Vandalism towards wall packs and property lighting is an ongoing issue. Varying “vandals” cause the lenses on wall packs to break such as people purposely damaging the fixture to cause the light to go out, sports balls hitting the lens, natural elements such as rocks and branches, and trucks near loading docks and warehouses. Traditional style wall packs have a glass lens on the front of the fixture that allows the light from the light source (located inside the housing of the fixture) to be emitted. However, glass is breakable and often times wall packs are hit, the lens breaks, as does the light source inside. This causes property owners to have to replace the fixture and light source, creating a hassle, and the need for a more durable design.
We have redesigned our traditional and most popular architectural style wall packs to be vandal resistant. The heavy duty die-cast aluminum housing was extended around the front of the fixture, enclosing the entire fixture. This alone makes the entire fixture more durable to the elements and against vandals. However, with the entire wall pack enclosed in aluminum, there was no way for the light to be emitted. The light source has to be mounted on the outside of the fixture rather than the inside. This new requirement limited the type of light sources that could be used with the luminaire. It is not possible to mount regular lamps on the outside of the fixture and some LED modules are not durable enough. Luckily, LG makes a durable LED module that can be mounted to the outside of a fixture.
These LG LED modules are mounted over a pre-drilled hole that allows wiring to pass through. The modules are designed using LED chips that are secured in a small housing. Even these modules are difficult to break. Each module uses 12w of energy and produces over 1300 lumens. The rated life of the LED modules is 50,000 hours, and they are IP67 rated, making them perfect for mounting on the outside of a fixture. Should there be damage to one of the modules, it is easily detached from the fixture and a new one can be re-wired and mounted in place. This makes replacing any damage to the light source simple and painless as compared to having to replace a lens and light source, or an entire fixture.
The ability to prevent breakage in wall packs provides immense benefits to the end user. Wall packs are commonly used to provide lighting for safety in dark outdoor areas where there is no light, such as walkways, parking lots, and alleys. They are a great fixture that is easily mounted to any building or existing structure and provides ample light. LED wall packs provide the same benefits while also being energy efficient and lasting longer. In addition, the white light that is commonly produced by LEDs provides a higher sense of safety for those walking at night than the warmer colors created by high pressure sodium lamps. The new vandal resistant LED wall packs provide all these benefits and more! They can withstand vandals of any kind. This means the light will virtually never go out and people will not be left in the dark. This provides more safety for passersby as well as less maintenance cost for property owners.
Some people are concerned that if they choose to go with a vandal resistant wall pack they will lose the aesthetic or architectural appeal of the wall pack. However, this is not true. Access Fixtures has been able to create vandal resistant wall packs in various styles to suit any application. The available styles include traditional commercial wall packs, full cutoff and semi-cutoff wall packs, crescent wall packs, oval wall packs, and even wall packs that emit light up and down. As always, these LED wall packs are available for custom painting to any RAL color code to match any existing architecture.
To discuss which vandal resistant wall pack is right for your application, contact an Access Fixtures Lighting Specialist at 800-468-9925.