Did you know that good lighting is an important factor for safety and efficiency of your workers in factory and mill management? A good lighting system can certainly reduce accidents, increase accuracy in workmanship, decreased spoilage of product, increased productivity, less eye strain, better working and living conditions, greater satisfaction among workers, hygiene and better supervision. So all you need is an illumination test from an authorized laboratory for proper lighting of your factory, manufacturing unit or workplace.

Several studies and surveys reveal that a large percentage of factories and manufacturing units are below the regulatory requirement which affects the productivity and safety of the workers.

Moreover, the requirement of artificial lighting is resulting in ocular fatigue of workers, and loss of labor-power. Inadequate lighting both artificial and natural leads to eye strain, headache, and accidents.

A glance at the basic requirement of illumination at workplace;
• Proper selection and installation of lights to prevent eye strain among the workers.
• Adequate illumination to avoid sharp shadows.
• If necessary, individual lamps should be placed wherever required with suitable opaque reflectors.
• Lamps should be installed as per the height, space, reflectors or other accessories, to secure a good distribution of light on the work. The working plane should be illuminated in a uniform way.
• Emergency lamps should be available in all workspace aisles.
• There should be appropriate light fall on the desk or work area of the employees.
• Too much bright light (High intensity), Strong glare, Low light, or continuous flickering light are unsuitable for the workplace.

Major Equipment used to measure illumination

Illumination is measured by Lux Meter which is a small instrument containing sensor and display parts. Sensor part is placed on a place where illumination is to be measured. The display part shows reading in the Lux unit.

Method to measure illumination

To measure illumination an area should be divided into small equal parts and which can be in square shape. Then a lux meter or Monitor lighting kit is kept at the center of each square. By observing results we can come to know about the distribution of light in the workplace.

Appropriate Level of Illumination or Lighting

Appropriate level of illumination is the intensity of light which allows you to see what you need to see without any visual discomfort.

Lighting of Factories

In every factory where natural sun light is not reachable or not uniform then in that case additional uniform lighting should be provided. It should avoid shadows, strong contrast, free from direct or reflected glare.

Regulatory requirements

It is pivotal to ensure that industries must follow the guidelines mentioned in Factories Act 1948(India). The requirement of lighting differs based on type of work and place. As per Factories Act the minimum light levels should not exceed 500 Lux as it measures the intensity of light hitting a surface typically a wall or a floor .One lux is equivalent to one lumen per square meter. They differ from lumens, which measure the brightness of the light source.

Turn-around time

The illumination testing takes 10 minutes for monitoring and 1-2 days in reporting. The analysis takes around 1-2 hours.