Smarter Lighting: 5 Ways to Use Multicolour Task Lights for Easy Status Indication

Image Source: Mouser Electronics

By Emmanuel Quellier, Director of Digital Distribution and Marketing at Banner Engineering EMEA, for Mouser Electronics

Published June 24, 2026

Lights play several key roles in factories —from indicating machine status to allowing workers to see fine details during inspections. Traditionally, industrial lighting has been divided into two categories: illumination and indication.

Illumination devices light up a space to increase productivity and improve worker ergonomics and safety. Low bay task lights bring extra light where needed when high bay or ceiling lights are insufficient or are blocked by structures. Task lights provide bright, focused light for finer tasks at workstations, such as assembly or inspection, and heavy-duty machine lights allow operators to see into machine enclosures to visually monitor machine processes.

Indication devices use light to provide visual status updates—from notifying a manager when they are required at a station to alerting a machine operator that a machine has jammed or material needs to be refilled. Typical indication devices include tower or stack lights where each segment indicates a different status when lit, and domed indicator lights that change colours and/or flash when a change in status occurs.

Until recently, these two categories were distinct. But now, manufacturers are beginning to realise the benefits of combining illumination and indication into a single flexible device. While most illumination products (such as strip lights) include only white LEDs, a device that combines illumination and indication also includes LEDs in multiple colours that can be programmed to represent different statuses. Typical colour options include white, red, green, amber or yellow, and blue. The device can therefore be used for both ambient or task lighting (white light) and for status indication (coloured lights).

Why Illumination + Indication?

Machine builders are always looking for ways to enhance the visual appeal and functionality of their machines. Sleek, colourful lights that perform both illumination and indication functions can provide machine builders with a differentiating “wow factor” for their equipment and offer tangible benefits to their customers, including:

• Promoting faster responses to status changes
• Improving ergonomics and limiting wasted movement
• Ensuring critical status updates are timely addressed
• Reducing the risk of costly mistakes and accidents

For both OEMs and their customers, illumination and indication devices are convenient because they easily fit into the machine's frame and are protected from damage while remaining effective. Installation of a combined indication and illumination device is simple, with just one device and only a few wires to achieve both functions.

Use Cases for Illumination + Indication Devices

The following five example applications explore how combined illumination and indication devices can help improve productivity and safety in the factory.

Machine Lighting

Bright, even machine lighting is important because it allows operators to effectively monitor machine processes and see clearly when troubleshooting, refilling material, or completing other manual tasks on the machine. With multicolour strip lights, the same task lights can immediately let the operator know when attention is required.

For larger machines, multicolour lighting can help direct operators to the specific location on the machine that requires attention. A machine can be configured to activate LEDs in a specific zone to illuminate in RED or YELLOW, alerting operators or supervisors that attention is needed. The colour alerts the operator to the machine condition and directs them to the exact location on the machine that needs attention. When the operator opens the guard door to evaluate the problem, the lighting within the machine can be configured to switch to white task lighting (Figure 1), providing clear visibility to the operator—all with one device.

Figure 1: Industrial machines can use red indicator lighting to alert supervisors to active or fault conditions, while integrated task lighting enhances visibility for precise inspection and maintenance operations. (Source: Banner Engineering)

As another example, end users can install multicolour strip lights directly over machines, illuminating the whole machine in a different colour if an issue arises. In areas where there are many tower lights that can be hard to quickly differentiate, lighting up the entire machine ensures greater visibility and quicker response time when problems arise.

Workstations

Workstations are another area of the factory where multicolour task lights provide important advantages. Tower lights are most effective when operators or supervisors are looking up and in the general direction of the indicator. Audible tower light segments can help get an operator's attention when they are looking away; however, amid the factory's ambient buzz, it can be easy to tune out audible cues. In addition, if an operator is concentrated on another task and looking down, they may not see or hear an alert right away, slowing their response time.

With multicolour task lighting, the light functions as a typical task light during normal operation. But when an alert occurs that requires immediate attention, the task light can be configured to turn RED or YELLOW, flooding the whole workspace with colour—a change that is almost impossible for an operator to miss, even when looking down or distracted. Adding this extra layer of indication helps ensure that critical issues are resolved as quickly as possible. Alternatively, multicolour task lights can also be used to alert a supervisor when a particular station requires attention.

Intersections Shared by Foot Traffic and Mobile Equipment

When people, forklifts, and other mobile equipment move through the same spaces, the risk of accidents increases. Intersections where visibility is poor—for example, when navigating around racking or other structures—can become hazardous. People on foot or operating mobile equipment may not see each other approaching, increasing the risk of collision.

Installing multicolour strip lights above the intersection can make a difference. For example, the lights can be turned ON constantly to provide general illumination and configured to turn RED when a forklift is approaching, indicating to people and other mobile equipment operators that the intersection is in use, thereby helping prevent collisions. While safety and navigation devices can and often should be added to mobile equipment, creating visually controlled intersections can be a simple but effective way to improve traffic flow and streamline the movement of people and mobile equipment within shared spaces (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Mobile factory equipment integrates multi-color indicator lighting to clearly signal movement and operational status, alerting nearby workers to its presence while enhancing overall workplace safety. (Source: Banner Engineering)

Overhead Doors and Automatic Gates

Another example application is entry and exit through overhead doors. It can be difficult to tell whether overhead doors are fully open so a forklift can enter without hitting them. Hitting the door with the forklift could damage the door and require replacement. To avoid this, multicolour strip lights can be installed on either side of the door and provide general illumination (white light) when the doors are closed.

As the overhead door opens, the strip light can be configured to turn RED to indicate that the door is in motion and is not fully open. The light can then be configured to turn off or return to white when the door is completely open and safe to enter. This helps protect both the door and the forklift from damage and makes it easier for forklift operators to navigate the factory without incident or time wasted verifying door status. The same principle can be applied to automatic gates to clearly indicate when the gate is safe to enter.

Collaborative Robots

Multicolour lights also have a bright future in the growing trend of collaborative robotics. Along with all the benefits of bright, uniform, and efficient LED task lighting, adding programmable colours to an illumination device can give collaborative robots a voice that all nearby workers can easily understand (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Collaborative robots on an automated assembly line use indicator lighting to clearly signal operational status and safety zones, enabling safe human–machine interaction and efficient workflow. (Source: Banner Engineering)

These “expressive lights” can help collaborative and mobile robots communicate more effectively with humans. In a 2015 study,^[1] Baraka, Paiva, and Veloso suggest using programmable strip lights in mobile service robots to indicate states such as “waiting for human input,” “blocked by an obstacle,” and “showing task progress.” While the study focused primarily on service robots, the same idea can be applied to collaborative robots in an industrial setting.

Should Illumination + Indication Replace Tower Lights?

No. Devices that combine illumination and indication are designed to supplement rather than replace traditional indicator lights. Tower lights and indicators will still be indispensable for the visual factory. Machine builders and manufacturers should consider using combined illumination and indication devices to strategically augment the capabilities of the indicators they are already using. Asking the following questions can help a plant manager determine where best to utilise these devices:

• Are there areas with many tower lights or large machines that could make it difficult to quickly determine the source of a problem? Combined with tower lights, the longer strip lights with broader dispersal of light can help ensure that problem areas are identified quickly, even at a distance, and resolved in a timely manner.
• Are there areas where operators are tuning out other indicators, or where an operator might be consistently looking down and relying on peripheral vision to see existing indicators? Consider installing coloured strip lights directly over the workstation to simultaneously provide the worker with additional light for tasks while also changing the colour of their entire workspace when their attention is needed.
• Are there common intersections, overhead doors, or gates shared by people and other mobile equipment? Especially for areas with higher traffic, consider creating a controlled intersection or doorway with long strip lights that change colour to indicate when it is safe or unsafe to proceed. The larger spread of light compared to other indicators makes it harder to miss a caution status.

Conclusion

Combined illumination and indication offer exciting new possibilities for OEMs and end users. More than just a trend, illumination plus indication devices not only help OEMs make their machines stand out, but also provide their customers with benefits that expand the capabilities of other visual indicators.

Sources

[1]https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mmv/papers/15robot-BarPaiVel.pdf

Emmanuel Quellier is the Director of Digital Distribution and Marketing at Banner Engineering EMEA. He has 25 years of experience in Industry Automation, starting as a field sales engineer, and then moving into roles as product manager, vertical market business development, and sales area manager.