2 minute read
The Importance of Color Accuracy
By Jon Rud, VP of Sales, Americas for Dialight
Images courtesy of Dialight
Accurate color visibility from lighting is crucial for maintaining safety in industrial environments. Ironically, hazardous-rated spaces are often not illuminated like the rest of a facility due to the increased difficulty of working in these areas.
With traditional and some current lighting sources, the inability to render color consistently can lead to a higher risk of accidents and hazards. Good lighting with a high color rendering index (CRI) will help workers distinguish critical elements like wires, machine parts and pressure gauges more effectively.
As employers in manufacturing, it’s an organization’s responsibility to ensure employee health and safety through due diligence. This includes ensuring their facilities’ lighting is not only on and producing the required foot-candles for a space but also producing color accurately.
For example, in facilities where wires and warnings placards are often color-coded to communicate danger, using lighting with a CRI of 70 or above ensures these colors will be clearly visible, reducing the risk of costly mistakes or dangerous mix-ups. In hazardous environments, where risks are heightened, being able to read safety signs and equipment labels accurately is essential.
Low color rendering light sources, like high-pressure sodium (HPS), make it very difficult to distinguish colors, especially in the blue, purple, green and red portions of the color spectrum. Creating many similarities to color blindness, the yellow-orange light output of HPS puts workers at an increased risk of misinterpreting different color hues. Properly designed LED lighting, however, provides natural white light that can dramatically improve color accuracy and consistency throughout the product's life. Studies show that proper illumination can reduce the risk of slips, trips and falls by up to 60%.
Investing in high-quality lighting designed for the varying conditions that industrial and hazardous locations present is a key component to a facility's success and safety. Additionally, defining and meeting certain CRI requirements not only improves operational clarity but also significantly boosts worker safety and efficiency.
