It was great to take part in another VMA Congress last week.
The Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre was an excellent venue and we took the opportunity to get valuable input and feedback as we work on the latest update of our best practice guide for stadia and arenas.
It’s amazing to reflect on how far the technology has come in 20 years, a hybrid LED exit sign would have seemed improbable back then – if not impossible.
This is a very balanced article looking at photoluminescent exit signs and the vigorous discussion in the marketplace.
It’s great to see another Ecoglo stadium completed and operational!
The Bankwest Stadium is a 30,000 capacity facility in the heart of Parramatta, Sydney.
The step nosing product used is a custom product developed to meet the specifications of the project’s Safe Movement Report. The report was prepared for Populous Architects by Dr Hamish MacLennan, Safe Movement Specialist.
Since my last post explaining High Temperature Curing (HTC) I’ve had many people asking about the processes used to make Ecoglo fakes.
The products pictured have been offered up for arena and stadia in Australia as an alternative to Ecoglo.
Clearly the aluminium extrusion has been made to resemble an Ecoglo product. Unfortunately the process used to manufacture the products looks to be a liquid pour (wet pour) process.
The photoluminescent material has shrunk and is slowly delaminating, totally unacceptable for an emergency visibility system. HTC products won’t suffer from shrinkage, delamination or discolouring and are therefore more durable delivering higher and more reliable luminance and visibility.
Specifiers and construction companies need to be alert and make sure that “Ecoglo equivalents” use HTC technology and have well documented and rigorous testing.
Last week I was discussing Ecoglo durability with one of our distribution partners. Unlike the failures pictured above, Ecoglo products don’t fail – why is that?
The patented manufacturing process used to make Ecoglo’s products is known as High Temperature Curing or HTC.
HTC involves the precisely controlled application of a powder mix of customised photoluminescent pigments and customised carriers onto an aluminium base.
The polymer mix and aluminium base pass through a bespoke oven to be baked at temperatures above 160C. This high temperature curing process integrally bonds the polymer mix to the aluminium, eliminating the possibility of peeling, shrinkage or delamination. It also provides permanent protection of the photoluminescent pigments from degradation due to moisture or weathering.
These performance properties cannot be guaranteed for photoluminescent PVC products, tapes and liquid applied products.
HTC products that won’t suffer from shrinkage, delamination or discolouring and are therefore more durable delivering higher and more reliable luminance and visibility.
It was great to have it confirmed last week that the new Dubai Arena will be installing Ecoglo.
This project will mean that AEG Ogden are involved with our most recent installation (Dubai Arena) and our very first installation (Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney). Qudos Bank Arena was installed in 1998 and Ecoglo step products have been a fundamental part of the facility’s emergency lighting system since then.
Dubai Arena will have a mix of step based products and these will be part of our display at the Big 5 in Dubai in a couple of weeks. We’ll also be showing our revolutionary hybrid photoluminescent/LED exit sign.
To see our full product range visit us at Booth # 6E263 at the Big 5, Dubai World Trade Centre, 26-29 November.
Last week I had the opportunity to visit the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. It looks a lot different today than it did when I last I visited in 2008 (see 2008 photo on right and 2018 on left).
In 2008 there was only one demonstration floor fitted out but it did include Ecoglo! The building is now 163 floors high and, although they were adding a floor every 3 days, in 2008 it was still quite a few floors short of that.
In all there are around 11,500 steps in the evacuation routes with Ecoglo step products providing a fundamental element in the emergency egress systems for the building.
To see how Ecoglo works in those systems take a look at the video on: http://www.Ecoglo.com
Or at least point them in the right direction π
As part of our new initiative in the GCC region Ecoglo will be exhibiting at the Big 5, 26-29 November at the Dubai World Trade Centre.
We’ll be at stand number 6E263 in the Building Interiors & Finishes area showing photoluminescent path marking solutions to meet IFC and NFPA requirements as well as our revolutionary UL 924 listed hybrid PL exit sign.
Our technical team was working with an electrical contractor last week. He commented that in the last 6 years he has worked on dozens of tilt slab buildings with mezzanine stairs and it was the first time he’d encountered Ecoglo replacing the emergency lighting.
He was very pleased with the Ecoglo system commenting, “the electrical emergency lighting is such a waste of money, the batteries only last 2 years, and itβs a major health and safety issue to replace the batteries.”
Nice to see acceptance in the electrical fraternity π
Innovation at Ecoglo 