It takes the brightest to create more than just brightness
Somewhere on the globe it is always about to get dark – and the setting sun sets the stage for a new, shining play. When the streets and squares of a city, and when boulevards, buildings and parks are transformed by a new, atmospheric light, this mesmerising shift is often the work of WE-EF. For many years we have been designing and producing exterior lighting technology that is more than just bright.
Design and Technology
Ever since its foundation in 1950, the WE-EF brand has set standards in professional exterior lighting with unique design and innovative technology. From day one, our thoughts and actions have been true to the ways and values of a family business – creative and close to the customer, flexible and focused on solutions. Driven by this spirit, we have created a product portfolio for lighting urban spaces as well as architecture – timelessly designed and exceptional in its functionality.
Transforming Atmosphere
A Worldwide Perspective
For WE-EF, creating and listening are one. The ongoing dialogue with our customers and partners helps us know what counts. Our core competencies are built on two essential premises. On the one hand, it is the uncompromising performance and efficiency delivered by the LED modules and optical systems we design in-house.
On the other hand, it is the first-class materials, sophisticated construction and the exclusive processes that WE-EF employs in manufacturing highly reliable, long-lasting products – offering peace of mind to project owners and other stakeholders. The qualities of German engineering are held in high regard the world over. WE-EF products combine these qualities with the experience and cultural perspective of a truly international group of companies. This diversity is one of our core strengths.
Crystal-clear Values For ideas and products to shine, the atmosphere in which they are created has to match the atmosphere they create. Respect and open-mindedness are key to innovation – and central pillars of our corporate culture.
We are proud that many of the brightest minds in lighting have joined the ranks of our employees, customers and partners.
We will continue to break new ground – creating individual solutions for a wide range of exterior lighting projects, perfectly honed for their purpose.
Markets and applications: Cities thrive in open spaces We create the atmosphere
To speak the same language. All over the world.
In addition to WE-EF’s head office in Bispingen, Germany and the company’s second factory in Neuendorf (Brandenburg, Germany), the WE-EF Group of Companies includes subsidiaries in France, Switzerland, the United States, Thailand and Australia.
As a consequence, customers from all parts of the world find the perfect contact at WE-EF – people who not only speak their language, but who are also intimately familiar with the specific regional conditions – from rules and regulations to requirements arising from the local climate.
What makes man-made environments worth living in? The planners and architects of today’s urban cityscapes have all the answers – public spaces that make you feel welcome; parks and landscapes that embrace you with their atmosphere; places of encounter that feel vibrant and safe to everyone; and buildings as beacons of identity, impressive in scale and iconic in design. At the centre of it all, a profound sense of humanity and purpose.
All these qualities can be extended – and even expanded – after dark by the intelligence of light, i.e., sophisticated lighting concepts that accentuate existing design dimensions and add a whole new world of possibilities. The result is a distinctive nocturnal identity, from functional efficiency to atmospheric enchantment.
This is what WE-EF is all about – setting the stage for great architecture with exterior luminaires, systems and accessories for opening up landscapes, and enlivening the streets and squares of cities and making them safe. Every single product and the entire structure of our portfolio have been thoroughly considered from a real-life planning perspective, and it shows – down to the tiniest technical detail of our luminaires. And in the new, application-centred structure of the catalogue.
Design and Engineering: Intelligence in every detail
Timeless. Purist. Clean. Shaped by an organic precision – WE-EF luminaires look their part for a number of reasons. One is that they are designed for seamless integration into a wide variety of architectural and urban contexts by day as well as by night. Today – and for many years to come.
Longevity – in both aesthetics and technology – is at the core of our products’ DNA. It is the result of an unusually close alliance of designers, lighting technicians and engineers in WE-EF’s product development – fostered over many years and strengthened by short distances between research and development laboratories and production.
This well-established collaboration leads to products that are thoroughly considered down to the last detail, with construction optimised for consistent excellence in manufacturing as well as easy maintenance and recycling. In addition, they are produced with materials and processes that help to protect our environment.
In order to minimise the ecological footprint, however, each luminaire must be perfectly honed to its purpose. In street and area lighting, finding the perfect combination of beam angle, glare limitation and efficiency not only leads to improved lighting comfort, but also to significantly reduced cost and less CO2 – fewer light points, faster installation, lower maintenance. It’s a promise WE-EF gladly gives in writing. As one of the first manufacturers of street and area lighting, WE-EF publishes life cycle assessments for select products in the form of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) in accordance with ISO14025 and EN 15804.
More than a phrase: Made by WE-EF
It’s not just what you do. It’s how you do it. For this reason, the continuous training of our staff is just as elementary to WE-EF as our investments in research and development, tools and production facilities.
This is all the more important because there is quite a few things we rather do ourselves than to have them outsourced, as others do. Our production depth is high, and proudly so. We design, engineer and manufacture our own LED optics OLC® (One LED Concept), according to WE-EF’s IOS® (Innovative Optical System) philosophy. We build our own tools for die casting and injection moulding – accurate to one thousandth of a millimetre.
We manufacture components from profiles and sheet metal on state-of-the-art CNC machines. We protect surfaces against corrosion, applying our industry-leading 5CE system. In all, when it comes to assembly, we mount and test all our luminaires according to certified processes. That’s why every WE-EF product is a purpose-built performance package that will not be found anywhere else.
