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www.us-
tech.com
June, 2016
Energy Focus Builds LED Boards for U.S. Government
A
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Emmil Makram (left), SMT supervisor, and Jason Deist hold a four-foot LED panel that consists of 10 separate LED PCBs.
the help of Horizon Sales’ Dave Trail and the teams at Juki, Promation, and Viscom. Proud of its long standing rela-
See at ATX/MD&M East, Booth 224
tionship with the U.S. Government, Energy Focus counts national, state and local government agencies among its customers. As well, the company has provided LED lighting systems for Fortune 500 companies and many private businesses. With an upswing in demand for LED tech- nology in recent years, the company
the first high-volume LED PCB pro- ducers in the U.S., and to build them at a price that would compete with offshore companies. To accomplish such a lofty goal, the company need- ed an experienced partner and a line of top-quality, technologically ad- vanced systems. To begin, Jeremiah Heilman,
the company’s vice president of re- search and development contacted Dave Trail of Horizon Sales, a manu- facturers’ representative corporation that specializes in the sales and mar- keting of premier electronics assem- bly equipment. The two men drew up plans for printing four-foot boards onshore.
A Tall Order Trail went to work designing
the line with his team. With no precedent set for this sort of produc- tion in the U.S., they were in un- charted territory. In order to compete with offshore manufacturers in Asia in the assembly of four-foot LED boards, the process had to be com- pletely automated and capable of producing 1 million LED assemblies per year, on one shift. They settled on systems from Juki Automation, Promation and Viscom. The total bill for the line was $1.5 million. The design finalized, it was
brought to Jason Deist, Energy Focus’ director of operations, who took it to the company’s board of directors. The design was approved and the path was cleared for Energy Focus to have the first fully-automated line of its kind in the United States. On the date promised, three
semi-trucks delivered crate after crate of equipment to the company. Riggers were hired to unload and un- crate the systems. After two days,
Continued on page 38
•Single-Sided, Double- Sided & Multilayer Circuits •Maxi-Flex® (40 feet long +)
s a result of the U.S. Federal Government’s “Buy American Act,” there is a significant de-
mand for energy-efficient LED board assemblies and lighting products cre- ated in the United States. LEDs are used by the government for research and development projects for the De- partment of Energy (DOE), DARPA, to create lighting systems for the U.S. Navy fleet, and for many other applications. Energy Focus, located in Solon, Ohio, recognized the need for a high-volume U.S.-based LED board producer and developed a fully automated line to build them with
has grown substantially. In 2012, the company had six assembly techni- cians. By 2015, that number had grown to over 70. By the end of Q2 2016, the company’s main facility will expand to 116,000 square feet.
Buying and Selling American Energy Focus needed to find a
way to build both two- and four-foot LED PCBs for the ships of the U.S. Navy, and for the Department of De- fense’s shore base facilities. The ma- jority of these boards are manufac- tured in other countries, but the com- pany set its sights on becoming one of
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