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www.CabinetMakerFDM.com | September 2013 |

by Alan RichmanLIGHTING

LLet there be light. That Biblical pronouncement

gives a pretty good pedigree to everything else

that has come after in the world of illumination.

This includes LED lighting, which some consider

“the next revolution in cabinetry.”

Chris Johnston, national sales manager for the

Commercial Division at Nora Lighting in Com-

merce, Calif., says, “Once a fad, LED is now an ac-

ceptable and viable means to illuminating a home

or business. Just in the past year the technology

has advanced tenfold, improving the light output

while reducing the cost to the end user.”

Joey Shimm, director of marketing for Outwa-

ter Plastics Industries, in Bogota, N.J., agrees that

LED lighting “is on the fast track to replacing all

other light sources.” This is in spite of what he

calls “initial growing pains, new-to-market high

cost and less than desired early performance.”

The future of LED lighting is so assured in the

mind of Art Kubach, a principal at TC Millwork in

Bensalem, Pa., that he says the ability to seamlessly

integrate LED solutions into finished products

means professional woodworkers will have to “re-

ally think differently about how they engineer and

build things.”

LED, of course, stands for light-emitting diode,

defined as a semiconductor device that emits vis-

ible light when electric current passes through it.

Features and benefitsThe reasons that LEDs are attractive to

cabinetmakers and their clients include all of

the following, according to Jenna Kaba, market-

ing coordinator for Norcross, Ga.-based Hera

Lighting.

LEDs are low profile and sleek fixtures that

can easily be incorporated into furniture and

cabinets. Features include low energy consump-

tion, no heat or UV, long lifetime of 50,000

hours, high color rendering,good quality of

light, and low voltage. (See sidebar above for

full list.)

In this long list, one that must stand out for

Considered by some to be the next revolution in cabinetry, LED lighting is changing the world of cabinet design, while pumping up profits for professionals.

LED lighting offers new opportunities

Nora LED puck lights shown in a kitchen application.

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wood professionals is the added-value oppor-

tunity. Kaba says, “Lighting adds value to any

kitchen and automatically makes it appear high

end.” Because the lighting now comes as part of

a “complete package with cabinetry,” increased

profits should result, she states.

Emphasizing the small size of many LED

products, Johnston notes that they can be incor-

porated rather easily into tape lighting, edge-lit

panels and other formerly hard-

to-access applications.

Paraphrasing the Star Trek

prologue, he says, these thin,

f lexible light sources are “going

places where no light has gone

before. Under furniture, behind

pictures and mirrors, around

outdoor seating areas and plant-

ers, along bar tops and shelves,

in home theaters, and of course,

coves, niches, and under, in and

on top of cabinets. Offered in standard, high-

output and color-changing tape light versions,

the technology allows for endless possibilities.”

Who has whatShimm says Outwater’s Tri-Mod LED backlight-

ing panels are only 1/16th inch thick, making

them “a great way to uniformly backlight graph-

ics, posters and promotional messages without

Hera LED application for a built-in bar.

Features and benefits of LED lighting

❯ No heat or UV❯ Add value to kitchens with

ambient and task lighting❯ Long lifetime of 50,000 hours,

which means never having to change a light bulb

❯ High color rendering, good quality of light

❯ Low voltage so there is no fire or shock risk

❯ HVAC/energy savings❯ Shatterproof❯ Plug and play systems that can

connect to one driver❯ UL-listed as a complete system❯ LM79-tested

Gera Glasablage is used in

a shelf lighting application.

Hera LED application for a built-in bar.

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any hot spots or uneven light dispersion.” He sees

stores, restaurants, museums and exhibit booths, as

well as commercial and residential buildings as good

settings for these uses. In addition, he says, the panels

can also be readily used to illuminate all types of

translucent surfaces, including onyx or Corian coun-

tertops and backsplashes.

“With this in mind,” Shimm continues, “It is no

surprise that LED light-

ing has realized broad

acceptance by numerous

industries that had initially

shunned its use. It has rap-

idly evolved into an obvious

choice.” Based on steadily

increasing sales figures for

LED lighting over the past

few years, the manufacturing

community appears to agree.

LED product varia-

tions are numerous. Kaba

describes Hera’s Stick-LED

as miniature linear LED

lighting with an integrated

connecting system. She

says, “These ultra-compact strips of LED lighting are

perfect for furniture, cabinets, displays and closet

interiors.”

Hera also offers a TwinStick-LED, an R55-LED

and an AKOD-LED. The R55 is the next generation

of LED spotlight, “an improvement for the KB12-

LED,” says Kaba, but able to use the same mounting

hole. Luminous efficacy is 55 lm/W, she reports.

“The brand new AKOD-LED (full name Af-

fordable Kitchen, Office and Display Lighting) is a

complete LED lighting solution which offers a very

low profile and integrated on/off switch,” says Kaba.

Although it is “specifically designed with office

applications in mind,” she says it also works well in

residential cabinets and retail displays.” The product

comes in three sizes and offers dimming capabilities.

At Nora Lighting, the LED line includes: tape

lights; edge-lit panels; puck lights; retrofit downlights

for home and office; track and rail fixtures for home

and retail sites; pendants; step and brick lights; and

emergency/exit signs.

“The new versatility and choice of LED fixtures

have made them a practical solution for all installa-

tions from home and office to commercial, retail and

institutional lighting,” says Johnston.

He is particularly high on the Standard, Hy-Brite,

High Output and RGB color

changing tape lights, as well

as the Nora LED Lightbar

Plus linear lightbar, which

may be installed under cabi-

nets and features powerful

400-plus lumen output per

foot while only consuming

an energy-saving 8W per

foot.

And how about those

compact (2 ¾ inch wide and

½ inch deep) slim-line pucks

that are designed for display

shelves, furniture cabinets,

jewelry cases and other ac-

cent niches? Johnston says

they install with a single screw bracket, can be “daisy-

chained,” and are dimmable, with a dimming power

supply.

“At TC Millwork,” says Kubach, “Our latest of-

fering is a three-watt puck that is very low profile.

It produces almost 1,000 lux at 16 inches with color

rendition at 93.5 right on the black body curve. This

is basically considered museum-quality lighting using

very little energy.”

He adds, “We will be launching and incorporat-

ing the first OLED (organic LED) strip light into our

Smartwall shelving in the third quarter of this year. We

feel that this will be where indoor lighting goes in the

near future. What makes OLEDs special is the fact that

they are self-emissive, as thin as your credit card, will

soon be producing 80 lumens per watt (135 lumens

LED LIGHTING

Nora LightBar Plus closeup and kitchen application.

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per watt within a year). And they

are not single-point lights, which

is a big detraction with LED from

a visual perspective.”

TC Millwork’s Smartwall

deserves a fuller description. As

reported by Karl Forth in 2012,

“LED technology is at the heart

of TCM’s Smartwall. Using the

company’s Leggero lightweight

shelves, proprietary wiring har-

nesses are built into a shelf core

and wired to embedded LED

puck lights. The shelf then makes its connection to

the powered standards. The lit shelves can be placed

anywhere on the wall and it lights up and connects

automatically. ‘You bring the light directly to the

product. It’s totally seamless

and wireless for the customer,’

Kubach says.”

Forth said TC Millwork makes

a wide variety of display prod-

ucts for use on their Smartwall,

to include straight and slanted

shelves, shadow boxes, step

shelves and a lit clear shelf with

a proprietary design strip LED

light with a groove that it fits

into. There are no wires, only two

magnets that are used with the

contact points inside the shelf.

At Interzum this past May,

Gera Leuchten of Sankt Gangloff in Thuringia, Ger-

many, presented its modular Gera Lighting Systems

4 and 6, as well as the LED-based Avion standard

lamp, which was unveiled along with an optimized,

LED LIGHTING

Outwater Plastics offers this ribbon flex light.

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electronic control for lighting colors.

The company said its ScanAndLight technology,

which measures and controls the light of each lamp

in the surrounding room, can now be adapted “even

more effectively” for the well-being of particular

users. In a press release, Gera stated, “Targeted mi-

croelectronic control of the LED color components

permits the creation of a constantly adapting light

mood throughout the entire room, which is perceived

as being completely natural by the human eye.”

The new version of the Gera ScanAndLight solu-

tion is even more flexible and mobile than in the

past, according to the company. The control data now

are simply transmitted to the light sources wirelessly,

whereas they needed to be sent to a computer for

further processing in the original version—with each

individual light source connected by means of cables.

Now, the data can be controlled either by means

of a simple wall switch, a remote control device

or—irrespective of location—using mobile terminal

devices such as smart¬phones, PC tablets and laptops.

In addition to creating various room ambiences, the

revised version offers the benefit that the lighting

systems can be controlled and monitored as part of

an overall building automation system. This permits,

for instance, timer-controlled lighting as a form of

burglary protection.

Turning its attention to color, Gera Leuchten intro-

duced a simple light control for adjusting white color

components by means of a sensor switch. “We have

once again dramatically increased the range of white

and color gradations. With the new electronic control,

adding white can result in lower color saturation and

hence generate gentle pastel hues,” explained Thomas

Ritt, the firm’s designer and product manager.

Getting in on the actWhere are the customers most likely to purchase

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LED lighting? Kubach responds,

“I think retail, museums, and

office furniture are going to be

your easiest sales and deliver the

biggest ROI.”

The Pennsylvania millworker,

who also offers his own line of

lighting products, says every retail

store fixture is a potential site for

LED lighting. “Your aim should

be to bring the light to the prod-

uct, and LED technology enables

you to do that,” he explains.

Kubach goes on to warn

cabinetmakers and furniture

manufacturers that lighting is not

the place to stint on quality. “The

quality of the light is everything,”

he says. “There are many inex-

pensive LED knockoffs in the

marketplace. And when you plug

them in, that’s just what they look

like—inexpensive knockoffs.”

What’s the point of creating a

very high-quality fixture or piece

of furniture if you then introduce

a poor light? You would only

defeat your own purpose, he

points out.

With fine quality LED lighting

in place, you minimize customer

service callbacks, says Kubach.

“Don’t cheat on the light engine,

The key is to select a unit with

the highest color rendition, best

lumens-per-watts performance,

properly heat sunk, and integrat-

ed into a good looking housing

with great optics—for as little

glare and best light spread as pos-

sible,” he says. ❮

LED LIGHTING

Alan Richman, former editor of Wood

Digest and Cabinet Manufacturing &

Fabricating, is a New Jersey-based

freelance writer specializing in the

woodworking industry. He has been a

contributor to CabinetMaker+FDM since

2007. Contact him at alanrichman@

yahoo.com.

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