Carpets have been around for thousands of years, and as early as the 8th century AD a kind of carpet industry emerged in the Spanish city of Córdoba. The breakthrough of carpeting for the masses was made possible by Carl and Adolf Vorwerk more than 130 years ago. Today, Vorwerk is an international group that is active in many business areas. However, forward-looking innovations are not always just about products, but also about operational applications such as technology. If this does not function properly, it can have an impact on the end result, the product. For example, lighting technology plays a key role in color perception and color fastness control - in dyeing, for example, and particularly in quality assurance.

In the dyeing and quality assurance department of Vorwerk Teppichwerke in Hameln, all the required lighting standards for color fastness tests were met, but the lighting situation was no longer state of the art. The decision was therefore made to modernize the lighting with high-quality LED technology. Initially, Vorwerk focused its lighting refurbishment on the extensive warehouse area of the carpet factory. Here, it was not only the high energy consumption of the lighting system that caused dissatisfaction. In addition, some areas were not optimally illuminated.

Instead of the previously installed fluorescent tubes with a consumption of 61 W each, LED strip lighting systems with a significantly lower energy consumption of 34 W each are now in use. This has halved the number of luminaires installed, while at the same time significantly improving the illumination of the warehouse. For Jürgen Zinke, Operations Manager at Vorwerk Teppichwerke, it is particularly interesting in this context that the lighting costs could be reduced without any investment using the Deutsche Lichtmiete rental model: "Despite monthly rental rates, we benefit from enormous savings and can respond to the climate targets."

Conversion during operation

The plant manager was also impressed by the way in which the Oldenburg specialist service provider carried out the conversion. "All work steps were carried out in close coordination with our staff, so that there were no disruptions to the operational processes," says Zinke, who also had the dyeing and quality assurance areas converted following the positive experience. "In order to check the color and texture of the carpets, an illuminance of 1,000 lux is essential," explains the plant manager with regard to the optical inspection stations. The LED continuous-row lighting system offers an ideal solution here.

In the dye works, the choice fell on LED high-bay spotlights and thus on a product that Deutsche Lichtmiete has developed especially for heavy industry. The high humidity and room temperature prevailing here place corresponding demands on the thermal management of the LED luminaires. The robust design and high-quality workmanship of the LED high-bay spotlight make it the ideal choice not only in damp and extreme temperatures, but also in contaminated air, dust and dirt. In addition, the LED high bay spotlight ensures optimum illumination even with high ceilings and difficult installation options - such as in the heavily built-up Vorwerk hall.

The advantages of switching completely to energy-efficient LED technology are clear, but many companies are hesitant. Nico Reißauer, Regional Manager North at Deutsche Lichtmiete, knows the concerns of many decision-makers: "The biggest obstacles to a complete changeover are, on the one hand, the supposedly flawless functioning of the existing old technology and, on the other, the high costs of the conversion." This is also confirmed by a study by the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI and the Institute for Resource Efficiency and Energy Strategies (IREES): in view of the investment, many budget managers initially consider retrofitting to be unprofitable. Retrofitting using the rental concept pays off from day one and is easy on the investment budget. Nico Reißauer says: "Just as the Vorwerk founders succeeded in making carpets affordable and accessible to everyone at the end of the 19th century, Deutsche Lichtmiete today offers every company the opportunity to convert to highly efficient LED lighting and thus save energy, costs and_{CO2 emissions}, as well as protecting personnel capacities and liquidity."