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Technology | optical moulding


Making light work


Moulding optical parts is no new challenge for the injec- tion moulding industry - producers of traditional polymer optics have been doing it successfully for many years. The arrival of LED technology, however, presents new opportunities for processors with expertise in production of high optical-quality thick walled parts – and potentially for those moulders with the determina- tion to acquire the required skill sets. Industry analyst McKinsey and Company recently


predicted the global LED lighting market would see growth rates of near 35% a year to 2016. What that means for plastics is not so easy to estimate but early indications are that LED growth will create signifi cant new opportunities for injection moulders. “The potential for the LED lighting sector is high but


hard to quantify,” says Dave Grassi, optical applications engineer at Carclo Technical Plastics in the US. “On some LED lights there is no plastic, and people still use spun metal refl ectors in some retrofi t applications. And there are LED fi xtures that don’t have any LED optics in them, just a bare LED. So it’s hard to quantify how much potential is out there, but the LED market as a whole is growing quickly,” he says. Traditional lighting technology uses refl ectors to


direct the light. While these are demanding injection mouldings in terms of surface profi le, they are relatively thin wall parts with fairly consistent wall thickness. The point source nature of LED lighting calls for lenses


www.injectionworld.com


The switch from traditional lighting to energy effi cient LEDs is good news for producers of polymer optics.


Chris Smith fi nds out why and looks at some of the latest processing and material innovations


rather than refl ectors in most applications. LED lenses are typically small, but they are characterised by thick and often highly variable wall sections and must be moulded to high levels of surface precision at low cost. Carclo Technical Plastics manufactures a range of


standard optics for LED applications as well as offering custom design and manufacturing at its production locations in the US, UK, China and India. Grassi says developing successful optics requires a combination of specifi c design, processing and tooling expertise, together with the ability to understand in detail the requirements of the LED industry and to fully validate manufactured solutions. “The designer has to work very closely with the


manufacturing engineers to make sure they are OK with September 2013 | INJECTION WORLD 19


Above: Hella achieved the deep 3D ‘tunnel’ effect in the


rear lights of Citroën’s


Technospace


concept MPV by combining thick wall LED optics and semi-


transparent refl ectors


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