Peter Jones, aged 70, has spent five years and most of his savings designing and developing a unique recessed downlighter with fire retardant properties, which is set to have a major impact on domestic and commercial lighting applications.

Mr Jones, who runs FL Patents from premises at Bordesley, near Alvechurch, started with the idea of improving and simplifying the design of recessed downlighters, which are increasingly popular in housing and office schemes. During its early development, a ceiling manufacturer explained that the new design had a significant fire protection feature.

Mr Jones said: "Normal recessed lighting removes part of a ceiling’s fireproofing by cutting into the panel above. These units therefore require fireproof boxes or special socks to be

"Our unit is completely sealed, which cuts the heat transmission and forms a barrier between the ceiling and the floor above, preserving the integrity of the fire-proofed ceiling panels or plasterboard."

FL Patents’ design has successfully completed up to two hours at 1,000C of testing at Warrington Fire Research Centre – the industry standard being no more than 60 minutes fire resistance.

Also, Snaplite and Staylite have achieved approval by the National House Building Council, national type approval for use by local authorities and Zurich building guarantees.

To protect his intellectual property, Mr Jones has taken out worldwide patents on his designs, having invested five years of his life and about £250,000 to get this far. Two UK licensees are already manufacturing the fittings – and Mr Jones hopes to sign up several more on the Continent.