August 9, 2021

Acuity Brands Advances its Multi-Prong UV Strategy

North America’s largest fixture manufacturer has combined numerous partnerships with its own R&D to assemble a formidable UV disinfection portfolio for end users and other manufacturers. We break it down for you.

Acuity Brands has just announced that the company’s Care222® filtered far-UVC module is the first germicidal UV (GUV) source in the wavelength range 200-230 nm (i.e., “far-UVC”) to be UL Certified to meet U.S. and Canadian standards for germicidal equipment for use in occupied spaces.

As North America’s fight against COVID-19 struggles to stave of the resurgent Delta variant, UV disinfection lighting market is also experiencing a resurgence in demand that may prove to boost an increased long-term demand for disinfection lighting.

North America’s largest luminaire manufacturer, Acuity Brands, has been rolling out a series of multi-phase, multi-prong UV disinfection lighting strategies over the last year. That, combined with the company's recent acquisition of Osram’s Digital Systems business, is adding to its broad reach to the North American market.

Modular Components:
With the company claiming that the Care222® far-UVC module is the industry’s only far-UVC UL Recognized Component, Acuity Brands is poised to roll out the technology in its own fixtures as well as make the technology available to other lighting manufacturers.

Partnerships with UV Disinfection companies:
The company has been active in forming multiple partnership agreements – many of them exclusive – with UV Disinfection companies to enable Acuity Brands to bring disinfection lighting solutions to market. The company has announced partnerships with Ushio, Puro Lighting, Violet Defense and UV Angel.

Ushio America (announced June 2020):
The strategic alliance agreement between Acuity Brands and Ushio America, Inc. grants Acuity Brands exclusive rights in North America to incorporate Ushio’s Care222 far-UVC disinfection* module into Acuity Brands luminaires that will be installed and operated in spaces when they are occupied and unoccupied. Acuity Brands also has non-exclusive rights to use the Care222 far-UVC disinfection module worldwide (except Asia) for lighting and other uses.

Puro Lighting & Violet Defense (October 2020):
The strategic alliance that includes Acuity Brands and Violet Defense LLC and Puro Lighting, LLC gives Acuity Brands access to patented UV technology from Violet Defense®. This UV technology delivers high intensity full spectrum UV light using a pulsed xenon lamp and UV transmissive lens. In collaboration with these organizations, Acuity Brands will offer UV disinfection luminaires that can be used in unoccupied spaces to quickly kill bacteria and inactivate viruses. Acuity Brands products utilizing this technology are offered by Healthcare Lighting® under the PulseX™ brand.

UV Angel (December 2020):
Acuity Brands has a private label supply agreement with UV Partners, Inc. (dba UV Angel) to enable Acuity Brands to purchase and resell the UV Angel Clean Air™ pathogen control system, as well as pursue joint developments of UV light disinfection products. The agreement provides Acuity Brands with limited exclusivity for certain private label products throughout North America. Acuity Brands products utilizing this technology are offered by Healthcare Lighting® under the EvōlAIR UV™ brand.