LED market spurs transformation in Europe's professional lighting industry

The European professional lighting industry is one of the largest and most innovative lighting markets in the world. With its transformation towards LED sources and solid-state lighting (SSL), this hive of activity is a very interesting market to be in at the moment. But take a step back, scratch the surface and observe what is going on and it becomes apparent that there is a clash of two fundamentally different industries with totally different DNA, who do not actually understand each other very well yet. A similar scenario in lighting is also playing out in other regions around the globe.

The ‘Most Tested Light Bulb in History’

Imagine never having to change your light bulbs. Researchers are testing a new LED bulb that they jokingly say could be written into your will. It could last that long. The first things you see when you walk in the Lumen Maintenance Test Facility are what look like two giant aluminum ovens.

This Expanding Lamp Is Beautifully Intricate

Designed by Erik Stehmann, this is called the Expanding Lamp, and it relies on the folding geodesic frame of the Hoberman sphere to collapse down to a fraction of its expanded size. That means the lamp can grow from desk lamp to floor-stander in one smooth, elegant motion: a simple tug sees hundreds of intricate hinges, all made from oak, fold out in unison

Lighting revolution shakes up industry

More than 130 years after Thomas Edison and Joseph Swan invented the incandescent lightbulb, regulation is gradually phasing out the bulbs in favour of more energy-efficient lighting sources, shaking up the global industry. The switchover is happening well beyond the European Union, which ended the sale of inefficient lightbulbs in September. The US and China are, for example, due to ban incandescent bulbs from shelves in 2015 and 2017, respectively.

100W LED High Bay Light from Zhongtian Lighting

The Chinese leading LED light manufacturer – Zhongtian Lighting released an energy efficient lamp for large area lighting – 100W LED high bay which provides high brightness and superior light quality. This light source is ideal for high bay lighting and low bay lighting – in fact, it's a perfect choice for any site that wants reduced electricity bills, and happier customers and staff. Classic, clean and simple styling helps this lighting fixture contribute pleasingly to almost any design scheme.
Zhongtian Lighting has made the [ZT-HB-1-100W] led bay light fully compliant with all relevant environmental certifications, in order to protect the environment and customers. The product does not contain hazardous chemicals, such as mercury. Unlike competing products, it does not emit harmful UV or IR radiation, making it far more eco-friendly than traditional lighting fixtures and other lighting technologies. The light source of 100W LED high bay light is Bridgelux high brightness LEDs. The100W high bay is composed of many LED emitters and its appearance is similar to traditional high bay lighting, but it has higher efficacy. The 100W high bay can deliver 13500lm. Besides, the 100W high bay light has the advantages of energy efficiency, long life time and easy installation which can replace mercury vapor lamp or HPS (high pressure sodium). Meanwhile, it can help customers to save the maintenance costs and the power consumption.

Windsor Lighting LED handrail installed at St. John’s College divinity school

Windsor Lighting installed an LED handrail at Divinity School in St. John’s College, at the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England, after a competition to refurbish the building. The refurbishment was meant to add modern technology to allow the building to be used for classes and research.
Due to the building’s stonework, traditional bulkhead methods of illumination were limited.

Precious metals boost performance of LEDs, chips

By the use of metals such as gold, copper or tin and associated special galvanizing processes, researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems IMS, Duisburg, Germany, are improving the function of semiconductors and simplifying the manufacture of microelectronic systems. Research project leader Prof. Holger Vogt says that the LED industry in particular could benefit from his team’s novel approaches to device production

All You Need For a Christmas Tree Is a Battery, LEDs, and a Little Know-How

When your cubicle desk looks like everyone else's, you'll do anything you can to differentiate your space. And if you're looking for a unique way to bring a little festive cheer to your 9 to 5 drudgery, check out this adorable and minimalist 9-volt powered LED tree by Redditor 'jingle_balls123'. For those of us who don't know the first thing about wiring up such a creation, other Redditors have even chipped in to help with instructions on how to build your own

2,000 LED Streetlights On The Way

This spring, a bright white light began shining in Newhallville. With a new approval from city lawmakers, the light is spreading, and may one day engulf nighttime streets all over New Haven. The light shines from new LED (light-emitting diode) streetlights, which offer better illumination with half the electricity of traditional streetlights. In May, at the behest of neighborhood organizers, the city installed 11 LED streetlights on Lilac Street. Along with saving energy, the lights are meant to increase public safety by keeping the street better lit at night.

How to Upgrade From Incandescent Bulbs to LED

We have all heard that LEDs (light emitting diodes) will soon replace traditional incandescent light bulbs and the more recent CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps). But until recently, LEDs have been relegated to commercial or specialized use due to expense. Now, LED bulbs are better and cheaper and are already cost-competitive when length of service is taken into account, though it might be as well to wait a little longer as prices are falling fast.A great deal of information can be found online, but much of it is specialized and may not be helpful to the average consumer. This guide hopes to correct that.

OSRAM SYLVANIA Helps Retailers Develop Custom Designed LED Solutions

Lighting can play a crucial role in winning over savvy consumers beyond just illuminating product for sale. It can create an inviting environment to draw people into and throughout the store, showcase the vibrant colors in a blouse to create purchasing desire, focus attention on an important profit-driving item for sale and serve as a creative wayfinding technique that enhances the shopper's experience. Recognizing the impact lighting can have on forward thinking retailers, North American lighting leader OSRAM SYLVANIA unveiled today the U DESIGN Lighting Experience Center at its Winchester, Kentucky manufacturing plant, where retail lighting designers can customize an LED lighting solution that meets their unique design requirements and helps increase sales and profits.
At the U DESIGN Center, retailers can vary beam spread, color temperature, color rendering, optics and drivers and review the ROI for their specific application, comparing LED versus traditional lighting technologies. Depending on their specific requirements, building blocks of components are selected to create a unique lamp for their ambient or accent lighting needs. After selection of components, OSRAM SYLVANIA will build the specified product at the Winchester plant and ship directly to the retailer for evaluation in their installation. Retail lighting designers can also see how the LED solutions are assembled and quality tested to ensure reliable performance at the Winchester plant, which has been in operation since 1953 and has a current staff with over 363 years of combined engineering experience.

Little Sun solar lamp bridges art and outreach

For school-aged children across much of the developing world, access to electrical lighting remains precarious. Many rural farming villages exist “off the grid.” Major cities from Nairobi to Kolkata are subject to regular blackouts — a phenomenon from which even the United States, as Hurricane Sandy demonstrated, is not entirely immune. Enter the Little Sun. Designed by Danish artist Olafur Eliasson and engineer Frederik Ottesen, Little Sun is a small, powerful and inexpensive solar-powered lamp. The almost shockingly bright LED, encased in tough, cheerful yellow plastic, shines up to five hours on a four-hour charge.

Philips Lumileds announces workhorse Luxeon T LED family

Philips Lumileds has introduced the new Luxeon T series of high-power LEDs that target solid-state lighting (SSL) applications with directional-beam requirements including downlights, and MR16 and PAR retrofit lamps. The LEDs set new efficacy milestones for Lumileds achieving 140 lm/W at 350 mA of drive current. CEO Pierre Yves Lesaicherre touted the benefits of the new family, discussed Lumileds LED manufacturing technology, and commented on the development of the lime-green LED that was critical to the recent launch of the color-tunable Hue lamp by Philips lighting.

Bill Watkins' bright LED idea at Bridgelux

Bill Watkins' $200,000 Bentley convertible is littered with leftovers from Jack in the Box. He's collected $160 million in investor money for his latest company, a high-tech lighting manufacturer called Bridgelux, but rails against venture capitalists. He calls himself a liberal and is against corporate taxation. None of which is to say he's difficult to pin down. If you want to know what Watkins thinks about something - anything - just ask. For example, the details of his 2009 departure from disk-drive maker Seagate Technology, where he served as chief executive officer for more than five years.

Augmented Light Bulb Turns a Desk Into a Touch Screen

Powerful computers are becoming small and cheap enough to cram into all sorts of everyday objects. Natan Linder, a student at MIT’s Media Lab, thinks that fitting one inside a light bulb socket, together with a camera and projector, could provide a revolutionary new kind of interface—by turning any table or desk into a simple touch screen.