Good lighting for packing and despatch

Playmobil has sold more than 2.6 billion pieces in the last 40 years, requiring a warehouse the size of 12 football fields, and packaging and dispatch departments with good, glare-free light.

The Trilux systems provides high efficiency levels, simple mounting and short amortisation periods. With a luminous efficacy of up to 134 lumens per watt (with the LED version) the luminaires feature especially high energy efficiency, and various optics, light colours and luminous flux packages between 4,000 and 6,500 lumens enable a flexible response to specific requirements with a single system. As a consequence, not only the narrow aisles between endless racking systems were optimally illuminated, but also the packaging and dispatch areas in the Playmobil warehouse with high ceilings.

In addition to the high level of lighting comfort for the 300 employees of the logistics centre, energy efficiency was also a focus for Playmobil, and a mature light management system was implemented. This system features daylight-dependent control, and special sensors register the ingress and the level of natural light and add only that component of light needed to reach the desired lighting level. For Playmobil it also made sense to combine the light management system with presence sensors to exploit the complete range of cost reduction potential.

Visualisation software enables central monitoring and switching of the system, and rows of shelves can be dimmed and controlled in groups. This is not a luxury but a practical tool, an understandable fact with regard to the complete surface area of almost 90,000 square metres with 135,000 pallet spaces. Easy maintenance was also a further requirement with the trunking system less sensitive to soiling. But even if the optic does get dirty, it can be easily cleaned.

Combined with the long service life of more than 50,000 operating hours (for the LED version) with almost continuously high luminous efficacy (L80/B10), maintenance is reduced to a minimum.

Despite changing the product and a corresponding modification in planning, two thirds of the 5,200 E-Line luminaires were supplied to Playmobil within a period of three months.