A leading provider of corrugated packaging in Europe and a specialist in plastic packaging worldwide, DS Smith has a 75+ year legacy of innovation and process efficiency. Started in 1940 by the Smith brothers in London, the company now has operations in 37 countries, employing more than 27,000 people worldwide and posting £4,781m in annual revenue for fiscal year 2016/2017.
With a focus on eco-friendly design and recycling, helping its customers to reduce waste, cost and complexity in their supply chain is a top priority.
Installation Snapshot
Aiming to reduce energy consumption at sites across the continent, Head of Energy Efficiency Martin Mead began examining options for a major overhaul to DS Smith’s lighting infrastructure. At the time, most facilities relied on traditional light sources like metal halide and linear fluorescents for both internal and external illumination.
Not only was the high energy consumption a concern, but also the maintenance required by these fixtures was time-consuming and expensive. At many locations, high ceilings and difficult access over the top of machinery added to the cost and time required for a simple lamp change, which was often only possible during planned maintenance.
Looking for a more efficient, dependable solution, turned to The LED Industrial Lighting Co. (formerly OCIP Energy Ltd – a UK Dialight agent) for a solution. In addition to reducing energy consumption – which translated to a direct reduction in carbon emissions – and the longest maintenance-free performance of any other industrial LED lighting supplier, Dialight’s DuroSite® and Vigilant® LED products also offered a much lower operating temperature—an important safety factor in the packaging environment. The deployment of polycarbonate lenses coupled with the elimination of ultra-violet radiation contributes to the attainment of BRC compliance for relevant sites.
“Dialight demonstrated a robust, long-life solution to meet the needs of DS Smith across our many business operations,” explains Mead. “They also offered the sophisticated support for a large commercial project of this kind, with outstanding technical expertise and account management.”
Working with Aidan Brown of The LED Industrial Lighting Co., Dialight conducted a comprehensive site survey to review current installed lighting and propose a high-efficacy lighting plan for each facility, focusing on optimal light placement and energy efficiency.
At DS Smith’s Clay Cross facility near Chesterfield in the UK, the existing 816 metal halides and linear fluorescents consumed 193kW. By replacing these with Dialight’s next-generation Vigilant High Bay, Linear and Floodlight LED products based on the needs at each part of the facility, Clay Cross was able to reduce its fixture count to 636, for a reduction of 180 fixtures throughout the plant. Between the reduction in fixtures and the substantial drop in per-fixture energy use, the result was a massive reduction in electricity consumption, down to just 71kW, for a 60 percent savings in energy costs alone, plus improved lighting uniformity.
In addition, the switch to Dialight LEDs virtually eliminated maintenance, with each of the fixtures covered by Dialight’s 10-year warranty for unsurpassed long-life durability. This not only saves time and maintenance costs, but also eliminates a potential safety risk from accessing lamps at heights or above production equipment.
Between the energy and maintenance savings, Clay Cross realised a payback period of just three years on its upgrade to Dialight industrial LED fixtures. That level of success at the Clay Cross site has been replicated at a number of DS Smith sites across Europe with Dialight fixtures set to replace traditional lighting at 90 percent of DS Smith’s European facilities by the end of 2018.
“Dialight’s 10-year warranty and ROI were compelling factors in our decision to go with their product at virtually all of our European facilities,” says Mead. “They also offered a level of commercial and technical support and ease of installation that we simply couldn’t find anywhere else. We’re very happy with the quality of the light output and the bottom-line savings we’ve seen as a result of choosing Dialight.”
Oakhay
Tedburn Road
Whitestone
EX4 2HG
United Kingdom
