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Light+Building 2008 Goes Green to Meet Global Demand for Eco Products

2008/07/11 | By CENS

More important than its once-two-year staging is that the lighting and building sectors are two pivotal economic drivers-with lights of all kinds consuming a significant proportion of overall power input generally and building sectors being the foundation upon which so many other downstream economic activities are built: the Light+Building of Frankfurt has evolved to become the world's biggest trade fair of its kind, specifically for lighting, electrical engineering, as well as house and building automation since it was first organized in 2000.

This year, the Frankfurt show was held from April 6 through 11, attracting 2,137 exhibitors and 165,000 visitors, with the former increasing 1.5% and latter 22% from 2006. More and bigger are always positive signs for any trade fair organizer, as even non-professional attendance inevitably helps to stimulate the economic chain, raising consumption at different levels.

Living up to its global reputation as the leader in its field, the 2008 Light+Building again saw suppliers from many countries exhibit a vast range of products, services and technologies, with green lighting solutions and specifically LED types being offered extensively. Obviously the show has become a major stage for the lighting sector, reflected in the significant increases in exhibition venue size and visitor volumes over recent years.

Light+Building, likely for its German location, mainly attracted mostly German, Italian, Dutch, British, Spanish and French buyers this year, but those from North America and Asia have also increased considerably.

Around 66,000 international traders visited the show this year, far more than expectations. Visitors from outside Germany accounted for 40% of the total turnout, compared with last event's 34%, proving the show's value as a professional trade fair to global businesspeople.

Certainly in step to the times-with global warming and spiraling energy prices apparently snapping climate trends out of norm and bankrupting several airlines in Asia, the USA and Europe-Light+Building made energy conservation and eco-friendliness the key themes of the 2008 show, which help to brighten the outlook for green products, services and technologies. Market surveyor TNS-Emnid's polls showed that energy-saving and eco-friendly technologies were major magnets to the visitors. Such trend underlines the fact that a sizable proportion of German consumers regard green criteria as decisive when shopping for lighting, with similar numbers viewing aesthetics as equally important.

Venturing Out to the West

Many observers report that underselling competition in emerging markets has often pared margins paper-thin as to render business extremely difficult if not virtually pointless. Insiders also agree that marketing products in upscale, high-end segments as the West is the way to evade price-cutting races-often a sign of desperation, saturated markets and lack of technological edge-so savvy and innovative Asia-based suppliers are venturing out to promote products and explore Western markets. A handful of such suppliers showcased their wares at Light+Building 2008 and are highlighted below.

Foshan Mingyu Electrical Appliance Co., Ltd., CE, CCC, FC and CB approved, exhibited a line of energy-saving products, including electronic ballasts and transformers for fluorescent tubes; compact fluorescent lamps; high-intensity discharge (HID) lamps; quartz lamps; and emergency lamps.

Foshan Mingyu specializes in electronic ballasts and transformers.
Foshan Mingyu specializes in electronic ballasts and transformers.

The company's HID lamp transformers are rated 100W and 150W, and feature several merits as zero flickering, noiseless resonance, automatic short-circuit switch-off, and program-controlled start.

Green Workshop Lights

Guangzhou Zhongfa Lighting and Electric Appliance Co., Ltd., a joint venture between Cixi Zhongfa Lamp Co., Ltd. and Zhongshan Chaolang Hardware & Electric Factory, displayed energy-saving workshop lamps at this show, with such lamps typically being adopted in automotive workshops and construction sites. Designed to be versatile, the lamps can be easily carried or attached to tripod for lighting anywhere. And it is equipped with a compact fluorescent tube, installed in a plastic case, and features a transparent polycarbonate (PC) diffuser.

Guangzhou Zhongfa features versatile energy-saving workshop lamps.
Guangzhou Zhongfa features versatile energy-saving workshop lamps.

Zhongfa has wide-ranging expertise: able to design, manufacture and market indoor lamps, outdoor lamps, garden lighting, fluorescent fittings, vanity cabinet lighting, cabinet downlights, spotlight kits, electronic transformers and ballasts.

Operating over a 100,000-square-meter site, Zhongfa has a factory with more than 30 production lines and 1,200 staffers, including 58 engineers engaged in QA, QC and R&D. Equipped with RoHS inspection instruments and other testing machines, the firm is GS, CE, LCIE and UL approved.

Laura Lighting Co., Ltd. showed its LC-F Star LED and LC-9008 downlights at the show. Founded in 1985 in Taiwan and relocated to mainland China in 2000, the supplier has a line of cabinet lights, mirror lights, magnet-attached lights and spotlights.

Laura Lighting`s LC-F Star LED and LC-9008 downlights.
Laura Lighting`s LC-F Star LED and LC-9008 downlights.

The company is now promoting its LC-F Star 1.5W and LC-9008 1W/3W LED downlights. LC-F Star comes with luxury trim while LC-9008 comes in traditional design and is equipped with driver, making it easy to install.

Laura mostly ships its products to the Middle East, Europe, North America, New Zealand and Australia under customers' brands. The company boasts advantages including high quality, competitive prices, specialized design capacity, as well as quick response and personalized service.

World-leading LED Flux

Shenzhen Jiuzhou Optoelectronics Co., Ltd. displayed T8 LED tubes, which it claims to output the world's highest flux and last 50,000 hours before lighting intensity declines below 70%. Also, such LED tubes give off no ultraviolet rays, contains no mercury, lights up in less than 100 nanoseconds, deliver color temperatures ranging from 4200 to 6500 Kelvin, and the best of all can be easily installed to existing T8 fluorescent lighting fixtures.

Jiuzhou Optoelectronics is an affiliate of Sichuan Jiuzhou Group, which was founded in 1958 and now specializes in secondary traffic control radar, digital TV equipment, optical cables, CATV information network, and so on.

The group set up the optoelectronics arm in 2004, whose production lines are equipped with imported automatic die-bonding machines, automatic welding machines, automatic packaging machines, and automatic sorting machines.

Shenzhen Jiuzhou promotes T8 LED tubes.
Shenzhen Jiuzhou promotes T8 LED tubes.

Running an ultra-clean, antistatic factory and featuring advanced LED encapsulating technologies on its 10,000 square-meter site, the supplier is also ISO9001/2000 and ISO14001/2004 approved; while its extensive product range includes high-luminous LED lamps, high-power LEDs, SMD LEDs, dot matrix modules, segment digital displays and LED screens, all of which are typically adopted as traffic lamps, string lamps, sunken lamps and underwater lamps.

Cabinet Lighting a Specialty

Remton Lighting Co., Ltd. showed its RTN3003 1.3W, 12V LED lamp at the show, whose luminosity exceed 190 lumens and work over 1,000 hours on average. These relatively small lights are usually adopted as cabinet lights, downlights, wall lights and spot lights, making the supplier a specialist in this segment.

Remton Lighting`s RTN3003 1.3W, 12V LED lamp.
Remton Lighting`s RTN3003 1.3W, 12V LED lamp.

The company's lamps conform to CE, TUV/GS, EMC and UL standards, making them readily marketable in western Europe and North America; while its manufacturing quality is built on ISO9001-2000 standards. Remton mainly taps ODM and OEM segments of various markets.

Lighting Indoor Farms

Shenzhen Techone Tech Co., Ltd. exhibited 600W and 1000W electronic ballasts for high intensity discharge (HID) lamps, especially high-pressure sodium (HPS) lamps.

The company's 600W ballasts work on voltage inputs ranging from 100VAC to 268VAC and are rated for voltage inputs of 120/240VAC, with input frequency being 50-60Hz, power factor of above 99%, maximum efficiency at 95%, and total harmonic distortion (THD) below 10%. These ballasts drive 600W HPS lamps of different brands and are typically adopted for hydroponic and horticultural applications.

Its 1000W ballasts work on voltage inputs ranging from 100-265VAC and are rated for voltage inputs of 120/220VAC, with input frequency being 50-60Hz, power factor of above 99%, maximum efficiency at 95%, and THD below 10%.

Both the 600W and 1,000W types are protected for short-circuits, open-circuits, ignition-failure, over-heating, and end-of-life, with a wide thermal operating range from 30 Celsius below zero to 50 C above zero.

Shenzhen Techone promotes 1000W and 600W electronic ballasts for HID lamps.
Shenzhen Techone promotes 1000W and 600W electronic ballasts for HID lamps.

Founded in 2003, Techone has been developing, producing, and marketing lighting and control systems, with its main product lines being HPS and metal halide lighting systems, Xenon automotive HID lighting, Xenon locomotive HID lighting, and Xenon marine lighting. Besides consumer products, the company also develops specialized lighting solutions for military and civilian applications, which would be globally-marketable as the firm is CE, UL, E-mark and ISO9001-2000 approved.