Mare and Timmendorf Beach Company News

What began 20 years ago as pioneering work is now an integral part of the WIBRE product range and unique in the field of underwater lighting: light for salty water

Brine, seawater and saline thermal water have always enjoyed great popularity. The ancient Greeks were already enthusiastic fans of this bathing culture and recognised the enormous healing power of saline water. After bathing in salt water had eked out a niche existence for a long time, it experienced a real renaissance at the beginning of the 2000s. Public bathing establishments and the hotel industry in particular rediscovered the brine bath. Today, a spa area without saltwater pools hardly seems imaginable. Driven by this development, the boom in the private sector followed. The desire for relaxation and healing baths in one's own four walls continued to grow. So it is not surprising that saline pools are nowadays an important part of any bathing area.

WIBRE and the Timmendorfer Strand

Attentive readers ask themselves: what does Timmendorf Beach on the Baltic Sea has to do with the development of the first brine spotlight?

According to legend, the name "Maritim" is composed of the words "Mare" for sea and "tim" for Timmendorf Beach. This was the basis for the success of the Maritim Hotel Company. The founder was Hans-Joachim Gommolla, inventor of the conference hotel.

When the first Maritim Hotel was built on the Timmendorf Beach in 1969, no one thought of the requirements that would be associated with lighting the seawater pools. The two 25-metre pools were impressively illuminated with underwater spotlights. But in the long run, the high salt content put more and more strain on the lighting source. Even the stainless steel was no longer able to withstand the aggressive salt. Therefore, in 2000, WIBRE was commissioned to develop saltwater-resistant spotlights. One year and countless tests later, the production and installation of spotlights made of highly resistant stainless steel was successful.

That has been the birth of the nowadays worldwide appreciated and unique WIBRE brine spotlights. Thanks in part to Timmendorf Beach and Mr Gommolla, WIBRE can now look back on 20 years of experience in saltwater-resistant lighting.

Resistant properties

Special requirements are placed on the luminaires for use in saline water. On the one hand, the permanent tightness of the spotlights must be ensured preventing salt water from penetrating into their interior and attacking the lighting technology. For this, the luminaires have IP68 protection - the status symbol and soul of all WIBRE spotlights

On the other hand, all materials that come into contact with salt must have maximum resistance. To achieve this, Wibre uses specially selected, extremely robust and high-alloy V4A stainless steel - the material is called 1.4539 AISI 904L. This durable material is used, among other things, in the medical industry and in shipbuilding, is resistant to seawater, and has a high resistance to pitting corrosion while being mild on skin.

The resistance originates from nickel and chromium components in combination with copper and molybdenum. In addition, this material is given a surface treatment to withstand the harsh conditions in the long term. Thanks to the constant enhancement of brine spotlights over the past decades, it is now possible to guarantee their use in water with a salt content of up to 3.5 percent.

From the Baltic Sea to the whole world

Thanks to the pioneering work of WIBRE, the seawater in the Maritim is still shining today. But that is not the end of it. Thousands of other saltwater pools around the globe are now illuminated with WIBRE's brine-resistant underwater spotlights.