A lit shape in the exact outline the drawing asks for: rectangle, circle, arc, ring, or a freeform run across the whole room. We bend the frame on our own CNC in Dania Beach and install it with our own crew.
A light box is a lit shape set into the ceiling plane. Behind it is a shallow white cavity holding a 24 V LED field. In front is a translucent stretch membrane that spreads the light and hides the diodes. From the floor you see one clean glowing surface with no lamps, no lenses, and no fixture edge. Eco Ceiling builds these on the AP-212 and AP-213 luminous form profiles, extruded 6063 aluminum that we cut, bend, and finish in our own shop in Dania Beach, Florida, then install ourselves across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach.
The reason to build a light box instead of buying a luminaire is shape and access. A manufactured fixture comes in the sizes the catalog offers, and any outline that is not a rectangle becomes a custom order with a long lead time. A light box is fabricated to your drawing, so the perimeter can be a 3 ft circle over a reception desk, a bent U around a bar, a closed O over a stair, or a 40 ft ribbon that follows the room. The membrane demounts from the profile with a spatula and goes back the same day, so every strip, driver feed, and splice inside the cavity stays reachable for the life of the ceiling without cutting anything open. Printed translucent membrane is available on the same build, so a logo or a graphic can be lit from behind instead of washed from the front.
AP-212 and AP-213 are bent on our own CNC bender, so a radius comes out as a true arc instead of a faceted set of straight cuts. U, C, and O shapes, compound curves, and freeform perimeters are all the same job to us. AP-213 runs 13 ft 1-1/2 in per stick and sections combine, so a large form is one continuous lit edge rather than a grid of panels butted together.
A flat glow comes from four things working together: enough clear depth between the LED plane and the membrane, strip pitch matched to that depth, a cavity finished flat white on every interior surface, and diffused membrane rather than transparent. We publish our shop standards for all four below so your team can coordinate the ceiling void before the RCP is locked.
The membrane is held by a harpoon edge in the profile groove. It pulls out with a spatula and re-installs the same day, so a failed strip, a driver swap, or a cable pull does not mean ceiling demolition. Drivers stay in an accessible location you choose, and we leave spare strip from the same production batch on site so a future repair still matches in color.
The spaces where we install this system most.
A lit outline over the display anchors the space and lights the product from one broad surface instead of a grid of downlights.
A bent U or O over the bar becomes the identity of the room, and the whole shape dims down through the evening on one channel.
Backlit shapes over reception desks and boardroom tables light faces from one broad surface, with no lamp or lens in the sight line.
Over a kitchen island, a dining table or a primary bath, and as a backlit wall panel in a stair or an entry.
The box is built in layers, from the deck down. Every layer below is what actually happens on our jobs, in order.
1. Survey and shop drawing. We field-measure the real slab, not the model, and draw the outline in CAD. The shop drawing you approve shows the frame line, the LED layout with pitch, feed points, driver location, the access route to the drivers, and every penetration that lands inside or near the lit shape. Nothing is cut until that sheet comes back signed. On complex forms we also issue a full-size layout for the field.
2. Frame. AP-212 (Luminous Form Small) or AP-213 (Luminous Form Large), extruded 6063 aluminum in white powder coat or mill finish. AP-213 is the large-format channel, published in 8 in and 4-1/2 in profile heights and supplied in 13 ft 1-1/2 in (4000 mm) sticks. Full cross sections are on the AP-213 drawing, available as PDF and DWG. AP-212 is the small version of the same luminous form profile, used where the cavity is tighter. Dimensions are on the AP-212 drawing, available as PDF and DWG. Straight lengths are cut on the saw; curves go on our CNC bender, which rolls a true radius instead of relieving the web and faking the curve with kerf cuts. Sections are spliced internally for perimeters longer than one stick, and splices are placed at tangent points where the eye is not looking.
3. Frame hang and level. The frame is hung from the structure on threaded rod or angle, and leveled as an assembly. On a light box, level matters more than on a flat ceiling: a lit surface out of plane by 1/4 in over 10 ft reads as a shadow line the moment the LEDs come on. Blocking goes in wherever a joint, a corner, or a curve tangent lands.
4. Cavity. The inside of the box gets closed off and finished flat white on every surface the light can hit, including the back of the profile leg and any structure showing through. Where the deck is uneven, or where ductwork, hangers, or black iron sit above the box, we build a flat white substrate panel so the light has one clean reflector and the LED plane has one flat mounting surface.
5. LED plane. 24 V constant voltage strip, laid at the pitch the clear cavity depth calls for, mounted to the white substrate or to aluminum bar so every run sits in the same plane. A perimeter run is set parallel to each edge and held about 2 in inside the frame line, which is what keeps the border from going dark. All reels come from one production batch and one CCT bin. CCT is selected at order: 2700K, 3000K, 3500K, 4000K, 5000K, or 6500K, with tunable white 2700-6500K and RGBW available where the design needs it.
6. Power and control. Home runs go back to a driver bank in a location you can reach: a closet, above a cabinet, or behind a hinged access panel. Everything from the driver to the LED is low voltage. Long runs get injection feeds so the far end does not read dim. Dimming and control is 0-10 V, DALI-2, or DMX, and wireless control of the Casambi type where it is specified. Tunable white and RGBW need their channel count decided at drawing stage, because it changes the cable pull.
7. Membrane. Translucent PVC at roughly 8 mil nominal, 7 to 10 mil depending on finish, cut and welded to the panel size in our shop, with the harpoon edge welded around the perimeter. For backlit work we use the diffused translucent grade. Its measured light transmission is 42.0% diffused, tested at Poznan University of Technology using the method in CIE 130-1998. That is a test report, not a certificate. The transparent grade measures 70.5% but does not hide the diodes, so it is the wrong choice for a light box. Where a woven look or the acoustic version is wanted, CLIPSO knit polyester and PU fabric at about 230 g/m2 clips in cold and dry, seamless to 16 ft 8 in. CLIPSO is a fine matte woven textile and the acoustic version lets sound pass through the fabric itself, with no visible hole pattern in the face. We publish no absorption rating for it, so if your specification calls for an NRC value we do not have one to give you. Tell us early and we will go back to the fabric maker for whatever they can supply. Printed translucent membrane runs on the same box for backlit graphics.
Fire test data, stated exactly as tested. ASTM E84, tested per finish on white specimens: gloss FSI 5 / SDI 300, matte FSI 10 / SDI 300, satin FSI 15 / SDI 250. The laboratory assigned no classification to those results. Specimens were not mounted per ASTM E2573, and the test covers the membrane only, not an installed ceiling and cavity assembly. On this data the system is not permitted in return-air plenums. Send us your spec section and we will state in writing exactly what we hold and what we do not.
8. Install. The PVC membrane is warmed and tucked into the harpoon groove of the AP profile, corners first on a rectangle, tangents first on a curve. CLIPSO is clipped in cold. No adhesive touches the visible face. The finished surface is a single skin from edge to edge of the shape.
9. Commissioning. We run the box at full, at half, and down near the bottom of the dimming range and walk it from every sight line in the room, because banding and driver mismatch show up at low output long before they show at 100%. We photograph the finished box, hand over a membrane offcut and spare strip from the same batch, and label the driver bank so the next person to open it knows what is in there.
Everything in this section is our shop standard, taken from builds in the field. It is not laboratory data. The one measured value we publish is membrane light transmission, 42.0% diffused and 70.5% transparent, tested at Poznan University of Technology by the method in CIE 130-1998, and that is a test report rather than a certificate. We do not hold IES files, lumen output or footcandle data for the finished assembly, and we will not quote numbers we do not hold test data for.
Measure clear depth from the face of the LED strip to the back of the membrane, not from the slab.
4 in is our minimum. Below that the strips start to read through as stripes no matter what you do with pitch.
6 in is our standard and what we quote unless the drawing says otherwise. It gives a flat surface with normal strip spacing. We confirm which profile carries your required clear depth against the AP-212 and AP-213 drawings at shop drawing stage.
8 in is the comfortable case and matches the full AP-213 height. It lets us open the pitch, which cuts strip count, watts, and driver load on a large box.
Under 4 in, we change the build rather than force it: turn the strips to bounce off a white deck for indirect fill, tighten the pitch, and expect more strip and more heat in a shallower space. Tell us early and we will draw it that way.
The safe rule is that strip pitch should not exceed the clear cavity depth. On a properly white cavity we will go to about 1.25 times the depth. In practice that means about 6 in on center at 6 in of depth, and 8 to 10 in on center at 8 in of depth. Under 4 in of depth we drop to 3 to 4 in on center. Pitch is not a place to value-engineer: pulling strip out of a shallow box is the single most common cause of a striped ceiling.
Hold the last parallel run about 2 in inside the frame line and run a dedicated perimeter loop. Skip it and you get a dark border 3 to 4 in wide all the way around the shape, which reads as a shadow and makes a clean box look like a mistake.
Flat white on everything inside: substrate, framing, the back of the profile leg, and anything the light can hit. Bare drywall, brown plywood, insulation facing, duct wrap, and black iron all show through a 42% diffused membrane as a warm or dark patch. This costs almost nothing at build time and cannot be fixed after the membrane is on.
Keep every strip in one plane within about 1/4 in. A run mounted an inch below its neighbors because it followed a joist reads as a bright stripe. This is why we build a flat substrate rather than fastening strip straight to an uneven deck.
On 24 V we feed a continuous run from both ends past about 16 ft (5 m), and add injection points every 16 ft on longer boxes. A single-end feed on a long run gives you a warm, dim far end, which on a large lit surface looks like a stain rather than a wiring problem.
Drivers are remote and must sit somewhere a person can reach: a closet, above a cabinet, or behind a hinged access hatch. This is a real design constraint, not a preference, and it is worth marking on the RCP early. Keep the driver bank within about 30 ft of the first feed point. We size at roughly 80% of driver rating for headroom, and we put a single box on a single dimming channel wherever the load allows. Two dimmers driving one continuous lit surface will show a brightness step at some point in the range.
AP-213 arrives in 13 ft 1-1/2 in (4000 mm) sticks and combines for larger forms; most of our other profiles are 6.5 ft stock. Splices are internal and land at curve tangents or away from the main sight line. Box size is limited by the membrane panel we can weld and by site access, not by the profile. Send us the outline and we will confirm the largest single unwelded panel we can run for it.
We keep a backlit box inside one un-welded panel wherever the geometry allows. A weld line is not visible on a normal ceiling, but on a surface lit from behind it can catch the eye at a grazing angle. Where a weld is unavoidable we orient it along the long axis and away from the primary approach. CLIPSO fabric is seamless to 16 ft 8 in if that width solves the problem.
Sprinklers, smoke detectors, speakers, and air devices inside the lit shape each need a ring detail, and each will read as a dark dot on a glowing surface. We hold no listing or approval for life safety device penetrations, so sprinkler and detector details are coordinated with the fire protection engineer and approved by the authority having jurisdiction before we fabricate. Coordinate them out of the box at RCP stage if you can. If they have to be inside, we will draw them and place them symmetrically so they look intentional.
In order of how often we see it: cavity too shallow for the pitch used; cavity interior not painted white; strips not coplanar; reels mixed from different batches or CCT bins; transparent membrane used instead of diffused; and two drivers or two dim channels feeding one surface. Every one of these is decided before the membrane goes on.
Specify the off state too. Unlit, the box is a white surface. Gloss will mirror the room, satin will read as a soft sheen, matte will read closest to a painted plane. On a large horizontal box over a dining or reception area, matte or satin is usually the safer call.
On a large commercial project we build a physical mockup at the real cavity depth, real pitch, real CCT, and real membrane finish, and we light it in front of you before anything is committed. It is the fastest way to settle an argument about diffusion.
A lit outline over the display anchors the space and lights the display from one broad surface instead of a grid of downlights.
A bent U or O over the bar becomes the identity of the room and dims down through the evening on one channel.
A long freeform lit ribbon carries guests through the plan and replaces a run of fixtures.
A large backlit shape over the table lights faces from one broad surface instead of a point source, with no lamp or lens in the sight line.
The ceiling above the chair is one flat lit surface instead of a bare lamp in the sight line, and the ceiling face wipes down. We make no clinical or health claim for the system, and we hold no cleanroom, washdown, or infection control ratings.
Over a kitchen island, dining table, primary bath, or as a backlit wall panel in a stair or entry.
No, and we will not hand you numbers we did not measure. We are a fabricator and installer, not a lamp manufacturer with a photometry lab. What we can give you: the membrane light transmission test report (42.0% diffused, method per CIE 130-1998) and the LED strip manufacturer’s own published data for whatever product gets specified. On a large commercial project, a physical mockup lit at your CCT and dim setting can be arranged. If the project needs calculated light levels, your lighting designer models the specified LED product behind a 42% diffuser and we build the cavity, pitch, and layout to match that model.
Reserve 6 in of clear depth from the LED plane to the membrane as the working number, plus the profile and hanging hardware above it. 4 in is our hard minimum and it comes with tighter strip spacing. 8 in gives the best result and lowers the strip count. If your slab-to-ceiling space is tight, tell us at design development and we will draw an indirect build instead of squeezing a direct one.
Yes, that is the point of this system. We bend AP-212 and AP-213 on our own CNC bender, so a curve comes out as a true radius rather than a series of straight segments. Circles, rings, waves, U and C shapes, and freeform outlines that follow the room are all normal work. Send the outline as a DWG or a sketch with dimensions and we will draw the frame, the splice locations, and the LED layout back to you.
They have to go somewhere a person can reach without demolition: a closet, above a cabinet, or behind a hinged access panel. Not buried above a sealed ceiling. Keep the driver bank within about 30 ft of the first feed point. Mark the location on the RCP early, because moving it after the cable is pulled is the expensive version of this conversation.
ASTM E84 was run per finish on white specimens: gloss FSI 5 / SDI 300, matte FSI 10 / SDI 300, satin FSI 15 / SDI 250. The laboratory assigned no classification, and the specimens were not mounted per ASTM E2573. The test covers the membrane only, not an installed ceiling and cavity assembly, and it does not support use in a return-air plenum. We hold no NFPA 701, no NFPA 286 or 265, no UL 2043 plenum rating, and no Florida Product Approval or Miami-Dade NOA for this assembly. We send the full report on request so your code consultant can read it directly instead of taking our summary for it.
Nothing gets cut. A technician pulls the membrane out of the harpoon groove with a spatula, works in the open cavity, and reinstalls the same skin the same day. We leave spare strip from the original production batch on site so the repair matches in color, and we label the driver bank at handover so the next person knows what is in there.
Yes. We print on translucent membrane, so the graphic is lit from behind by the same LED field rather than washed by a spotlight from the front. Send vector artwork at full scale. Dense dark areas of a print block light, so we look at the artwork against the layout before we commit, and we will tell you if a heavy graphic needs a tighter LED pitch behind it.
What we hold today and issue on request:
Reserved and not yet published. Listed by name so nobody assumes it exists:
What we do not have, said plainly and by name so it does not surface at submittal: we hold no LM-79, LM-80 or TM-21 data and publish no IES files for the finished assembly. We hold no NFPA 701, no NFPA 286 or 265, no ASTM E2573 mounted-assembly test, no UL 2043 plenum rating, and no Florida Product Approval or Miami-Dade NOA for this assembly. We hold no NRC or ASTM C423 absorption data for the CLIPSO acoustic version. The ASTM E84 report covers the membrane per finish on white specimens and the laboratory assigned no classification to those results. Send us your specification section at drawing stage and we will tell you straight, in writing, which of those we can meet and which we cannot.
A panel manufacturer sells tiles, panels and modules that you compose into a rectangle, so the shape is limited by what their catalog molds. We bend AP-212 and AP-213 to your outline on our own CNC, skin the whole form in one membrane with no panel joints, and the same shop that draws it installs it in South Florida, which means a circle, a wave, a logo or a room-long freeform is a drawing revision for us instead of a product that does not exist for them.
Our profile cross-sections, dimensions and the full color chart live in the technical library. CAD files are sent on request, usually within one business day.
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Tell us the shape and the room. We draw it, price it and confirm the lead time, usually the same day.
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