Giant LED Light Fixtures

Who do you call when you need over one thousand, seven-foot-tall LED frames designed and made in just a few months’ time? A leading national sign company turned to Architectural Plastics to solve this problem. The frames needed to be able to change color, have no visible hardware and diffuse light evenly throughout all of their surfaces. Architectural Plastics partnered with a lighting company and quickly developed a working prototype for the client. The quality and fast production of the prototype won Architectural Plastics the contract to go into production.

At the outset of this project, consistent light diffusion throughout the frame was a challenge. This is not a difficult task when only one or two surfaces of an object have to be lit. However, the frames for this project would be viewed from every angle, 360 degrees around the fixture. Lighting the frames without showing any “hot spots” caused by light beams overlapping or shadows caused by wires, electrical components and light mounts was a complex puzzle.

Evenly lighting a leg of the frame was the first step to solving the problem. After making a working leg sample, the trickier corners were tackled. Following this brief R&D period, a solution that would work for the entire frame was found.

Each frame contains almost 100 feet of lighting strips. Getting power to flow evenly became the next step of the project. A series of tests was conducted to analyze and adjust the power distribution amongst the lighting components.

Planning for production was as formidable a task as solving the lighting issues. Very little time was given to create over one thousand of these large and complex frames. While part of the design crew worked on the lighting, a second construction crew designed special work tables for fabricating the fixtures in a new 10,000 sqft facility.

Due to the detail work required for these light frames, additional overhead lighting was installed with the workstations to make it easier for the fabricators to see. Safe, bright, clean and well organized working conditions are a necessity for any project.

Packing and shipping logistics were the final phase of this project. Custom crates were designed to protect two frames and their power supplies. A schedule was set in motion and Architectural Plastics organized the flow of shipping from the facility throughout the country.
Each completed fixture was pre-programmed to produce thirteen distinct colors for different events that would take place throughout the year.