Maintenance to bowl them over

With over 50 years in the lighting industry, Abacus prides itself on offering a full turnkey solution, from design through to lighting and column maintenance to create the Abacus Advantage. The Abacus Maintenance Team takes care of many sites, inspecting and maintaining both Abacus and non-Abacus products. Edgbaston Cricket Ground is one of these.

This distinguished Abacus lighting project, with its iconic headframes, was unveiled in 2011 and has since lit a multitude of games. Today these floodlights are still performing as they did during that very first match in 2011. The regular maintenance that this lighting and mast system undergoes allows the lighting to continuously perform at the high level required.

In order to maximise the life of a sports floodlighting system and reduce lamp failures, it is important that a regime for structural inspections and testing be implemented. At Edgbaston, annual maintenance includes inspections on the five 45m cantilever masts which carry a total of 320 2kW Challenger 3 floodlights, from which are a Technical Inspection Report based upon the Professional Lighting Guide PLG07 is produced.

Annual maintenance is essential to maximise a lighting and column solution, as each site is subjected to the elements for many years. At Edgbaston, sport is played at a high level and televised, so the lighting must continually meet sporting and broadcasting requirements. Televised cricket demands high illuminance levels which need to be carefully maintained over the systems life, ensuring that floodlights are cleaned and inspected in order to operate at optimum efficiency. Floodlight maintenance involves checking that the luminaire is intact, secure and undamaged with all associated electrical items being checked for security and any damage. The fixings, internal optics and visors must be inspected and cleaned to remove any build up of dirt that may dim adversely affect the luminaire output.

A bespoke headframe system consisting of separate sections was assembled to realise the now famous “e” shaped headframe design. Each bolt requiring inspection in order to keep the headframe intact, lanterns in the correct place and the public safe. A report is produced on the mast to include items such as the welded and bolted joints across the headframe and the mast itself, with any adjustments to be made where necessary. Mast inspection and reporting includes both the interior and exterior condition, with foundation, foundation bolts, shims and protective finishes all being checked and accounted for.

The importance of maintenance and the benefits of care provided with routine maintenance checks allow a lighting, column or mast system to fulfil its potential lifespan and this preventive maintenance keeps costs low and reduces system downtime. With the lighting system continuously maintained, Edgbaston Cricket Ground can continue to host evening and night time matches under quality lighting, ideal for players, spectators and televised viewing.