Heraeus

More than 100 years ago, Heraeus developed the first quartz glass lamp that produced ultraviolet light identical to sunlight. The Original Hanau® qualifies the Hanau, Germany-based precious metals and technology group as the inventor of the UV high-pressure lamp and a pioneer in tanning using artificial light sources. The artificial sunlamp also laid the foundation for tanning salons and today’s tanning market.

Since then, the company has continued to be an innovator in the field of low- and high-pressure lamps. Over the past few years, there has been a lot of industry buzz over its VARIUS® system, a complete high-pressure lamp with flexible application. This revolutionary system can be found powering some of the most elite tanning equipment worldwide.

Prior to the introduction of the next generation of VARIUS, the company invited its premiere North American partners and LOOKING FIT® magazine to attend its 1st Original Hanau SunCare Days event last September. The three-day occasion included product presentations, a tour of its headquarters, lamp production facility and logistic center, a tour of its exclusive quartz glass melting factory, a trip to its warehouse and shipping facility, superb hospitality including a private wine tasting and dinner as well as a day of sightseeing and fun in Heidelberg. (see sidebar and photo collage on page 62.) The event was fantastic, and we witnessed firsthand the tradition, quality, innovation and support that is evident in each and every product that bears the Heraeus name and rich history.

Many people may not realize that Heraeus is a market and technology leader in five areas: precious metals, dental health, sensors, quartz glass and specialty lighting.

Founded in 1851, the privately owned company’s expansive product portfolio makes it relatively independent of developments in individual industrial sectors. Heraeus proactively targets and fosters the high innovation and development potential within the company and uses customer-oriented product developments and specific acquisitions to expand its leading position in diverse industrial sectors.

In 2005, the entire company generated revenues of more than 9 billion euros and had 10,600 employees worldwide in over 100 subsidiaries and associated companies.

While the entire Heraeus story is fascinating, this article examines Heraeus Noblelight GmbH, which is a technology and market leader in the production of specialty lighting including indoor tanning lamps.

Headquartered in Hanau, Germany, Heraeus Noblelight was formed in 1992 to combine the UV and IR activities of the Heraeus group. The tradition of these products goes back to 1904 when Heraeus invented the UV lamp and to the 1950s when the company pioneered infrared technology.

Heraeus Noblelight has subsidiaries in the United States, Great Britain, France and China and employs 644 people worldwide. Today, Heraeus Noblelight develops, manufactures and markets infrared and ultraviolet lamps for various industries including tanning, industrial process technology, environmental protection, medicine and cosmetics, research and analytical measurement technology.

The mercury-vapor quartz glass lamp developed in 1904 by physicist and Heraeus chief developer Richard Küch was first used extensively in medical phototherapy.

In experiments, he realized that mercury vapor emits a shortwave, greenish light when it is stimulated to produce electrical discharges in a quartz glass tube. In contrast to normal glass, quartz glass has two important advantages: the ultraviolet radiation generated can pass through quartz glass unhindered and, in contrast to normal glass, quartz glass is stable even at temperatures above 1,000 Celsius.

To take advantage of the potential of this invention, Heraeus and AEG jointly established the firm Quarzlampengesellschaft mbH in 1906. The artificial sunlamp Original Hanau ultimately was developed in close cooperation with medical institutions. The new lamp displayed the same effects as sunrays in the mountains.

A steadily increasing number of applications in medicine and dermatology caused quartz glass lamps to become part of the equipment inventory of every hospital and many physicians’ offices.

The Original Hanau brand was launched in the 1920s with the “Sun Man” logo. The company has kept the original logo; however, it has been updated over the years.  The continuous development and the successes of medical phototherapy made the Höhensonne product line the market leader in Germany in the 1930s. In the 1950s, the small Höhensonne advanced to become an electrical consumer item as a tanning lamp that was used in many households.

In the late 1970s, the artificial sunlamp increasingly captured the professional tanning market. Today, the successors of the mercury-vapor quartz glass lamps— fitted with sophisticated filtration systems and satisfying the most demanding safety requirements—are found in many tanning salons as tanning lamps.

Heraeus Noblelight continues the Original Hanau tradition and Original Hanau SunCare is one of the leading suppliers of UV technology for the tanning industry. The product range comprises lamps and tubes, filter plates, optical reflectors, complete facial tanning units and electrical components.

As a supplier of low- and high-pressure tanning lamps, Original Hanau SunCare is a development partner and OEM for many tanning equipment manufacturers. The company offers MagicSun®, NewColors® and Classics® line of lamps. The MagicReflex® brand is home to complete systems and optical components for tanning equipment.

Heraeus Noblelight’s commitment to its customers’ applications differentiates itself from its competition. Experienced engineers work closely with customers to give them a product with superior performance for their specific needs. In addition to being lamp experts, they also understand the parameters and objectives of the applications.

Its accredited test laboratory and R&D and application centers around the world provide unmatched technical support, says Markus Berghöfer, general manager of Original Hanau SunCare.

“The Heraeus group gives us in-house access to fundamental technologies like quartz glass and precious metals for our lamps,” he says. “Based on this knowledge, we are able to engineer products that give customers tangible benefits in performance and efficiency with guaranteed UV output over the entire lifetime.”

Quality Control

Touring the facility, it is evident that quality control is a priority. Heraeus Noblelight runs an independent test laboratory that counts as one of the most modern and best equipped in the lamp industry. The company follows very strict measurement guidelines for UVA, UVB and IR.

The test laboratory is accredited according to DIN, EN, ISO 9001/IEC 17025:2000 for intensity measurements in the wavelength range 200 nm to 1,700 nm and for flux measurement in the wavelength range 300 nm to 800 nm. The test laboratory team carries out product development and quality assurance, but also shares its knowledge on a one-to-one basis with customers if they are looking for indepth information.

Sophisticated equipment includes radiometers and photometers, spectral radiometers, Ulbricht sphere with monochromator, and double monochromators for precision measurements. Services for customers include measurement of light sources (spectrum, output and lifetime), transmission of many optical materials, measurement of tanning equipment, and support for the development of new equipment using light sources. Testing can be conducted in the laboratory in Hanau or at the customer’s site.

For more than 100 years, the manufacturing and processing of high-purity quartz glass has been linked to the name Heraeus Quarzglas. Having achieved the position of the world’s largest integrated quartz producer, Heraeus Quarzglas draws on key production and processing technologies of natural and synthetic quartz glass. The facility supplies Heraeus Noblelight with the quartz tubes for its high-pressure lamps.

Located in the town of Kleinostheim, Germany, the quartz melting factory is a technological leader in high-purity quartz glass. The facility produces and processes high-purity quartz for the optical, chemical, semiconductor and tanning industries in more than 13 production facilities in Europe, Asia and North America.

The Lamp Materials business unit offers a broad spectrum of high-quality quartz glass tubes and plates for lighting sources, specialty lamps and radiation applications.

The meticulously clean facility was running at full capacity during our tour, and we were able to see hot, molten quartz being fabricated for future use.

Always looking to improve upon its designs and provide salon operators with cost-effective products, Heraeus unveiled the second generation of VARIUS at the ITA Tanning World Expo.

The VARIUS system offers manufacturers great flexibility and significantly lower development costs. Its compact construction and small space requirement allows it to be used in a wide range of applications including foot-, leg-, hand-, face-, neck- and shouldertanning units. The tanning surfaces and the intensity of tanning can be varied by changing the number of units and varying their distance from the areas to be tanned.

VARIUS is a complete, enclosed system and consists of five modules: reflector of special glass with an optimized interference coating, a 250-watt tanning lamp, filter sheet, plug-in electrical connector and fixing strap. All components are precisely matched to each other.

The 2007 design of the high-pressure lamp in the VARIUS system has been advanced and improved so the lamp and fitting now are supplied as two separate components. Therefore, during lamp changeover, only the lamp needs to be replaced and the fitting can be reused.

Lyle Rhodes, sales manager for the U.S. office, says this more efficient use of the components ensures that lamp changeovers are more cost-effective for end users, allowing cost-savings of up to 25 percent.

“Salons that have fitted their tanning equipment with the earlier version of VARIUS only need to retrofit the new fitting to convert their system to the new generation,” he says. “The dimensions have not changed and the new VARIUS lamp can be used in the earlier system. Lamp changing is even easier and can still be carried out without the need for tools.”

While the Heraeus name has been around for more than a century, the company hasn’t rested on its laurels and the U.S. tanning industry is realizing its innovations.

Its commitment to tradition, quality, innovation and support is evident in its investment in its products and personnel. From the factory to the shipping warehouse, we were greeted with smiles and employees truly committed to providing the tanning industry with the best products possible.

We look forward to seeing future innovations from Heraeus and how they will help the U.S. tanning sector in the years to come. 

Attendees at the 1st Original Hanau SunCare Days were treated to great sightseeing, cuisine and libations. Here are a few photos from our adventures in Hanau, Frankfurt, Rüdesheim, Heidelberg and our private wine tasting and multi-course dinner at the Johannisberg Castle, home of the famed Johannisberg Riesling. Please check out the January online version of LOOKING FIT for more in-depth information and photos!

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