ISO Self Luminous Exit Signs
International Exit Signs
In the United States, the most common exit signs you'll find usually have the word 'exit' spelled out in either red or green lettering. However, self luminous exit signs use a hydrogen gas called tritium instead of LED bulbs.
Tritium naturally glows neon green, so unfortunately there is no way to make it in a different color. Instead these self powered exit signs have exit stencils in various colors to meet most building and fire codes.
See Our Green Self Luminous Exit Signs
Luckily, green is the internationally accepted exit sign color. Almost every country in Europe and Asia as well as Canada have adopted this standard. The US is one of the few countries that still uses red lettering anymore.
ISO Approved Self Luminous Exit Signs
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is the world's biggest developer of voluntary international standards. Founded in 1947, ISO has penned more than 19,000 international standards for all types of businesses and technology.
The ISO started in 1946 when delegates from 25 nations decided to create a new international organization "to facilitate the international coordination and unification of industrial standards."
Exit signs are one of the many public safety products that the ISO wishes to find an internationally recognized legend. Our self powered exit signs can be custom ordered with any type of stencil you need, including ISO approved legends.
Why The Push for International Exit Signs?
Our world is growing smaller and smaller every year as the population continues to rise. Go to any country on earth, especially in the bigger cities, and you typically won't see one homogenous ethnic group. Instead you'll see hundreds of different communities consisting of expats and emigres form every corner of the globe.
See Our Red Self Luminous Exit Signs
Legally, we are only allowed to print the word 'exit' twice on any given self-luminous exit fixture. This is because these signs must be seen at a distance of over 100 feet. Cramming too many words would reduce this emergency visibility.
Since 1985, the ISO has been using the green 'running man' symbol created by Japanese designer Yukio Ota. Using pictographs is believed to be a universal exit symbol that does away with the need for 'exit' lettering. Green is also attributed to the word 'go' where red is recognized as 'stop' - a confusing notion if you are trying to flee a foreign building.