If there’s one thing that I never thought I’d be involved in – it would be the creation of a new Standard, British of otherwise. Its been a real treat to sit round the virtual table with expert lighters who know a lot more about remanufacturing processes and this kind of procedural stuff than I ever will. And thanks to them for teaching me the meaning of ‘normative’.
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Let’s get to the heart of the matter and start with the simple question; who is BS 8887-221:2024 intended for?
– and it would save time to simply write down those who it’s NOT intended for. Remanufacturing may sound like something new, but we all know that remaking – repurposing – just relamping – whatever we’ve chosen to call it, has being going on since Edison was a lad. Sometimes it’s about swapping relatively inefficient, light sources (T8 fluorescent anyone?) for later versions (T5); sometimes it’s about switching an entire technology (I once swapped a 250W MBF-U discharge lamp in an industrial quality floodlight for a 12v 50W M32 lamp – the optics were great!). Though more occasionally than we might like to admit, it’s been about creating light fixtures from things that never started out as such (GLS tungsten lamps in old kettles and colanders – those staples of the rustic themed fun pubs of the 1980s – or was it the 1880s?)
One thing was pretty much certain. Those conversions rarely saw any testing, let alone an electrical test to make sure that they were fit to be installed in the first place.
An unexpected consequence of the LED revolution has been the sector-wide penny-dropping when we all realised that LEDs didn’t last forever and that throwing out an entire luminaire – aluminium heatsink and all – wasn’t a good look to present to a client. The answer had to be a process of remanufacturing in some form – and the BS8887 panel had a lot of fun (hmmm) in determining what ‘remanufacturing’ actually means.
Let me help you there – Remanufacture: industrial process which creates a luminaire from used and/or new luminaires and/or components.
So, to ask again, who needs to know about this stuff:
- The designer: because its no longer good enough simply to drill a hole in the bottom of a kettle and fit a flex and lampholder – from your own garage!
- The manufacturer/remanufacturer: because you need to know how to do this work within a safe functional framework. Not all do . . .
- The installer: because you need to understand how a remanufactured luminaire may not be intended for the same environments as the original fixture. do not assume that a post-industrial explosion-proof fixture is still explosion proof once its been fitted with an LED filament lamps.
- The wholesaler: because you’ll be the one, in the first instance, who’ll be carrying the can if anything goes wrong with remanufactured equipment – not the remanufacturer.
- The end-user: because you’ll be putting in light fixtures that no longer belong to the original manufacturers and – should thet ever fail / catch fire / electrocute someone – you’ll want to know where to send the solicitor’s letter.
This new British Standard takes us through the process of remanufacture, from the initial conversation about the mere possibility of creating a remanufactured luminaire through to the final installation, via appropriate inspection and testing – and beyond to the next iteration of that luminaire body, when the process may be repeated.
To give it its full title,
BS 8887-221:2024 – Design for manufacture, assembly, disassembly and end-of-life processing (MADE) – Part 221: Remanufacture of luminaires — Code of Practice
Is part of a suite of BS documents around the MADE principle (Manufacture, Assembly, Disassembly, and End-of-life processing). To read more deeply into the principle, you can also refer to:
- BS ISO 8887‑1, Technical product documentation – Design for manufacturing, assembling, disassembling and end‐of‐life processing – Part 1: General concepts and requirements
- BS ISO 8887‑2, Technical product documentation – Design for manufacturing, assembling,disassembling and end‐of‐life processing – Part 2: Vocabulary
- BS 8887‑3, Design for manufacture, assembly, disassembly and end‐of‐life processing (MADE) – Guide to choosing an appropriate end‐of‐life design strategy
- And in addition there are these relevant British Standards:
- BS EN 60598 (all parts), Luminaires
- BS EN IEC 60598‑1:2021+A11:2022, Luminaires – Part 1: General requirements and tests.
And a final note from me – something that we know about already, but it never hurts to keep reminding ourselves:
Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.
So that’s us told, then.
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