Choosing the Right Material for Outdoor Lights

Whether it's rain or air pollution, direct sun or salty sea air — outdoor lights are often exposed to the harshest environmental conditions and have to withstand them for decades. Alongside the protection rating against foreign objects and moisture, choosing the right surfaces and materials for outdoor lights plays a decisive role here. Our manufacturers take different approaches — but ones that have all proven themselves over time.

Cast and Shaped Aluminium in Outdoor Light Construction

While lanterns used to be made mostly from corrosion-prone iron and had to be maintained accordingly, aluminium has today become the material of choice for many outdoor light makers. This metal, already known in China around the year 300 CE, has decisive advantages over iron: it's not only around three times lighter, it also forms a thin oxide layer on contact with air, even untreated, that protects it permanently from corrosion.

Electrolytic Oxidation: Anodizing Outdoor Lights Forms an Impenetrable Layer

Manufacturers such as Terraluce, Schinkel-Leuchten, and Roger Pradier reinforce this effect through electrolytic oxidation — anodizing. On top of that, the light metal is coated with an additional protective layer of paint or polyester powder coating. Should the aluminium become exposed through mechanical impact or wear, the impenetrable anodized layer — unlike with iron — continues to protect it from corrosion.

Aluminium Gravity Die Casting and Pressure Die Casting for Outdoor Lights from Italy

Before it became possible to make the far cheaper zinc sheet corrosion-resistant through the addition of titanium, sheet aluminium was used for façade and roof elements as well as gutters. And when alloyed with magnesium or silicon, the metal reaches a strength only slightly below that of steel. Because aluminium is difficult to weld, manufacturing relies on gravity die casting or pressure die casting. The company Auraluce from Tuscany shows beautiful examples of this technique.

Copper, Bronze, and Brass in Outdoor Lights

Copper and the copper-zinc alloys bronze and brass are time-tested materials when it comes to weather resistance. Chemically, copper has properties similar to silver and gold, and is well protected against environmental influences. Because of their sheer durability, both copper and brass have long been favored for coinage. Copper exposed to the weather quickly develops a greenish salt layer that protects it from further corrosion. Copper roofs, for example, last for centuries.

Patina on Brass and Bronze: A Salt- and Acid-Resistant Protective Layer for Outdoor Lights

The patina on brass also serves more than just an aesthetic purpose: the oxidation of the zinc forms a salt- and acid-resistant protective layer around the alloy that permanently protects it from further chemical reactions. In the 19th century, for instance, before stainless steel was invented, ship propellers were made of copper or of the copper-tin alloy bronze. Brass, meanwhile, has withstood even the harshest conditions in ship fittings — portholes, propellers — for centuries, right up to today.

Wrought Iron, Cast Iron, and Stainless Steel in Outdoor Lights

Hand-forged German ironwork has become a rarity. Only a few companies, such as Robers-Leuchten from Westphalia, still make outdoor lights from wrought iron today. To hold corrosion permanently at bay, wrought iron fixtures are nowadays coated with special paints or baked-on powder coatings. Stainless steel, by contrast, has excellent corrosion resistance built in from the start — its untreated surface still gleams like new even after decades.

Glazed Ceramic: The Material of Choice for Outdoor Lamp Sockets and More

Corrosion-free lamp sockets can be made of brass or Bakelite — but glazed ceramic is best of all. If you want an outdoor light that will keep working for decades without needing repairs, ceramic sockets are not something to skip. Many of our manufacturers use ceramic for their sockets wherever possible. There are also fixtures made entirely of porcelain, ceramic, and glass.

Patinated and Natural-Finish Brass and Copper Outdoor Lights from the Treviso Region

While the Italian manufacturer Aldo Bernardi coats its brass and copper models as standard with a special patina, made using secret formulas, that makes the fixtures look from day one as though they've always been there, the French manufacturer Roger Pradier, for example, favors a light brass patina finished with a clear lacquer varnish.

Zinc, a Traditional but Very Rare Material in Outdoor Light Construction

Zinc is likewise a traditional material in lantern making. Since zinc sheet was made suitable for outdoor use through the addition of titanium, the zinc lantern has also been enjoying a revival. French manufacturer Roger Pradier offers two classic-style zinc lanterns with its Vieille France and Louis Philippe models. Another French lantern specialist, Atelier Lumin'Art, even offers almost its entire range in zinc as well.

Plastics and Glass Outdoors: High-Tech versus Tradition

Unfairly dismissed as a cheap material, plastics have properties that can make conventional materials look pale by comparison: precisely the manufacturers of high-quality lanterns use plastics as an advantageous alternative to glass — and they're not cheaper than glass either, quite the opposite. Polycarbonate, a synthetic, glass-like polymer from the polyester family, is valued by experts for its durability, scratch and impact resistance, and light transmission. Because of its high cost, polycarbonate is only used where maximum resistance to breakage is required — as with eyeglass lenses, optical lenses, or indeed high-quality outdoor light glazing.

Polymethyl Methacrylate for Outdoor Lights

Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), commonly known as acrylic glass, is a synthetic, glass-like thermoplastic. Its high light transmission and UV resistance, combined with extreme scratch and impact resistance, make this — likewise very expensive — material ideal for eyeglass lenses, optical lenses, and even dentures.

Acrylic Glass in Outdoor Lights and Energy-Saving Bulbs

These two materials do have two drawbacks, though: acrylic glass can only be used up to around 75°C. In combination with energy-saving bulbs, which generate only a fraction of the heat of a normal incandescent bulb, this isn't a problem. Both materials also often still struggle, in vain, to win over conservative users who prefer glass.

Corrosion Protection for Outdoor Lights Through Environmentally Friendly Powder Coating

The fixtures and posts from our manufacturers Roger Pradier, Schlesische Laternen, and Bolich-Leuchten (all colors, where available), as well as Auraluce (all standard colors), are powder-coated. This coating process, in which an electrically conductive material is coated with powder paint, has decisive advantages over conventional paints. It's true that the finished surface isn't as smooth as with wet-painted surfaces — it has a slight texture from the baked-on paint powder — but in exchange, powder coatings are far more robust and durable than most conventional paint finishes.

Mechanical Resistance and Formability

Powder coatings are environmentally friendly because they contain no solvents, and the so-called overspray generated during application is recovered in the powder spray booths. They provide excellent corrosion and rust protection for outdoor lights, and offer high mechanical resistance as well as formability — meaning they're extremely scratch- and impact-resistant. Powder coatings are also chemical-resistant, highly weather-resistant, and have good electrical insulation properties.

Personal Advice

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