For many companies, bringing a new product to market is a standalone project with a distinct beginning and end. But for Jordon Musser, chief operating officer and chief product officer at Fluence, product research and development doesn’t have start and stop dates—product teams never stop evolving.
In the case of RAPTR, a newly introduced high-performance, high-output top light, the idea for the lighting solution started with customers sharing their needs, gaps in lighting options, and cultivation insights. The concept first took form in 2020 as the Fluence team identified hurdles facing cultivation facilities in the switch from HPS lighting to LEDs.
“With energy prices continuing to go up, we saw a need to possibly reduce the customer’s operating expenses through less power input without losing photons, but also—with cannabis especially—promote the opportunity to increase yield with more PPFD,” Musser explains.
Ongoing Fluence research had already proven the industry hadn’t yet reached a saturation point for photons in cannabis. There was no question that more power and higher light intensities equate to higher yields, but the team was also aware that many growers considering HPS replacement had existing infrastructure to support about 1,000 watts per fixture at most. However, retrofitting outside that range involved more than just replacing HPS lights with LEDs.
Musser explains that focusing on what existing infrastructures were built to accept allowed for the generation of a true 1:1 HPS replacement that became RAPTR. It also eliminated costly infrastructure upgrades to support the increased light intensity that RAPTR brings. Put simply: Musser found a way to engineer using the same infrastructure to deliver more light.
“The goal is to maximize fixture output while staying below the energy consumption of what we’re replacing to ensure the wiring and switchgear and the rest of the electrical infrastructure can remain in place,” Musser says. In addition, the RAPTR line utilizes standard Weiland RST input connectors, which allows growers to retain their current facility cordage.
Creative Convergence
Musser explains that Fluence development of products like RAPTR involves three ongoing, converging processes that he refers to as top-down and bottom-up.
The top-down approach begins with customers, understanding their cultivation practices and working to optimize products around them. This holistic approach goes beyond photons and product costs to consider labor, shadowing, ease of assembly and installation, operating costs, longevity and other customer pain points.
“One of the things that makes Fluence unique is that a significant amount of our sales team are ex-growers and still grow as a hobby,” Musser says. “Many team members on our sales and technical teams have also cultivated in their own facilities at a commercial scale. The result is a recognizable voice within the company that augments grower feedback and enables candid, highly informed internal discussions among people with firsthand experience in commercial grows.”
The second part of Musser’s development equation is the bottom-up approach. That starts with basic engineering and physics fundamentals in R&D, while the product development team looks at use cases and how Fluence customers actually interact with their products.
“Ultimately, those two things collide into what is most likely the best product for our customer utilizing the right technologies that are available and mature today,” Musser notes. And products such as RAPTR are born.
Benefits Beyond Output
RAPTR’s development focused on two categories of growers: those looking to maximize light intensity and yields, and those satisfied with their current practices but seeking energy savings. In response, the line offers a 1020-watt, high-performance option to maximize output, alongside an 800-watt version for lower energy use. The line also offers two optical distributions—a standard 120° clear cover and a 150° wide lens—as well as five spectra options to meet grower needs.
With RAPTR’s output well beyond 2,000 micromoles, Musser explains growers can achieve significantly higher PPFDs. “Depending on mounting heights, 1,900 micromoles [measured at the plant tissue], would not be that challenging to achieve,” he says.
In addition, RAPTR’s typical application places fixtures slightly farther from plants than other products. This enables overlap, so growers can achieve higher PPFDs with fewer fixtures. Musser notes that means less costs, less maintenance and less labor, too. And, because it’s a single-piece product, installation is simpler. “That can help significantly because labor can be a pretty big percentage of the lighting retrofit or installation cost,” he adds.
RAPTR’s development also considered the hassle growers face in keeping lighting clean. Musser says the team invested considerable time and work to design something as small as possible—given the features included—without large horizontal surfaces or big fins where dirt and dust get stuck. This makes the line easier to keep clean and, because RAPTR has a lens, fixtures are easier to clean when cleaning is necessary.
Before Fluence products like RAPTR hit the market, they endure what Musser’s team calls a QTP, or quality test protocol. “That’s an onslaught of tests that are designed to ensure the product performs to the grower’s expectation over the entire life of the product, not just on day one,” he shares. The testing transcends photometry and distribution to simulate and accelerate long-term wear and tear in the growing environment to ensure products lead a long and healthy life.
Maturity in Motion
Musser points out that six or seven years ago, many growers weren’t sure what they needed in cannabis lighting. As Fluence developed the relatively untapped LED market, everyone learned together as the industry grew. Now, from a product research and development standpoint, he feels a shift has come with maturity.
Already customer-centered, Musser and team have become even more customer-centric and holistic in their approach. They’re focused on customer standard operating procedures, how growers operate their facility as a whole, and everything products impact from the moment they’re received on the pallet. That includes making products easier and faster to unpack and reducing cardboard packaging to minimize labor and landfill waste. It even extends to what it takes to replace products with the next generation of Fluence lights.
By taking Musser’s treadmill approach to R&D and product development, leading-edge products like RAPTR meet current grower needs and provide a springboard for the future. At Fluence, the product development process doesn’t start and stop. “You don’t say, ‘Okay, we need this new product,’ and then start on that new product,” Musser says. If they did, he says, they’d already be behind.
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