Bayer announces its local solutions for LED lighting

Global climate change and ever scarcer resources necessitate significant improvements in lighting systems' energy efficiency. One important solution is LED lighting technology – with good reason: compared with the traditional incandescent bulb, LEDs reduce energy consumption by up to 90 percent and have a far longer service life.

Bayer MaterialScience recognized this trend at an early stage and developed special polycarbonate and polyurethane materials for LED lamps. These are widely used in lens systems, optical guides, reflectors, light diffusers, cooling elements and housing parts. In such optical components, Bayer plastics are able to guide, bundle, diffuse and reflect the LED light. There are also a number of special process technologies to help customers manufacture the optical components.

Armed with this comprehensive product package, the company is now set to participate in India’s largest B2B trade fair for the lighting industry, ‘Light India 2014’ which takes place in New Delhi at Pragati Maidan from September 18 – 21.  At it’s booth (stall no. B35) in Hall 10, the company will present a variety of products for lowering the energy consumption of lights and offering consumers greater comfort and safety. The program is thus an important example of Bayer MaterialScience's sustainable business strategy. The goal is for all the company's product and process developments to benefit both society and the environment, and to help create value. The commitment is closely linked to the Group's motto: “Bayer: Science For A Better Life.”

Modern LED lighting technology also offers a great deal of design scope in the illumination of buildings, streets and vehicles. There are virtually no limits to its use in advertising, stand construction at trade fairs, displays and billboards. Furthermore, the technology is also suitable for modern lighting control systems.

It is therefore not surprising that demand for materials for LED-specific requirements is constantly rising. “Our materials are also opening up new applications for LED lamps and are contributing to the increasing popularity of this efficient lighting technology,” said Ajay Durrani, Managing Director and Senior Country Representative – Indian SubContinent, Bayer MaterialScience Pvt. Ltd.

High-tech plastics for modern light management:

One example is the Makrolon® LED product family, which has been developed specifically for such applications. The polycarbonate materials are highly transparent and conduct white LED light without significant losses. They offer plenty of freedom in part design, are lightweight and can be economically manufactured by injection molding if the batch sizes are large enough. Other benefits include the material's high impact strength and fracture resistance.

Semi-finished polycarbonate products for large-area lighting concepts:

Polycarbonate sheets and films are used to guide, diffuse and reflect LED light in large-area lighting systems. The range of PC products manufactured by Bayer MaterialScience, include diffuser sheets of Makrolon® DX and Lumen XT with differing opacity and good light permeability. This makes them suitable for many applications in which uniform light diffusion and good light yield are paramount. Reflector sheets made of Makrolon® RX, on the other hand, do just the opposite: the white opaque products reflect up to 97 percent of the LED light and can be used either as reflecting surfaces or as housing elements.

New additions to the range include light-shaping and glare-free Makrolon® SX sheets with a light permeability of up to 90 percent. One side has a micro lens structure, while the other has an embossed surface with UV protection. A subjacent number of LEDs are thus connected optically to produce a continuous “line of light.

The application spectrum for films from the Makrofol® LM range (Light Management) is similar. Key applications include lighting solutions where only a small amount of space is available yet a high level of light diffusion – or, for example, three-dimensional surfaces – is required. A further example can be found in interior design in the automotive industry. Thanks to ambient lighting, car interiors are increasingly becoming a personal “feel-good” zone. This film range, too, includes grades for guiding and diffusing light and for almost 100 percent light reflection. It also contains a number of grades for special effects, for example light extraction films for OLED lamps.

Permanent protection for light-emitting diodes:

The possibilities offered by the LED lighting technology can be significantly extended if the sensitive light-emitting diodes are reliably and permanently protected against moisture, the weather and cleaning agents. This also opens up application opportunities for LED strip lighting in bathrooms, saunas, swimming pools, building facades and gardens. Such applications call for a transparent, water-repellent material that completely embeds the LEDs.

For this purpose, Bayer MaterialScience has further developed certain grades of its Desmodur® and Desmophen® polyurethane coating materials to make them suitable for the production of transparent encapsulating materials. With these solvent-free materials, strip lighting and other LED lighting elements can be sealed permanently to make them waterproof without any compromises on brightness.

With these innovative material solutions, Bayer MaterialScience is significantly helping to put the spotlight on energy-efficient LED lighting. Visitors to the Light India exhibition will be able to see this for themselves on the company’s stand (B35) in Hall 10.