Lighting Poles Manufacturing : How Is It Made?

Lighting Poles Manufacturing : How Is It Made?

Lighting poles, which are an integral part of street lamps. People always pay attention to how bright the streetlight bulb is, but ignore the silent pole that carries it on its back and supports it incessantly.

In this article, we will tell you the story of the manufacturing lighting poles.

First of all, let's take a look at which standards should be used in lighting poles.

Lighting Pole Standards

Light pole height:

Generally speaking, the different environments where the lighting system will be applied need to be studied and measured; then different parameters of the poles are selected according to the brightness of the LED light source.

Application scenarios: For example, most of the scenic spots use solar powered garden lights and the lamp post is relatively low in height. For a stadium, high mast poles such as 20 m are preferred to ensure that the top body on which the floodlights will be mounted is inclined towards the lighting direction at a certain angle with the vertical.

Light Pole Material:

For example, steel structures are used on the roadsides and there are greats about the durability of these additional lamps. However, in the landscape area, only a simple light pole is needed because the landscape views and other requirements cannot be realized.

This is part of the industry's solid types, and some systems are implemented based on many years of manufacturing processes and experience. So the requirement when choosing a light pole is to ensure safety.

Lighting Pole Types

Light poles can be divided into iron light poles, FRP light poles, cement light poles and aluminum alloy light poles according to their materials.

Iron Light Pole

Advantages of iron light pole

• High Robustness

Disadvantages of iron light pole

• Easy wear and rust

• It weighs three times that of aluminium, and transportation and installation costs are high.

• Limited recycling value

• Surface treatment method is monotonous

FRP(Fiberglass) Lighting Pole

Advantages of FRP lighting pole

• Lightweight and easy installation

• Plugin installation available

Disadvantages of FRP lighting pole

• Short service life

• No recycling value, very difficult and expensive to dispose of

• Ultraviolet damage is very serious

• Maintenance costs are very high

• Easy to be damaged by external equipment

Cement Lighting Pole

Advantages of cement light pole:

• Plugin installation is available;

• Very strong and durable

• No need for extra operations such as spraying

Disadvantages of cement lighting poles

• It is a very heavy material that requires expensive shipping costs

• No recycling value

• Installation equipment is expensive and difficult to install

• More dangerous than other materials

Aluminum Pole

Advantages of aluminum pole:

• Good anti-corrosion performance

• maintenance free

• Lightweight, convenient for transportation and installation

• Various surface treatment methods

• Longer life than iron and FRP light poles

• 100% recycling, low melting temperature, energy saving and emission reduction

• Plugin installation available

• Smaller amplitude than glass fiber reinforced plastic lamp post

Disadvantages of aluminum alloy poles:

• Compared with iron poles, the strength of aluminum alloy poles is relatively low, but the strength of aluminum alloy poles can reach T6 standard after heat treatment

• Due to the incomparable advantages of aluminum poles and other poles, aluminum alloy poles are widely used in developed countries such as Europe and America.

So, after examining the standards, let's move on to the construction of lighting poles that add light to our lives.

Lighting Pole Production Process

1. Metal Plate Cutting Process

In the whole cutting process, several automatic plasma cutting is adopted, and the slit is no more than 1mm, which creates many favorable conditions for subsequent processing.

Before cutting, the slope of the cutter and the required cutting size are set first.

The position of the steel plate is determined to ensure the maximum size of the material so that the remaining material can be used.

Length dimension is guaranteed during unwinding. The wide bottom dimension should be ≤ 2 mm. The cutting size tolerance is positive for each section of the lighting pole; usually: 0-2mm. After the size is adjusted, the process is completed with a strip cutting machine and an automatic cutting machine.

In terms of equipment: While uncoiling the material, the operation of the rolling shear equipment should be checked and any debris from the rail should be cleaned to keep the equipment in good working order.

2. Bending And Forming

Used for 12 meters long CNC hydraulic press brake, high control precision, beautiful shape of lighting pole, roundness of not more than 1mm, smooth appearance and length up to 12 meters to achieve a shaping.

The forming part is a more important point that should be handled by a CNC bending machine.

Compared with the traditional bending machine, the CNC bending machine has the characteristics of the bending machine such as accuracy and speed. It can realize automatic error avoidance and direct angle calculation.

Therefore, CNC bending machine is used whenever possible to complete the forming step.

Twisting is the most critical operation in lighting pole production. The quality of the twist directly affects the quality of the lighting pole and cannot be repaired after being bent.

Points that require attention are:

• Control the length, width and flatness of the design ≤1/1000. Straighten if flatness meets requirements, especially polygonal bar must provide flatness.

• Increase the bending depth of the bending machine to determine the position of the sheet metal.

• Correctly mark the sheet whose design will be produced, the error is ≤ ± 1 mm.

• Correct alignment and correct bending are important to minimize the seam of the pipe, the height of the two sides should not be more than 5 mm.

3. Welding

Adopting CNC automatic sealing machine for welding, the welding seam is formed at once, and the surface is smooth.

This device integrates the closing and welding functions, which overcomes the traditional integrity of the entire flat welding due to spot welding.

Straight seam welding is performed on the bent pipe seam during welding. Since welding is automatic arc welding, the welder should have more responsibility. When welding, extra attention should be paid to adjusting the weld position to ensure the smoothness of the weld.

4. Shaping

During the whole production process, the lighting pole is shaped twice.

For the first time after the welding of the longitudinal seam of the light pole is completed, it is beneficial for the accuracy of the welding of the lighting pole and the consistency of the appearance of the entire batch of light poles.

It is done a second time after galvanizing and before spraying to eliminate the bending of the lamp post due to thermal stress in hot galvanizing.

The finished product guarantees that the straightness of the lighting pole is not greater than 1% and the total length is not greater than 5mm.

The shaping process includes flattening the light pole, the full circle of the two ends of the empty pole, and the polygonal diagonal dimension. General tolerance: <±2mm. The flatness error of the empty bar does not exceed: ≤±1.5 / 1000.

5. Repair and Grinding

Repair and grinding is to repair the defects of the pipe cavity after automatic welding. The mechanic must inspect the post one by one and find the defects to be repaired. After the repair welding is completed, the grinding process is performed. The repaired connection is basically the same as the automatic welding.

6. Straightening the ends

The process of straightening the ends of the lamp post is to straighten both ends of the bent pipe cavity to ensure that it is perpendicular to the centerline and there is no inequality of angle and height. After flattening, the end face is polished.

7. Welding the Bottom Flange and Plate

The key to spot welding of the bottom flange and rib plate is to ensure that the bottom flange is perpendicular to the flat center line of the lamp, with the rib plate perpendicular to the bottom flange, and also flat on the flat ground.

8. Electronic Circuit Box Opening

First of all, the drawing should be looked at to determine the direction of the box to be opened, and then it should be positioned according to the drawing size.

Dimensions include: up and down length, left and right length, and box frame size.

When making plasma cutting, care must be taken to ensure that the cutting line is straight and that the box panel and lighting pole are welded accordingly.

9. The strip of the welded circuit box and the lock slot of the box cover

When welding a door strip with a width of 40mm, especially spot welding, the 8-10mm projected position should be corrected and the weld should be firm.

The slot of the electric box circuit and the source of the lock base are mainly determined according to the drawing. The lock base is welded to the middle of the door with an error of ≤ ± 2 mm.

10. Bending fork

The twisting fork process has the same features as the box making process, and care must be taken. First, attention should be paid to the direction of the opened box slot, secondly to the starting point, thirdly to the angle of the fork. It should not vibrate and 100% efficiency should be provided.

11. Galvanize Process

Galvanizing quality directly affects the quality of the light pole. After galvanization, the surface is smooth and there is no color difference. There should be no sagging. Lamp post with severe sagging should be re-coated. This process proceeds as follows;

Inspection Before Galvanizing

Before galvanizing, the surface of the lamp post is thoroughly checked for paint source problems and cleaned if any.

Pickling

Carry out the necessary degreasing on the surface of the lighting pole. After immersing in the degreasing pool for 15-30 minutes to remove the oil, it is cleaned more than twice in the washing pool.

The surface of the lamp post is cleaned with a layer of oxide. The time taken for removal of the oxide layer in hydrochloric acid is 20-40 minutes. If there is a local oxide layer on the surface, it is treated with the instrument and then pickled for 15 minutes.

After pickling, the acid ions on the surface of the lamp post should be removed in the cleaning tank, and the cleaning times should be more than twice.

Zinc Additive

After the cleaning of the light pole is completed, zinc treatment is done in the zinc aid bath and the temperature is controlled at 60-70 ?C for 3 minutes. Zinc aid components were analyzed every 4 hours.

Galvanization

After cooling with water, chromic acid treatment should be applied to the galvanized surface so that white rust (zinc oxide) does not form on the galvanized surface. At this time, a yellow passivation liquid is formed on the surface and will naturally fade after rain.

12. Spray Paint

The purpose of spraying is to make the lighting pole look beautiful and to prevent corrosion.

Polishing
It polishes the surface of the galvanized bar with a polishing wheel to ensure that the surface of the light bar is smooth and flat.

Straightening
The polished light pole is straightened and the mouth shape is shaped. The straightness of the light pole should be 1/1000.

Process requirements:
After galvanizing, the requirements of the plastic spraying process must be strictly observed. Spraying technology is applied to the rod body before spraying to increase adhesion without damaging the hot-dip galvanized layer.

The curing time and curing temperature must be strictly controlled to ensure that the plastic layer is uniform, smooth and non-porous.

13. Power Box Gate

The door of the power distribution box is cut by a CNC plasma cutting machine, which has the advantages of high accuracy and small cutting, and is integrated with the rod body.

Inside this box is a grounding device and a ground wire.

14. Installing the door panel

After galvanizing all the door panels, the processing includes hanging the zinc, sealing the zinc and storing the zinc in the keyhole.

When drilling the screw holes, the electric drill should be perpendicular to the door panel, the gap around the door panel should be even, and the door panel should be flat.

The door panel cannot be loose after the screws are fixed, and it must be firm to prevent it from falling during transportation.

Plastic spraying powder application: It involves putting the door lighting pole into the spraying chamber, spraying the plastic powder color according to the production plan, and then entering the drying chamber. The temperature and holding time of the drying chamber should be strictly according to the requirements of the plastic powder, to ensure the quality requirements such as powder adhesion and finish.

15. Factory inspection

Factory audits are done by factory quality auditors. Factory inspectors must inspect individual items against the items tested by the lampposts. Inspectors should record and archive simultaneously.

Final Thoughts

Finally, it is worth remembering that the lighting pole should not be produced according to the actual situation of the street lamp. Street lamps in different locations should choose the lighting pole with different parameters and provide the highest lighting efficiency with the least cost.