Marcus Thielen Reviews Trends from Light + Building Tradeshow

Every two years, the world’s largest lighting tradeshow, “Light+Building” (L+B) is held in Frankfurt, Germany. As always, L+B justified its claim as “the world’s largest” light fair, with more than 211,500 visitors (2012: 195,582) from 161 countries, and 2,458 exhibitors (2012: 2,302) on a floorspace of 245,000 sq. m. (2.72 million sq. ft. (2012: 235,000 sq. m.). Visitors and exhibitors from the Far East dominated the show.

So, what was new, and where are we going?

Fluorescent lamps – standard T8, T5 or compact-fluorescent types – are seen only as replacements; otherwise, they’re dead.

All new fixtures are LEDs. Lightsources and fixtures have become single units. Thus, the lamps – LEDs – are no longer replaceable.

And, just since 2012, single-LED/single-fixture power has increased so remarkably that practically
all “classical” HID applications can now be replaced with LEDs (see Photo 2). As with fluorescent lamps two decades ago, the two branches seemed separate: the very-high-output/efficiency types with a bad color rendering (local citizen groups reportedly rebelled against LED streetlights’”bad light”) and less-efficient, high-CRI LED types for interior lighting.

I asked about high-power LEDs for outdoor use to replace HIDs for billboard lighting. Typically, I got a “sorry” – these fixtures were usually rated for a 40ºC (104ºF) maximum environmental temperature – sufficient only for internal use.

Advertisement

One of the few exceptions was the enormous heatpipe cooler shown by ELS (Germany, www.elslichtsysteme.de), which is specified to a maximum ambient temperature of 158ºF. Currently, this unit is rated IP23, so it’s not yet perfect for outdoor use, but it should soon be available in an IP64 outdoor/weatherproof form. With an LED power of 160W, each fixture will yield approximately 23,000 lumens.

Do you remember the mid-90s, rotating, sulfur-ball lamp with its pale, green-light blast? That company is long gone, and some follow-ups like LUXIM are on the market. Here, the British “Ceravision” company showed its new plasma lamps. Two versions, one with a CRI of 95+, are available. The fixed-position, plasma vessel is approximately a peanut’s size and embedded in a quartz chuck. Inside the fixture, the quartz concentrates the microwave, RF field generated by a magnetron. The downside of the “old” sulfur ball – the short lifetime of the magnetron – has been overcome. The lifetime of the complete RF power system now claims to be 100,000 operating hours.

Due to the high plasma temperature, the quartz vessel must be exchanged after approximately 25,000 hours. It’s a very impressive blast of extremely high-quality light; too bad no exact technical data was available, even upon request.

The extremely efficient, electrode-less, plasma, energy-saving lightbulb from 3ppbulb.com (also in my last L+B report, see ST, July 2012, p. 24) has been improved – but wide-market introduction hasn’t yet occurred. According to Prof. Heuermann from the University of Aachen/Germany (the developer), soon, a mercury-free, 75W, incandescent-equivalent lamp (consumption less than 9W) will be produced on a large scale. In 2016, a new, high-CRI, high-power lamp shall be available to replace high-power, halogen lamps with the same light spectrum and color rendering. For availability, see www.3ppbulb.com  Good products take awhile to develop and even longer to catch up in the market.

As for OLED products shown, the surface brightness and power did not improve in the past two years; only the substrates became flexible. The environmental constraints and approximately 5,000-hour operating life still confine their use to LCD-screen backlighting, and not general/sign lighting

L+B’s other main trend was everything had to be “smart”, i.e., remotely controllable – down to a single lightbulb with built-in Bluetooth or WiFi-dimmability. Practically every fixture or lamp manufacturer offered its own flat-pad-smartphone app to not only control every lightsource or scene individually, but also to announce such parameters as power consumption, ambient brightness or something else.

Advertisement

You don’t need George Orwell’s 1984 to propose that most of these lightsources can/will bear a programmed lifetime and/or a remote “end-of-life” function to be triggered by the manufacturer – or the hacker next door being a bit “smarter” than your imagination. Being able to switch off a customer’s sign from your office desk if the bill isn’t paid might be a nice thought, but if the components you buy and use for your quality work can be controlled by third party – No thanks. The signmaker shall always stay “smarter” than his lighting system.

Others favor such freedom. For example, a person at Schiefer special lamps from the Netherlands (www.schiefer.nl) told me their sales of incandescent lamps, especially those with increased lifetime, are higher than ever before and keep rising steeply (Photo 4). People want the “good color rendering and warm light” of the classic lightbulb back, and are willing to pay – even for the increased energy consumption over modern lightsources.

The German VOSLA company went one step further in this direction by presenting a glass lightbulb with LED filaments positioned inside like filaments (Photo 5). The color rendering is good (CRI of 90+), but the red component is a bit too intense. The color temperature of 2,700K and approximately 550 lumens coming from 7W are remarkable. The problem is the cooling of the LED; presently, it only functions with an ambient temperature of 50°C, not enough for sign use outdoors.

Walking the show, I saw the same “brand new” product offered by multiple Chinese companies, all
of which were undercutting every competitor’s price (even the Chinese booth in the next aisle). Espionage and conterfeiting products continuously subvert the lighting business.

Only niche products prosper for small-to-medium companies. So the German Mutzhas Neon company   was the only exhibitor showing custom-made, cold-cathode or fluorescent lamps. I noticed people stopping for the vibrant colors (see Photo 6, impossible to generate with today’s LED technology), grabbing the tubes and proclaiming “this is the real thing, that’s neon!” They were right.