save in the long run. In principle, interior lighting design in your office space will follows the same principles as it does in service-oriented companies in the general corporate world at large. Your employees will have comfortable task lighting over their desks and cubes.

How can we save the most money on lighting a few executive and administrative offices?
Let an commercial interior lighting design expert help you determine the areas that really NEED special, high-quality lighting, and which areas really do not.

Foyers should have just enough ambient lighting to look professional to visitors and clients. Meeting rooms and executive office suites ought to have lighting controls that will save electricity by dimming the lights and also be able to create unique emotional states if there is a Power Point presentation or special speaker present.

Break rooms and bathrooms are the places where an architectural lighting designer can show you how to save a lot of money by using less expensive fixtures and using only enough light as is absolutely necessary in non-essential areas.

If we are running a factory, why should we spend extra money on interior lighting design when all we do is manufacture products?
You need it because the success of your manufacturing is contingent on precision, time-to-market, and safe working conditions. The quality of light in the building directly affects all of these things. Without sufficient task lighting, assembly line workers cannot see and consequently work at a noticeably slower pace. Morale tends to be rather negative too when people spend long hours at a time in dark areas.

And just how is interior lighting design so important to safety protocols?
People need certain amounts of light to do certain things. If the things they are doing may hurt them and they cannot see to do them, one major accident can shut your factory down. We are not trying to scare you with information you already know. We have all heard stories about accidents that happened around machines. Go back and look at some of these accidents and you’ll realize that some of them were directly related to poor visibility caused by bad lighting.

Save your company the liabilities and heartache with a photometric plan will show exactly how many fixtures your factory needs, where they ought to be mounted, and how they need to be positioned in order to minimize reflective glare and dispel shadows in hazardous work areas.

What will an industrial interior lighting plan do for my warehouse that general high bay lighting doesn’t already do?
General high bay and low bay lights are standard in almost every warehouse, so by no means do we mean to say here that you should stop using them. However, it may serve your interest better to look at the quality and the age of your current lights. Consider, however, how much you spend on maintaining them and operating them. You may discover that newer, more energy efficient lights engineered with longer lamp life could save money on both power and maintenance cycles.

Is there a way to get new lights and save money on more than just electricity and maintenance?
Yes. In principle, you need more light in areas where forklifts traffic cannot afford to have reflective glare from lights that are too bright or improperly mounted. You need precise levels of task light in packaging areas that cannot afford to be dark because inventory loss is likely to occur in darker areas.

In much of your storage space, break areas, bathrooms, hallways, and less traveled parts of the building, (ie: anything non-essential and non-labor intensive), we may could even reduce your lighting and save you additional money here.

Again, we have to an interior photometric lighting design analysis to see exactly what we can do for you. If you do buy equipment from us after buying the analysis, we refund the cost of the analysis and you end up with better, more efficient equipment and a more productive and safe operation at the end of the day.

What types of savings can RLLD offer its clients?
By investing a reasonable fee in an architectural lighting design plan, you gain significant savings by knowing up front exactly what you need before you mistakenly buy the wrong fixtures or buy too many fixtures. You never need to worry about over lighting an area or under lighting an area. An industrial outdoor lighting design plan is also very flexible—offering you variation in light levels based upon the actual need for light in that area. In certain areas such as warehouse loading docks, you will need brighter lighting for safety. In areas where work is not occurring, you only need general lighting for adequate visibility.

If you buy your industrial outdoor products from us, we will refund the value of the photometric design by deducting it from your equipment purchase invoice. This will also save you money on service charges.

RLLD Commercial Lighting carries a wide variety of industrial & commercial lighting fixtures. If you can not find what you are looking for contact us toll free at 1-866-654-3961 and we will find it for you.

Our lighting design studio is located in Houston, Texas with stocking warehouses located throughout the United States that enable us to service and ship to all 50 states including New York NY, Los Angeles CA, Miami, FL. Chicago, IL. Denver CO., New Orleans, La., Cleveland, Ohio, Kansas City, Mo., Mesa, Arizona, Virginia Beach, Va., Omaha, Nebraska, Oakland, California, Miami, Florida, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Arlington, Texas, Beaumont, Texas, Denton, TX, McKinney, Texas, Midland, TX, Killeen, Texas, Dallas TX, San Antonio, TX, Austin, TX, ALBQ, NYC, LA, MPLS.

Lighting Design & Lighting Designers

What is a lighting designer?
A lighting designer is a technical expert with a high degree of lighting equipment product knowledge and advanced training in photometric calculations and software design. Your commercial lighting designer takes the raw data that pertains to your facility and industry type and uses advanced software platforms to calculate necessary lighting levels and render three-dimensional models of your proposed lighting system.

This allows you to actually experience what a new industrial lighting system would offer you before actually buying the equipment. You can either purchase the design or have a local contractor source your equipment; or you can buy the equipment from us and pay your contractor for the installation labor.

We reimburse the cost of the photometric layout if you buy your industrial or parking lot lighting fixtures from us.

What experience should you look for in a lighting designer?
Look instead at history for your best frame of reference. Previous projects and case studies on our website will give you a very clear picture of level of precision and skill when it comes to building turnkey commercial lighting systems for our clients.

What training should a lighting design expert bring to the table?
Universities do not offer a degree in lighting design per se, so there are no formal credentials to gauge performance by. However, a good lighting designer should have some type of hands-on or academic training in interior architectural design. Knowledge of building interiors is crucial to knowing how light will disperse within a structure of a given type. They must also be able to produce photometric lighting designs.

It is also necessary that the lighting design specialist be a problem solver by nature. Clients confer with specialists because they have problems that need to be solved. The designer should think in terms of solutions that are generated by in-depth consultation with the client and analysis of facility data.

Software training is the last key component of the industrial lighting designer’s skill set. Design software is very complex and requires a high level of expertise to master.

What tools should that designer use on your behalf?
The skilled lighting designer should be able to take an overhead plan of your building and AutoCAD representation of your current lighting system and generate photometric layouts and models using AGI32 photometric design software.

Do you have some photometric examples where I can view your work?

• RLLD Photometric Of A New Harley Davadison Dealership
• Photometric Of Dog Training Center
• Photometric Shoe Box Lighting Fixtures
• Photometric Vertical Burn Lighting Design
• Photometric Comparison Renderings SVL VS Shoebox Lighting Fixtures
• Photometric Layout Analysis For A Skateboard Park In Guam.
• Flagstaff Arizona Volleyball Court Lighting Photometric

What options should you expect in terms of design, equipment, and installation?
You can expect a turnkey design and system solution if you work with RLLD Commercial Lighting as a single source vendor. We can provide you with the layout of your system and all the necessary equipment. If you need an installer, we can find you one in your area and act as a remote consultant to your contractor if necessary.

How can a lighting designer at RLLD Commercial Lighting offer you savings?
You can expect to get exactly the number of fixtures that you need—never more than what you need. All of our products are American that are designed for maximum energy efficiency and longer lamp life.

RLLD Commercial Lighting carries a wide variety of industrial & commercial lighting fixtures. If you can not find what you are looking for contact us toll free at 1-866-654-3961 and we will find it for you. We welcome will work hard to educate you, provide a design, establish a budget and provide the lighting goods to do the job!

Our photometric lighting design office is located in Houston, Texas with warehouses located throughout the United States that enable us to service all 50 states including San Juan, PR (SJU), Isla De Vieques, PR (VQS), Fajardo, PR (X95), Erie, PA (ERI), Killeen, TX (ILE), Sheridan, WY (SHR), Casper, WY (CPR), Parkersburg, WV (PKB), and Escanaba, MI (ESC). We also service clients internationally, with lighting manufacturer representatives working out of Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America. ALBQ, NYC, LA, MPLS.

Industrial Lighting Design & Designers

How do we define industrial lighting design?
Industrial lighting design is defined as the systematic planning of fixture selection and installation. This planning involves the creation of a lighting fixture, photometric layout that includes fixture placement locations, luminance specifications, and diagrams indicating the presence and nature lighting controls.

Upon request, industrial lighting designs can be rendered into 3D images of the facility that show what the location will look like under new light.

What businesses need a professional industrial lighting design?
As a GSA Advantage lighting vendor, any military or government entity can certainly benefits from one of these plans. Manufacturers that rely upon specified levels of glare free light for safety can also greatly benefit from investing in a design before purchasing. Another industry that seems to come to us quite frequently are those with outdoor parking lot lighting needs.

How can RLLD fulfill this role?
By designing a commercial lighting system first, we can offer you significant savings by showing you exact amounts of light needed by different parts of your facility. There is no point in over lighting a parking lot or anything on your property, nor will you need to worry about doing so ever again, because the design plans out your new system using sophisticated software that does these calculations at the speed of light.

What do you need from us to create an industrial lighting design for our building? Please tell us as much as possible about each type of task that is performed in your building and around your building exterior. This is the most important part of the process—the creation of appropriate, reliable, and affordable task lighting design. Send us elevation plans and a plan view in AutoCAD format.

Using your description of your process flow requirements and the data you send us in file form, we can then calculate your lighting levels and determine your equipment requirements.

What options in design and beyond design do we offer clients?
Every client has the option of simply buying an industrial lighting design from RLLD Commercial Lighting and having their local electrician attempt source the equipment and install it from them. Clients interested in getting the very best American-made light fixtures and accessories from us will have the cost of the photometric deducted from their final invoice.

Clients also have the option of seeing the proposed outdoor parking lot lighting plan in three-dimensional form if so needed for decision making or showing to vested partners and procurement supervisors.

RLLD will help you select the very best fixtures for every detail of the plan, and we will also work with your local contractor as a consultant on retainer if they need specific technical information on the installation and configuration of our equipment.

RLLD Commercial Lighting carries a wide variety of industrial & commercial lighting fixtures. If you can not find what you are looking for contact us toll free at 1-866-654-3961 and we will find it for you.

Our design studio is located in Houston, Texas with distribution centers located throughout the United States that enable us to service all 50 states including San Juan, PR (SJU), Isla De Vieques, PR (VQS), Fajardo, PR (X95), Erie, PA (ERI), Killeen, TX (ILE), Sheridan, WY (SHR), Casper, WY (CPR), Parkersburg, WV (PKB), and Escanaba, MI (ESC). We also service clients internationally, with lighting manufacturer representatives working out of Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America. ALBQ, NYC, LA, MPLS.

Industrial Outdoor Lighting & Lights

How do we define industrial outdoor lighting?
Industrial outdoor lighting is lighting equipment that is suitable to any environment—including hazardous environments—and capable of producing any necessary or desired light levels that are called for by the situation. See our photometric lighting examples.

What outdoor lighting products make up these systems?
Industrial outdoor lighting systems are composed of many different types of products. Pole lighting is used for a number of applications, most common of which is parking lot lighting. Pole lights are also used for general area lighting, such as coal lighting, and general outdoor work lighting. You also see pole lights of all sorts used along roadways and driveways that run through large commercial properties. Entrances and exits to properties are also marked by light poles.

Floodlights—some of the brightest industrial outdoor lights—are used to maintain perimeter security. Wall packs light sidewalk areas that run next to building walls. Canopy lights illuminate walkways that connect commercial buildings. Bollards are popular sources of both decorative and functional lighting along trails and near landscape architectural features such as commercial ponds. Such areas also tend to spice things up a bit on the decorative side of things with architectural lights, pond lights, and fountain lights.

Finally, the company brand should always be showcased clearly for all to see. Sign lights and gooseneck lights can be mounted in a variety of configurations to illuminate both monumentation and building facades.

What businesses need them the most?
There are two places that require the very best industrial outdoor lighting systems: the corporate headquarters and any manufacturing facility.

Regardless of the industry type or nature, headquarters must look attractive and establish a clear correspondence between lighting theme and corporate brand. Factories do not need this aesthetic element, but they do require precisely calculated levels of light and the very best in fixture engineering to produce glare-free light.

What are the most important design considerations that require the help of experts like RLLD to consider?
We plan and develop industrial outdoor lighting systems with the most advanced industrial lighting design software available. This software will simulate the behavior of various fixture types and determine which equipment options will work best for your needs. This saves you money by eliminating costly over purchasing and ensures you get exactly the photometric lighting design you need.

How are the various components chosen and configured as a unified system?
We first analyze the size of the facility. Obviously an area such as a mall parking lot will use more light poles than a small convenience store. Secondly, the general lay of the land has to be considered. Some parts of the country are hilly, or even mountainous, and this unevenness of terrain affects light distribution patterns. Finally, the lighting requirements of the type of business are factored into the equation to produce a photometric parking lot design program that satisfies the architectural, spatial, and functional demands of the property.

What types of savings can RLLD offer its clients?
By investing a reasonable fee in an architectural lighting design plan, you gain significant savings by knowing up front exactly what you need before you mistakenly buy the wrong fixtures or buy too many fixtures. You never need to worry about over lighting an area or under lighting an area. An industrial outdoor lighting design plan is also very flexible—offering you variation in light levels based upon the actual need for light in that area. In certain areas such as warehouse loading docks, you will need brighter lighting for safety. In areas where work is not occurring, you only need general lighting for adequate visibility.

If you buy your industrial outdoor products from us, we will refund the value of the photometric design by deducting it from your equipment purchase invoice. This will also save you money on service charges.

RLLD Commercial Lighting carries a wide variety of industrial & commercial lighting fixtures. If you can not find what you are looking for contact us toll free at 1-866-654-3961 and we will find it for you. Our home office is located in Houston, Texas with warehouses located throughout the United States that enable us to service all 50 states including New York NY, Los Angeles CA, Miami, FL. Chicago, IL. Denver CO., New Orleans, La., Cleveland, Ohio, Kansas City, Mo., Mesa, Arizona, Virginia Beach, Va., Omaha, Nebraska, Oakland, California, Miami, Florida, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Arlington, Texas, Beaumont, Texas, Denton, TX, McKinney, Texas, Midland, TX, Killeen, Texas, Dallas TX, San Antonio, TX, Austin, TX, ALBQ, NYC, LA, MPLS.

Industrial Lighting Systems

How do you define a lighting system?
An industrial lighting system is defined as a group of commercial electrical lighting equipment and controls that works together to perform a cohesive function.

What fixtures and accessories make up a typical industrial lighting system?
In factories and warehouses, high bay lights are used to provide general overhead lighting. Exit lighting is needed in every building to show where doorways are located. Operations that require assembly work require task lighting with higher visibility and minimized glare. Emergency lights also need to be installed over doorways in case the power goes out.

In office areas, call centers, and break rooms, HID lights or fluorescent lights represent the majority of the light fixtures used in interior industrial commercial lighting systems. Lighting equipment that is used indoors can only be used within the four walls of the building. This is because they are engineered to function only in humidity free environments. In moist air or heavy rain, they will not last for very long.

Outdoor light fixtures are far more durable. They are wet location rated, which means, in laymen’s terms, that they are designed to weather high humidity, rainfall, and even thunderstorms in places.

The diversity of fixture options available to a business is a clear indicator of how important it is to contract a lighting design specialist to plan and configure your industrial lighting system. Such a specialist will know exactly what type of equipment you need, and where it needs to be mounted.

What businesses require entire lighting systems?
All commercial entities, regardless of whether or not they carry the technical label of “industrial”, need industrial lighting systems. Retailers, office parks, warehouses, and factories all need both interior and exterior light fixtures. Corporate headquarters especially need the very best systems to reflect their brand and corporate culture.

How are these systems designed?
The design of indoor industrial lighting systems is accomplished through a series of specific steps. The first step is to figure out what type of task will be performed in a given area and how much light that particular task will require.

The nature of the task is very important. Office work, for example, requires general fluorescent lighting. Hallways require some light, but only enough for safety—not high visibility. Assembly work and machine work require the brightest light for maximum visibility, safety, and productivity.

Determination of lighting levels is based upon both general and specific factors. General factors are derived from general design guidelines that fall within IES codes. Specific parameters are customized to the environment and task at hand.

Each client is asked to send a plan view and an elevation view of the facility in AutoCAD format so the industrial lighting designer can feed this information into the software platform that in turn generates a photometric layout and 3D rendering of the new system.

How are different types of fixtures chosen and installed together in relationship to one another?
That depends on several factors. The size of the building and the type of industry are factors that weigh heavily on the number and intensity of fixtures. Furthermore, different areas within and around the building will need different levels of light that also have to be factored into the equation. Ceiling height is also a factor in lighting design.

RLLD Commercial Lighting carries a wide variety of industrial & commercial lighting fixtures. If you can not find what you are looking for contact us toll free at 1-866-654-3961 and we will find it for you.

Our professional lighting supply office is located in Houston, Texas with warehouses located throughout the United States that enable us to service all 50 states including New York NY, Los Angeles CA, Miami, FL. Chicago, IL. Denver CO., New Orleans, La., Cleveland, Ohio, Kansas City, Mo., Mesa, Arizona, Virginia Beach, Va., Omaha, Nebraska, Oakland, California, Miami, Florida, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Arlington, Texas, Beaumont, Texas, Denton, TX, McKinney, Texas, Midland, TX, Killeen, Texas, Dallas TX, San Antonio, TX, Austin, TX, ALBQ, NYC, LA, MPLS.