Proposal of the Tubular Daylight System Using Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) Metalized with Aluminum for Reflective Tube Structure

Abstract

In the search for alternatives to reduce the consumption of electric energy, the possibility of using natural light for lighting through TDD (tubular daylight devices) or TDGS (tubular daylight guidance systems) appears. These natural luminaires are used in rooms where you want to save electricity and enjoy the benefits of natural light. The present work proposes the construction of a tubular system for the conduction of natural light that replaces aluminum with silver (currently marketed by several companies) by polymer metallized with aluminum, offering a low cost. The polymer acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), coated with aluminum by physical vapor deposition (ionization), was evaluated for some tests to verify characteristics of the structure and the metallized surface. After the tests, the construction of the reflective tube was performed and validated in a real scale of application. The results proved the technical viability of the proposed tube construction for the realization of direct sunlight for illumination using polymeric material. Although it has produced 35% less than the reference tube, it can be marketed at an estimated cost of 50% less.

Keywords

• tubular daylighting systems
• acrylonitrile butadiene styrene
• vacuum metallization