Aluminium Stair Nosing 67x55mm Photoluminescent Square Edge

A square-fronted aluminium stair nosing with a photoluminescent strip at the step edge: 67mm across the tread, 55mm down the face, and a green band that charges off the light already in the building and keeps showing where the step ends when that light goes. The 55mm front leg drops plumb, so it sits flat against a vertical riser without packing or scribing. Eleven insert colours, six lengths from 1.0m to 3.22m, and one extrusion doing three jobs at once — edge protection, slip resistance, and a visible line in the dark.

What you are actually buying

A glow strip with nothing to fail

The green band sitting immediately behind the nose edge is photoluminescent, not electrical. The compound is europium-doped strontium aluminate at a peak wavelength of 520nm, with an afterglow brightness of 455 mcd/m² ten minutes after excitation, a highly visible afterglow lasting over 600 minutes, and a total afterglow duration of over 3000 minutes before it decays to 0.32 mcd/m². Flammability is rated UL94 HB. Daylight charges it; so does a fluorescent tube or a tungsten lamp. There is no cable to pull, no driver to specify and no circuit that can take the strip out with it — which is the whole point on a stair that has to be descended during a power failure.

Slip resistance carried by the insert, with figures behind it

Behind the glow strip runs the coloured PVC insert, seated in its own channel; behind that the tread plate is plain mill aluminium out to a feathered back edge that the floor covering butts against. The insert is a flexible PVC extrusion with a three-dimensional pyramid surface and a polyurethane coating that reduces dirt retention, rated DIN 51130:2010 category R11 from an inclined platform average of 22.9°, with BS 7976-2:2002 pendulum values of PTV 66 dry and PTV 54 wet. Published UK guidance treats a PTV of 36 and above as a low slip potential.

Contrast you can put a number on

Arguing visual contrast with a specifier means quoting light reflectance values, and every insert colour in this range has a published LRV — from Black at 4.5 to White at 79.9, with the mill aluminium channel measured at 78.9. The table below carries the lot, so the colour you pick can be justified rather than eyeballed.

Where it is used

Interior commercial and public stairs with a conventional vertical riser: office cores, school and college stairwells, hospital and care corridors, hotels, theatres and auditoria, car park stairs, and back-of-house flights where emergency lighting is thin or absent. The profile is suited to carpet, laminate, LVT and tile finishes in commercial and industrial interiors, and is designated DDA compliant. The range is compatible with the Equality Act 2010, which replaced the DDA in Great Britain in 2010.

Specifications

Choosing the right option

Start with the riser, not the colour. This profile has a square front leg that hangs vertically. If your risers are plumb — which most poured concrete, precast and timber-framed stairs are — it is the right choice, and it will close onto the face along its whole length. If the risers slope back under the tread, a square leg stands proud at the bottom and leaves a gap you cannot fill neatly; the rake-back version of this same 67x55mm profile is made for that. Put a spirit level on one riser before ordering a flight's worth.

Colour means the PVC band, not the whole tread — the glow strip stays green on every option, and the rest of the 67mm plate stays mill aluminium at LRV 78.9. Work from the LRV table rather than the swatch: against a dark carpet take White at 79.9 or Canvas at 53.2; against a pale vinyl take Black at 4.5 or Brown at 9.1. Yellow at 55.7 is the usual specification on a designated escape route. Dolphin Grey and Midnight Grey are the discreet options and sit close to a lot of commercial carpet, so hold them against the actual floor before committing.

Length is the bar you receive. The three long lengths are the stock bars and the shorter ones are cut from them, so cost per metre works out much the same across the range. Choose on the going of the stair, and on what will physically get round the half landing, rather than on price per metre.

Installation, use and care

Follow this sequence. The step must be clean, dry and reasonably true — fill any hollow at the nose first, because an aluminium extrusion bridges a dip rather than following it. Cut each bar to the going with a mitre saw and a non-ferrous blade. Mark through the pre-drilled holes, drill and plug the step, bed the nosing on a suitable adhesive, then screw it down: adhesive alone is not the specified fixing on a stair edge. Fit the insert last, or the pip over each screw head. In service, clean with a neutral detergent, rinse, and let it dry before traffic returns. Keep solvent-based cleaners off it — organic solvents soften the PVC.

Frequently asked questions

Is this the square-front or the rake-back version?

Square front. The 55mm leg drops vertically, so it suits a plumb riser. The rake-back build of the same 67x55mm profile, for risers that slope back under the tread, is listed separately.

Does the glowing strip need wiring or a power supply?

No. It is photoluminescent: it absorbs ambient light and re-emits it in the dark. No cable, no transformer, no electrician, and nothing in it that a power cut can switch off.

How long does it stay visible after the lights fail?

The strip gives a highly visible afterglow of more than 600 minutes, and a total duration of more than 3000 minutes before brightness falls to 0.32 mcd/m², measured ten minutes after excitation. It is at its brightest in the first minutes, which is when a stair is being evacuated.

How much of the 67mm tread is coloured insert?

Under half. The nose carries a narrow mill aluminium lip, then the green strip, then the coloured PVC band; behind that the profile is plain mill aluminium back to the floor covering. If you are running a contrast calculation, treat the insert band and the aluminium plate as two surfaces with two different LRVs.

Which insert colour gives the best visual contrast?

Whichever sits furthest in LRV from your tread covering. The published values run from Black at 4.5 to White at 79.9, and the mill channel is 78.9. Pick on the number rather than the colour name.

Can I use it on external steps?

This build is intended for commercial and industrial interiors. There is an external-grade insert made for the same family — ask us and we will quote that version rather than sell you this one for a weather-exposed flight.

Ordering and delivery

Pick the insert colour and the bar length; the price shown is the price for that bar, with nothing added at checkout except delivery. UK mainland delivery is one flat rate however many bars you order, so a full flight ships for the same as a single step. Non-standard lengths, anodised finishes, the Cloud, Haze and Sand inserts and the external-grade build are all available to order — send us the going, the number of steps and the finish and we will price it.

View our complete range of stair nosing profiles — aluminium, rubber and PVC options for every application.