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Fashion Forward with WINSTA®

Zinser, a fashion house in Tübingen with a rich tradition, is undergoing modernization and will soon be brilliantly illuminated by 7,500 LEDs. In order to install the lights in the shortest possible time – and during ongoing sales operations, no less – Elektro Kürner GmbH relies on the WINSTA® Pluggable Connection System from WAGO.

This kills several birds with one stone. First, the installation can be completed in the very short time period required. Second, mismating during installation of the lights is virtually impossible. Third, maintenance of the lights will be much easier in the future.

The Zinser fashion house has a long tradition. Founded in 1878 as a “general store,” this family-owned corporation now has subsidiaries in Herrenberg, Lahr, Offenburg, Reutlingen, Singen and Tübingen. The fashion house in Tübingen was originally built in 1976 with 3,900 m2 of sales space in the so-called “Zinser triangle,” mere steps from the Neckar river and the Old City. Today, the sales space covers 9,500 m2. The building has been undergoing comprehensive modernization since the end of 2015 and is set to reopen in September, following about a year of construction, with around 11,000 m2 of space. The renovations have been carried out floor by floor during normal operations. While some parts of the building are already shiny and new, renovation work remains to be done in other areas. In addition to the upgrades, an annex was added on the side, significantly increasing the sales and warehousing space.

New Lighting Concept

Over the course of the reconfiguration, the lighting is also being completely converted to LED technology. Not only does this provide brighter, more attractive lighting in the sales space – the energy efficiency will also improve significantly: Instead of 35 W per bulb, the new lights require only 18 W, almost 50 % less. “Previously, we used the lighting to heat the spaces. Now we actually have to supply heat,” says Davide Castiglione from Elektro Kürner GmbH, the company responsible for building management of the fashion houses. As the construction supervisor, the master electrician is also responsible for the modernizations in the Tübingen branch and, with his coworkers, is implementing the lighting designer’s concept. This includes around 7,500 lights that have to be newly installed.

Narrow Time Frame

Time is money in Baden-Württemberg, and the modernization activities are not supposed to interfere with sales operations. Therefore, the time frame for construction steps is quite narrow. In the sections of the building that have already been completed, the work was accomplished in a very short time. This allowed the first products to be sold in the newly constructed area just three weeks after the topping out ceremony. The renovation of one 4,000 m2 area, including part of the old building, could be completed in a mere ten weeks, including demolition and redesign. The time frame for installing the new lights was even narrower. As soon as the drywall work is completed, and while the painters are still working, the cables are laid in the suspended ceiling, in which the openings for the lights have already been cut. The lamps are connected immediately after the painters finish. “We could never have done this using conventional wiring,” says Davide Castiglione, for whom such challenges are old hat. “People everywhere expect work to be completed faster and faster. Even the component manufacturers have long become accustomed to this. Without solutions like the pluggable connection systems from WAGO, we couldn’t keep up.”

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Just Plug It In

In Tübingen, Elektro Kürner relies on WINSTA® MIDI from WAGO. Instead of individually wiring 2,000 lights per floor, only 30 to 35 subdistributors have to be wired on each floor. A distribution box is connected to each one; the only remaining work is to insert the plugs into the sockets. This makes installation substantially faster, starting with the first distribution box. Six lights and the next distribution box are connected to it, and so on, and mismating is virtually impossible. Subsequent maintenance on the lights is also simplified by the pluggable connections, since they are much easier to access. This is a significant advantage when dealing with 7,500 lights. In addition, the WINSTA® components are themselves completely maintenance-free. “Every now and then, a defective light will have to be replaced. It’s good if the on-site facility management can deal with this, instead of having to bring in an external technician each time. Furthermore, the goal is to interfere as little as possible with ongoing operations,” says Davide Castiglione.

WINSTA® MIDI:

  • Conductor range: up to 4 mm2 (12 AWG)

  • Nominal current: 25 A

  • Two wire connections per pole for loops or bridges

  • Available in 2- to 7-pole configurations

  • Additional variable coding possible

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Installation as Easy as Pie

Errors during installation and removal of the LEDs are virtually impossible. The pluggable connector components prevent mismating. Individual mechanical and color coding provide additional orientation during the installation. The lamps are simply inserted into the openings provided in the suspended ceiling and fixed in place using two clips. Safety is also guaranteed, now and forever – because the WINSTA® MIDI is completely touch-proof (IP20).

An Undisturbed Shopping Experience

The Zinser fashion house can look back on almost 140 years of success in this region – among other reasons, because the company has always kept up with the times. And this tradition continues with the conversion to LED technology in Tübingen, which will light up the building with new brilliance, and save substantial amounts of energy. The customers should see very few interruptions during the conversion. “So, in the Zinser building in Tübingen, we faced the challenge of installing thousands of LEDs in the shortest time possible. To do so, we needed a solution which would allow fast, easy, safe electrical installation,” explains Harald Walker, Technical Manager at Elektro Kürner. He found what he needed at WAGO, because WINSTA® MIDI pluggable connection system does exactly that. It makes the installation and removal of lamps faster and less complicated, which not only provides a high degree of cost efficiency and convenience, but also ensures that the modernization work does not interfere with shoppers’ experience in the Tübingen fashion house.

Text: Uwe Dieter | WAGO

Photo: Lorenzo de Nobili | BILDSCHÖN

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