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Corrosion Resistance – Materials, Procedures, and Attention to Detail: The Key to Longevity in Street Lighting

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Jan 27, 2025

Thorn ensures durable, sustainable street lighting with quality materials, precise processes, and smart designs, resisting corrosion and enabling easy upgrades.

Longevity in street lighting is essential for both cost-effectiveness and sustainability. Achieving longevity requires a comprehensive approach to overcoming corrosion, a common threat to outdoor lighting systems. Streetlights are exposed to harsh environmental conditions, including wind, rain, extreme temperatures, and in coastal areas, corrosive salt. Ensuring lanterns withstand such challenges involves the selection of high-quality materials, meticulous quality management, and thoughtful product design.

High-Quality Materials for Corrosion Resistance

The foundation of corrosion resistance lies in the use of superior materials such as EN44300 aluminium as chosen by Thorn. Notable for its durability and resistance to environmental attack the use of EN44300 aluminium is a prime example of careful material selection. This material, and others selected with similar diligence, extend the life of street lighting systems.

Procedures and processes

Quality management is crucial throughout manufacturing processes to ensure products meet high standards of durability and reliability. Thorn Lighting's procedures ensure that every product undergoes rigorous quality checks, reducing the risk of premature failure due to corrosion. Processes such as multilayer preparation and closely controlled powder coating tolerances have been developed to further protect Thorn’s products. This combination of carefully designed processes and quality management procedures creates a formidable defence against environmental wear and tear, ensuring long service life and that the lanterns will remain robust and suitable for future upgrades.

Design Details: Preventing Bimetallic Corrosion

Product design plays a significant role in preventing corrosion. One critical consideration is the interaction between different metals. Stainless steel fixings, for example, can cause a bimetallic reaction when in contact with aluminium, leading to corrosion and seizing. This reaction can make it difficult, if not impossible, to remove lanterns from their fixtures over time. To address this issue, Thorn uses Geomet coating on fixing screws. This treatment prevents the bimetallic reaction, ensuring that the screws do not corrode or seize. The benefits are twofold: it allows for the easy removal of lanterns from columns for lantern maintenance or column replacement, and it significantly extends the usable life of the lanterns. This is particularly important as many LED lanterns, with a design life of over 20 years, were installed on existing columns during LED conversion projects. Columns may need replacing due to ageing or damage, yet the lanterns remain functional and reusable.

Sustainability Through Re-usability and Upgradability

Thorn's focus on re-usability and upgradability underscores their commitment to sustainability. Lanterns are designed to allow for refurbishment and the incorporation of technological advances. The attention to detail, such as the use of Geomet-treated screws, facilitates this process, making sure it is practical and efficient to maintain and upgrade lanterns so they remain functional and efficient well into the future.

Conclusion

The battle against corrosion in street lighting is won through the use of high-quality materials, robust quality management, and by making smart design choices – even for components as small as screws. Thorn ensures that their street lighting solutions remain reliable, durable, and adaptable for years to come, delivering excellent value for money and sustainability.

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