Coating cuts glass

Fragment retention lamp coatings have been available for a number of years, but it was only in 2010 that regulations came into force defining lamp life, coating protection and lamp performance. Chris Payne from GlassGuard explains why such coatings are an important step forward in industrial safety and cites a recent case study

Glass is one of the most dangerous potential contaminants, but with fluorescent lamps in factories, packaging plants, public buildings and even as component parts in machinery, shattered glass can be common and sometimes go undetected. Diffusers are used in most situations to prevent contamination from lamps shattering unexpectedly, but simple lamp maintenance times are the most dangerous for glass contamination. As soon as the diffuser is removed to change a lamp, glass is exposed and at risk.When accidentally dropped or smashed a standard fluorescent tube can cause widespread glass contamination or personal injury with potential costs running into tens of thousands.

An industry-compliant fluoro polymer coating retains glass shards in the event of breakage, offering protection from the point of installation through useful life without any degradation, and is an easy way to comply with HACCP and other standards.

Raising standards Fragment retention lamp coatings have been available for a number of years now, but it was only in 2010 that strict regulations came into force defining lamp life, coating protection and lamp performance. Every industrial facility should be aware of the new BS EN61549 standard, which requires that all fluorescent lamps should meet a 4m impact test and successfully retain all fragments. It also requires that the safety coating must remain active for a minimum of 8000h lamp life and withstand a 650° Celsius glow wire test.With a number of different shatterproof lamps available on the market, this standard represents an important step forward in the improvement of safety and offers reassurance to users that glass contamination will no longer be a worry.

All shatterproof fluorescent lamps that have a BlackBand ring at one end comply with BS EN61549.While some other lamps only offer 5000h burning life, the industrycompliant GlassGuard BlackBand fluoro polymer coated lamps offer 20,000h. That is an extra four times the service life and 100% glass fragment retention.

Chris Payne believes GlassGuard BlackBand coated lamps are important for a variety of businesses. In today's tough economic climate, industrial facilities, for example, cannot afford down time to machinery while broken glass is cleaned up.

Case Study Having recently switched to GlassGuard BlackBand fragment retention lamps, Dale Blunt, engineering manager at the Arla Foods milk processing facility in Ashby de la Zouch, explains how the change has impacted on the plant.

"We had issues in the past inside one of the filler cabinets where a light fitting exploded and we weren't at the time using the GlassGuard BlackBand shatterproof tubes.We had to have the filler down for 12h to do a really thorough clean, just to make sure that there was no possibility of contamination.

"Just off that single filler, the down time period was about a £12,000 to £14,000 loss in production. By using the GlassGuard BlackBand fluorescent tubes, that risk is taken away completely.

"The tubes, even in accidents, contain the glass within an outer coating, so from a product contamination point of view, for us, it's essential that we use them. Even though we've got diffusers fitted, when we're doing a lamp change the exposure and risk is significantly higher to the product, so by using the coated tubes the risk is reduced to the point where it is controlled.

We are audited on a regular basis, externally by the customers, who recognise the BlackBand on the glassGuard tubes and for us to use to show that we are exceeding the standard required in the milk industry at present."