Lighting

Plastic within lighting

Thanks to their versatility and competitive price points, plastic sheet materials are often used within a variety of lighting applications – both regular and illuminated – ensuring real impact both day and night. Historically, signage was lit by traditional fluorescent tube lighting, but recently, more efficient LED lighting has become commonplace.

As LED lighting technology has advanced, so too have the sheet plastics associated with it. For example, the manufacturers of Perspex, regarded as the highest grade acrylic available, have developed Perspex Spectrum LED – a range created specifically for use with LED lighting. This Perspex Spectrum material disperses light from individual LED anodes, which helps to create an even light throughout, and reduce the effect of hot spots.

The use of plastics within lighting is by no means limited to signage. Acrylic and polycarbonate sheet is often used as a lighting diffuser within general lighting applications. We supply the Perspex Diffuse range, which is produced specifically for LED ceiling panels, for lighting in suspended ceilings. Opal polycarbonate sheets are also used for diffuser purposes, thanks to their significant impact strength and high fire rating.

Our prismatic diffuser materials are primarily used in indoor workspace lighting applications. The continuous prism pattern on the sheets’ surface reduces glare, by dispersing light while optimising light transmission.

What we offer the lighting industry

We stock an extensive range of UK-made plastic products and materials, including Perspex. Perspex sheets are available in many different colours and finishes including clear, coloured, cast, extruded and mirrored. Importantly, we are a Perspex-approved online stockist and fabricator, and offer a variety of different fabrication and machining services.

We are happy to serve the lighting industry both as a supplier of materials, and/or to assist with the fabrication of plastic lighting components. The fabrication services we offer our customers include CNC routing, laser cutting, bending, machined holes, rebates and returns, and gluing.

With over 30 years’ experience working with plastics, we have a proven ability to deliver exactly what our lighting clients require – on time and on budget. Our expert team are always on hand to advise on the best materials to choose, according to their intended use. If required, our skilled CAD technicians are available to assist with creating technical drawings.

We pride ourselves on our versatility and flexibility. We can accommodate long runs, short runs, one-offs and prototypes. As we are not constrained by set standard sizing, we can cut materials to any size and shape required, with no minimum order restrictions, which helps to keep both waste and costs down. Take a look at our easy to follow production guide video and you’ll see how experienced we really are!

Regardless of order size, our optimisation software ensures efficient use of material, time and budget, and we offer discounts on volume orders.

Typical applications

• Illuminated signage
• Light boxes
• Ceiling lighting
• Backlit signage
• Edge-lit signage
• Light diffusers