Page 45 - European Energy Innovation - Autumn 2015 publication

Autumn 2015 European Energy Innovation 45
Polycarbonate line from Covestro enables efficient lighting
Smart lighting for smart cities
Electricity for lighting
accounts for
approximately 15
percent of global power
consumption and 5 percent
of worldwide greenhouse gas
emissions. The Global Efficient
Lighting Forum, co-organized by
the United Nation’s Environment
Programme’s (UNEP) en.lighten
initiative and its collaborating
centre in China, estimates that
a global shift to energy-efficient
lighting would low-er electricity
demand for lighting by more
than 1,000 terawatt-hours (twh)
and reduce CO2 emis-sions by
530 million tons per year1. LED
lighting technology offers an
energy- and cost-efficient solution
here and is becoming increasingly
common. LEDS have a long
service life of up to 50,000 hours.
Depending on requirements, their
light can be focused or scattered
to improve light quality and
reduce light pollution.
Covestro (formerly Bayer
MaterialScience) has developed
a complete line of Makrolon®
brand polycarbonates for the
production of LED luminaires.
These polycarbonates are
available as granules, sheets and
films.
MANY FUNCTIONS AND
APPLICATIONS
They are used in lenses and
optics, light guides, diffusers,
reflectors, cooling elements
and housings. The range of
applications is just as broad,
ranging from interior and exterior
building lighting to streetlights,
1 http://www.unep.org/NEWSCENTRE/
default.aspx?DocumentId=2812&Article
Id=11067; www.enlighten-initiative.org
www.europeanenergyinnovation.eu
headlights and traffic signals to
billboards and displays. These
products make LED lamps a smart
lighting technology solution for
cities.
“The Makrolon® LED product line
includes highly transparent and
robust grades that offer good
flame retardance compared with
other transparent materials,”
says Dr. Klaus Reinartz, Head of
Marketing for LED Applications
in the Europe, Middle East and
Africa Region at Covestro. As
lenses or reflectors, they bundle
or direct the LED light as desired.
“The good heat resistance of
the plastic prevents transmission
from altering the lens and thus its redesigned Covestro office in
optical behavior,” says Reinartz.
In certain applications, such
as headlights, lenses can have
very complex shapes in order to
achieve the desired redirection of
the light. Covestro has developed
innovative and efficient in-jection less maintenance. l
molding processes for the
production of such lenses with
free-form surfaces, and helps
customers to implement them.
LIGHTING
COOLING ELEMENTS WITH A
COOL DESIGN
Even if LEDs do not get as hot as
the conventional light bulb, they
do generate heat that needs to be
dissipated. Thermally conductive
Makrolon® TC8030 offers several
advantages over cast aluminum
for the production of cooling
elements. The plastic offers
tremendous freedom during
shaping, such as for the design
of the cooling ribs. The material
also weighs less and electronic
components can be integrated
into it directly in the mold.
An extraordinary application of
LEDs can be found in a recently
Shanghai, where over 4,000 LED
tube lights made of Makrolon®
were installed. Despite their
great number, the tube lights
from Skyworth use roughly 25
percent less electricity than
conventional lighting and require
Skyworth LED lighting using Makrolon®
polycarbonate makes the new offices of
Covestro in Shanghai a brighter place.
Source: Covestro