International Airport of Dubai

In October, 2008, the official inauguration of the new Terminal 3 of Dubai International Airport took place. Dubai International Airport is the most important gateway and hub of the Middle East with 65 million passengers annually.

MCI Group was responsible for the LED lighting system of the front façade entrance of the new Terminal 3, where we utilized over 140,000 High Power LEDs placed inside 4700 meters of lighting fixtures to illuminate 13 arcs of 45 meters height. The color changing façade will be a new tourist icon of Dubai because the new Terminal Three will feature the largest LED lighting system in the Middle East region.

This project is the most prominent lighting project for MCI Group, now in its 40th year of existence.

BRIEFING

In the beginning of 2006, the airport authorities of Dubai started the design of the façade of the new Terminal 3. The concept involved dynamic colour changing and there are 3 areas of requirements:

Limited space

There is only a small channel in the structure of the beams, and the product has a space limitation of 40mm width and 60mm depth.

Weather & climatic conditions

The product needed to be able to stand the high temperature of Dubai, where temperature can rise up to 45 ºC in day time. Strong sunlight will also pose a threat to the product as UV-rays will damage most electronic components.

Efficient & cost saving conditions

The total numbers of transformers had to be reduced.

In addition, the high temperature of Dubai is detrimental to electronic transformers, and we would like to avoid having a special air conditioned room just for the electronic transformers.

DEVELOPMENT

After thoroughly studying various aspects of these limitation of the lighting project, MCI Group proposed the following solutions:

Limited Space

MCI Group R&D department designed an aluminium profile that can be integrated into the limited space of 40 x 60mm, while the aluminium profile also acted as the thermal heat sink for the product.

UV- Protection

MCI Group used specialty glass from SCHOTT as cover of the product. These special glasses can block 99% of the harmful UV-rays while the surface is transparent and will not get foggy after long exposure to high temperature and sunlight.

Transformers

The use of electronic transformers, as recommended by our competitors, would require building a special air conditioned room just for the 2000 electronic transformers. The waste of electricity and wiring of over 2000 electronic transformer make this approach unfeasible.

MCI Group R&D department recommended to build 26 conventional 3-phase 380V AC 10kW conventional transformers. These conventional transformers do not need special air conditioned environment, they have very long product life, are easy to maintain, and they can be located conveniently near each arc to save the trouble of excessive wiring. This approach saved both time and money for our client and make future maintenance job easier.

PRODUCTION

MCI Group started production once the client approved the working prototype.

The custom made Line Grazer are made up with metallic core printed circuit board with 15 mounted High Power LEDs and special optical lens of 8º.

Three different lengths (525 mm/1050 mm/1570 mm) were manufactured in two versions:

. Monocolor in Cold White: for the panoramic illumination of the 13 arcs.
. Color changing RGB: in order to offer spectacular colored movements and effects throughout the arcs.

MCI Group certified the final products with reputable external quality laboratories.

SERVICES

MCI Group offers expert technical assistance and superb service during the planning, designing, manufacturing, installation, and after-sales phases of each lighting project.
1 Initial Technical assessment
2. Design and drawing of electric distribution diagrams in AutoCAD
3. Supervision of the product installation during the entire installation period by MCI technician.
4. Creation of Manual of Operation and Maintenance for the lighting system.

This project is one of the most important LED lighting system project in the Middle East region. We are confident our execution of this project will serve as a benchmark for future airports and architectural lighting system projects.