Verbatim Americas, LLC, backed by Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation (MCHC) group, has announces the official ENERGY STAR(R) qualification of its new line of PAR-type retrofit LED lamps.

Verbatim’s ENERGY STAR qualified LED retrofit lamp product line includes:
– PAR20 — 3000K, 500 lumen output and 9 watts
– PAR30 — 2700K, 740 lumen output and 14 watts
– PAR30 — 3000K, 800 lumen output and 14 watts
– PAR38 — 2700K, 920 lumen output and 17 watts
– PAR38 — 3000K , 1000 lumen output and 17 watts

ENERGY STAR qualified Verbatim PAR LED lamps provide high quality warm white light with uniform beam distributions, making them ideal for commercial environments such as hotels, restaurants, retail shops, corporate buildings, hospitals and more.

When replacing traditional halogen PAR lamps, Verbatim ENERGY STAR LED lamps provide up to 80% reduction in energy consumption. Verbatim ENERGY STAR lamps are also fully dimmable and compatible with most commercial dimming systems. Verbatim ENERGY STAR LED lamps qualify for utility rebates and are backed by a 5 year warranty.

General Electric (GE) has launched a new range of long-life LED outdoor lights, which offer up to 50 000 hours, or up to ten years, in regular operating conditions.

The new-generation LED Area Lighter lumi- naires are suited to car parks, pedestrian zones or for general illumination. The optical ring design also produces vertical illuminance, efficiently delivering the required amount of light without spilling into neighbouring areas. For street and highway illumination, the new LED Road R250 luminaires have an advanced optical system that improves the uniformity of the vertical and hori- zontal light, enabling better control and superior obstacle detection.

The Iberia LED is a decorative luminaire, suitable for all amenity lighting applications. With its contemporary design, the Iberia LED offers improved visual acuity, better vertical luminance and smoother optical transition. Considerable energy savings are achieved owing to its advanced no-shielding design, which deliv- ers light precisely where it is intended to go.

Recently, Japanese wholly owned subsidiary of Asahi Kasei has acquired Crystal IS, the germicidal LED technology development company, to accelerate commercialisation of its UVC LEDs grown on AlN substrates.

The effective date of the merger was December 28, 2011. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed. Crystal IS will focus on R&D fundamentals and entrepreneurial business development management as well as continue to be based in New York State, while Asahi Kasei will concentrate on the product engineering and manufacturing side.

Samsung Electronics has announced that it will merge its LED division with its broader corporate entity effective April 1.

The Board of Directors of Samsung Electronics has announced its decision to seek a merger with Samsung LED Ltd, the Korea-based company’s LED manufacturing subsidiary. The merger is expected to open global sales channels to the LED business and perhaps widen the company’s access to the lighting market.

The purpose of the merger is, says Samsung, “to nurture the LED business as Samsung Electronics’ future growth engine” by utilizing its advanced technology, manufacturing competency, and global sales network.

The merger deal is expected to be signed on January 20, 2012 and then go into effect from April 1, 2012 after receiving approval at Samsung Electronics’ and Samsung LED’s Board of Directors meetings.

Strategies Unlimited told LEDs Magazine that Samsung’s LED sales for Q1-Q3 2011 were down 15% year-over-year. Preliminary numbers for Q4 indicate weak sales relative to 2010 due to low capacity utilization (around 50%).

LG has announced the world’s largest OLED display at 55 inch, marking that we are much closer to getting mass produced OLED displays.

The new TV features a ‘wider’ color gamut than LCD screens and is impossibly thin — only 5mm. Additionally, it can have amazing response times that can skirt 0.01 millisecond and refresh rates of 100,000hz as a result. It has a response time of 2-8 milliseconds and hence are capable of refresh rates of about 200Hz.

OLED’s also have better contrast. LG’s 55inch behemoth has a contrast ratio of 100,000:1. They are also more power efficient because OLED elements don’t consumer power or produce light when they are off.

LG plans to display this TV at the upcoming CES2012 technology show at Las Vegas.

Nexxus Lighting, Inc. has introduced its new PAR20 and PAR30 bulbs to its premium Array LED replacement lamp line.

The Array PAR30, which is equivalent up to a 75 watt halogen bulb, and the PAR20, which is equivalent up to a 50 watt halogen bulb, are both available in 2700 and 3000 degree Kelvin color temperatures and spot, accent, and flood beam spreads.

Both bulbs are lightweight, fully dimmable and have been tested by accredited third party laboratories.

The lamps suit for track lighting, spot lighting and numerous other accent lighting applications.

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s leading TV brand vendor, stated on Dec. 7 that its TV sales hit a record high of 5.7 million units in November, spurred by the high U.S. sales during the Thanksgiving weekend.

According to Samsung’s statement, due to that the sales went up 14% in November from 5 million units in October, the company is certain to secure the number 1 spot for all of 2011. Also, the company said in the statement that it was optimistic about the prospects of meeting its 2011 flat-screen TV sales target of 45 million units.

In fact, Samsung’s TV division concluded a 240 billion won ($213 million) operating profit in 3Q11, propelled by increased shipments and sales of high-end models such as Internet TVs and LED-backlit flat-screens.

The outstanding performance is attributed to the fact that global TV makers are under business restructuring and outsourcing production as they face the fierce competition and underperforming market.

Recently, Panasonic Electric Works has released an LED lighting device to replace high-output high-frequency (HF) fluorescent lamps.

According to the company, the new LED lighting device has a brightness equivalent to or higher than those of HF fluorescent lamps. The CRI is 84. A high-efficiency model that is expected to embedded in a ceiling to replace two HF32-type fluorescent lamps has a designed luminous flux of 5,880lm, a rated power consumption of 60.6W on average and an efficiency of 108.3lm/W, which are approximately 14% higher, 31% lower and 27% higher, respectively, than those of two HF fluorescent lamps.

The company will release 68 models including straight tube models, rectangular-shaped models, etc that emit white, daylight-color, warm white, incandescent-color lights.

The new lighting device is equipped with an LED module using a ceramic substrate that has a high resistance to deterioration, a high heat radiation performance and a high reflectivity. As a result, its lumen maintenance factor is 95% after 40,000 hours of use.

The white and warm white models start to sell on Dec 1, 2011,and the other models are to be sold on Feb 1, 2012.

Toshiba is to roll out the “Regza 32BE3,” a 32V-size LCD TV integrated with its “Eco Chip,” in mid-December 2011.

The Eco Chip receives/detects signals from the remote after the TV is turned off with the remote. Its consumption current is as low as about 95μA.

The Regza 32BE3 incorporates the Eco Chip and a large-capacity capacitor. The Eco Chip is driven by electricity stored in the capacitor, and AC power is cut by a relay. As a result, the standby power consumption of the TV is equivalent to the power consumption of an unplugged TV.

The Eco Chip has a timer function. The relay and the light-receiving elements that receive signals from the remote are powered by the capacitor. Therefore, it is possible to use the remote to operate the TV and set a timer recording even when the standby power consumption of the TV is “zero.”

Because of the employment of LED backlight, the annual power consumption of the new TV is 45kWh. It is about 27% lower than the power consumption of the “Regza 32A2,” the predecessor of the 32BE3.

What are LED lights and why they are called “light of the future”?

LED lighting – one of the promising areas of artificial lighting, based on the use of LEDs as a light source. LED – an element which with high efficiency converts electrical energy into light. Actively use these light sources in Russia are only the beginning of two thousandth. The development of LED lighting is directly related to the technological evolution of the LED. Have been developed so-called super-bright LEDs are specifically designed for artificial lighting.

Compared to conventional incandescent bulbs LEDs have many advantages. They are economical to use energy as compared to prior generations of electric light sources – arc, filament and gas discharge. For an optimal power supply circuit design and application of high-quality components average lifetime of LED lighting systems can be increased to 100 thousand hours, which is 50-200 times more massive than incandescent bulbs and 4-16 times greater than that of most fluorescent lamps.

It is also possible to obtain different spectral characteristics without the use of filters (as in the case of filament lamps). Among the manufacturers of LED light sources is considered the most promising area is functionally in terms of energy efficiency, and cost and practical application. LED – lighting the basis of the future.