Proton Lighting makes lighting for industry, offices and public places under its own trademark, Exactor. On top of this, the company develops and manufactures lighting on subcontract basis for other companies. A bathroom light based on aluminium extrusions has been developed and is being manufactured for Ifö, one of the largest manufacturers of sanitation goods in Scandinavia. Called OHA, it is part of Ifö’s “Option” series of accessories.
The lamp is the work of the successful Danish designer Knud Holscher. Ifö then commissioned Proton to determine the materials and methods to be used in manufacturing the lamp.
A year’s development work
The design and development work took almost a year and aluminium extrusions were an obvious choice of material as the company considered extrusions totally superior to steel in their ability to be shaped, their design value and quality.
The design work has involved many components, a long series of prototypes and continuous changes in the concept, components and dies. The main idea was clear from the start – a bathroom lamp consisting of two parts, a wall mounting with built in electronics designed for rapid and simple installation and a shade available in four sizes.
Floating freely
Both the wall mounting and the shade are made from aluminium extrusions. The lamp has a modern feel and the shade appears to float freely under the wall mounting. The design involves four extrusions for the wall mounting, front unit and shade. The wall mounting is the same for all sizes but shades can vary from 60 to 120 cm wide. Hydro Aluminium Profiler contributed to optimising the extrusions during the final stages of the design work.
The OHA series has been very successful and Ifö’s extrusion based lamps are now lighting an increasing number of bathrooms throughout Scandinavia.
Published: April 14, 2009