A quick trip to the Bartco Lighting factory in Huntington Beach, CA was greatly appreciated in the cold of early February NYC. Bartco is family owned and maintains a community spirit throughout the factory.
Bartco is working on a number of exciting new fixtures, as well as updating their current product with the newest and greatest LEDs and optics. Their typical linear fixtures use a Harvard Engineering board with multiple LEDs per inch, produced a node-free appearance on their typical frosted lens (see their BAM-XLS8290 bookcase light below). 0-10V dimming control will be provided as a standard as well.
Bartco has also been working on a new anodizing treatment that allows for any scanned image to be used as a finish. We've seen a few factories that are offering this type of finish, mostly as various wood options (Intense Lighting, Luminis, etc.) but Bartco is also offering to coordinate for custom designs. Any anodized finish you can scan - can be provided for their extruded aluminum fixtures.
Two exciting new products that Bartco is working on are an 5/8" deep edge-lit frosted lens fixture, designed to install within the gypsum only so that the studs behind are not affected. This allows the fixture to run in any imaginable designs without restriction. Typically, it can only be mounted in gypsum with a mud-in plate, but Bartco is also working on integration for mirrors.
The other new product is their BSS110, a new linear cove light. Using the new node-free LED boards with a frosted lens, this product produces a smooth band of light on the back and ceiling of the cove. It also has up to 15deg tool-less field adjustability.
It was interesting to discuss projects with the other designers on the trip. Many still use linear fluorescent lamps for commercial projects where dimming is not required. Since fluorescent lamps are now available with 50,000+ (or even 80,000+) lamp life hours, and the lumens/watts is still relatively similar, the payback for LED is not as great. Also, the consistency of using fluorescent lamps and ballasts, which can easily be changed out, is potentially more attractive to owners than relying on LED boards and drivers that are constantly changing.