FortaCast, the latest in-ground linear lighting system from Organic Lighting, incorporates several innovative and patented design features. Keen to find out more, David Morgan takes a closer look.

There are many points of entry for people working in the lighting industry, from the purely artistic to the highly scientific. In the case of Laurence St. Ives, the founder of both Organic Lighting and Orgatech Lighting, his way into the market was as an importer of German and Italian office furniture designed for use with desktop PCs in the 1970s.

As the use of PCs became widespread, minimising glare on computer screens from overhead fluorescent lighting was a major concern. To address this issue Laurence developed the first free-standing high lumen output office up-lights, helped by some lighting design and optical development from Stanley Lyons at Thorn Lighting, whose company manufactured the metal halide lamps.

Orgatech in the UK was founded in 1976 to sell these up-lights, quickly followed in 1979 by the launch of a USA company, which is still running today. Laurence moved to the US in the 1980s, first to New York and then to California.

Organic Lighting was created in 2002 as a sister company to Orgatech Lighting to focus on colour changing LED lighting and, in 2009, with the advent of white LEDs, it is claimed that Orgatech became the first in the USA to introduce professional-quality flexible lighting strips.

The latest luminaire development from Organic Lighting is the FortaCast in-ground linear lighting system, which incorporates several innovative and patented design features.

In-ground linear lighting systems have become a popular tool for creating lines of light for exterior and interior lighting applications, but they have proved problematic for electrical contractors to install and to maintain.

To overcome these issues, the FortaCast bodies are made from glass reinforced concrete (GRC) and are designed to be installed by paving, general contractors, and landscaping contractors rather than electrical contractors.

The IP68-rated flexible Aqueon LED light engines used in the FortaCast system are a separate element from the GRP housing and are installed and removed via the last section in the run, with the help of miniature nylon rollers built into the housing.

FortaCast GRC bodies can support a drive overload of up to 4,500kg and are available in a variety of colours and surface textures to coordinate with other paving and landscape materials. It is understood that the GRC materials used have a lower carbon footprint than cast concrete due to the higher percentage of glass and aggregate in the mix.

The FortaCast system includes four standard profile sizes, offering various lengths in each size, standard radiused sections, corner sections, angled-joint sections and end sections, which act as the insertion point for the LED light engines. In addition to the standard shapes and sizes, Organic Lighting can develop custom-shaped housings to meet project requirements – for example to accommodate road cambers or irregular surfaces. The smallest section profile in the range is 51mm wide x 70mm deep with a 29mm wide window. The largest section profile is 102mm x 102mm with a 51mm window.

The standard circular sections are based on the mid-size 76mm x 76mm profile with nominal diameters of 1.2-metres, 0.9-metres and 0.6-metres.

The Aqueon LED light engines incorporated in the FortaCast system are available in fixed white colour temperatures from 2700K to 5700K, in amber, tuneable white, RGB and RGBW versions. Power consumption of up to 6W/m for the white light engines and 9 W/m for the RGBW type. Dimming and streaming pixel DMX control are both available.

The light engines are factory sealed and submersible with a rated life of 60,000 hours. The maximum light engine length is 15-metres and at the end of life the old light engine can be removed and a new one inserted without having to remove the top covers or disturb the housings along the FortaCast run.

The installation instructions for the system are detailed and a little daunting, including a requirement for the contractor to have at least five years’ experience and preferably certification from the Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute.

The GRC body sections are aligned together with a joiner piece, which includes drainage channels. The mating surfaces are then bonded together on site with a special adhesive. Once all the housing sections are in place and protected with a removable cover tape, then the paving or concrete floor can be installed.

Once the floor is complete, the final assembly can be made. At this point the rollers are installed with some silicone grease to aid the insertion of the flexible light engine, and the two-part windows are bonded in place. A lower laminated glass window is bonded to the primed concrete surface first with a high shock absorbing performance tape. Then the top diffusing PTFE window, which is provided with an adhesive lower surface, is bonded directly on top of the glass. Joints between the windows are then sealed with silicone.

The FortaCast system has been developed to make long-term maintenance and replacement of the light engines as simple as possible in order to give a potential life expectancy of up to 30 years. It is refreshing to see such a fully developed lighting system that offers maximum creative opportunity to the lighting designer while also being highly functional and maintainable.

www.organiclighting.com