In a steel mill the air temperature is only half the story. Glowing steel radiates infrared heat directly onto every surface, and a luminaire above a rolling line or casting platform catches that radiation in full.
Plastic lenses turn dull and brittle, standard drivers give up. Our luminaires are built to hang right in that radiation: chemically hardened glass, heat-resistant housing and the driver up to 25 metres outside the hot zone. Proven daily at Tata Steel IJmuiden.
Continuous, peaks up to +130 °C permitted
Driver outside the hot zone, in the DRB box
Chemically hardened glass in the radiation
Continuous radiant heat from the passing steel.
Peak temperatures with every pour.
The highest ambient temperatures of the mill.
High, hot and dusty; accessibility is the real problem.
How many replacement rounds an HT luminaire saves here follows from its lifetime at the actual temperature, see LB values and lifespan.
| Position | Critical load | Luminaire | Driver box location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Above the rolling line | Continuous radiant heat from the passing steel | Barracuda HT, Orca HT at high positions | DRB box outside the hot zone |
| Casting platforms and continuous casting | Peak temperatures at every cast | Orca HT, among others on the ladle crane | DRB box outside the hot zone |
| Furnace zones and reheating | The highest ambient temperatures in the plant | Snapper HT at more compact positions, Barracuda HT | DRB box outside the hot zone |
| Crane tracks and halls | High, hot and dusty; accessibility is the problem | Orca HT, Barracuda HT | In a cooler technical room |
Radiant heat is heat that falls directly on the luminaire as infrared radiation from glowing steel. It heats the housing, optics and electronics to far above the air temperature, even when a thermometer at the same spot says otherwise. A luminaire in the steel industry must therefore reflect that radiation instead of absorbing it.
A datasheet tells you the ambient temperature, but radiation heats the luminaire itself far beyond it. That is why we include the radiation load per position and choose optics and housing accordingly.
Glass instead of plastic is not an upgrade here but a precondition.
of the infrared radiation between 800 and 2500 nm is reflected by the gold-coloured IR reflector in the luminaire. The radiant heat goes back into the process, not into the housing.
The driver up to 25 metres outside the hot zone, IP67, maintenance in the cool zone.
At Tata Steel conventional lighting in the production process kept failing; our luminaires now hang on the positions where that happened. The driver sits outside the hot zone and the luminaires hang right in the radiation of the process.
The Orca HT is installed there among others on the ladle crane, the Snapper HT and the Barracuda HT at various positions in the oxygen steelmaking plant. A thermal camera measured more than +110 °C at the mounting positions, and the drivers sit in DRB driver boxes in a technical room outside the hot zone.
How temperature monitoring works in these luminaires, with Tata Steel as a case study, is explained in the article on sensor technology at high temperatures.
At a continuous +105 °C, an HT luminaire reaches 71,700 hours to L90B05, more than eight years; at a continuous +120 °C it is 51,400 hours, almost six years. Above a rolling line, a standard luminaire is often replaced within one to two years, and every replacement means work at height during a planned shutdown, with an aerial work platform and a work permit.
That is where the calculation lies: an HT luminaire costs more, but pays for itself in the replacement rounds that are no longer needed, not in energy consumption. We calculate that per position against your shutdown schedule.
Is your question not listed? Call 033 785 9809, you will speak with an engineer.
Luminaires designed for radiant heat: chemically hardened glass instead of plastic, a heat-resistant housing and the driver outside the hot zone. Our luminaires operate continuously up to +120 °C ambient temperature, with peaks up to +130 °C.
Radiation heats the luminaire itself far above the air temperature. Plastic lenses turn dull and brittle, seals harden and the driver ages rapidly. That is why we include the radiation load in every position calculation.
AC versions continuously up to +120 °C ambient temperature, with brief peaks up to +130 °C without warranty consequences. Above +130 °C our engineers calculate per position what is possible with shielding and remote mounting.
By placing the driver, the most failure-prone component, outside the hot zone in a DRB driver box up to 25 meters away, maintenance is consequently performed in the cool zone, on the floor next to the line.
Yes, the same line. Casting platforms and melting zones see peak loads with every pour; the luminaires are designed for that. For furnace zones and dryers there is a separate application page.
The Orca HT has HT glass optics of 20, 40 or 60 degrees for directed beams from high positions, up to 65,000 lumens per luminaire. The beam choice follows from the lighting calculation per position.
For inspection positions in a steel plant, we apply a colour rendering of at least Ra 80. We determine the light level and uniformity per inspection zone in the lighting calculation. You can read more about colour rendering under colour rendering and CRI.
Lighting in steel mills belongs to the sector heavy industry.
The steel industry is the most demanding application of our high temperature LED lights, with radiation-resistant optics and the driver outside the hot zone.
