EISO Enterprise Introduces Patented LED Light Tube

Founded 17 years ago as a manufacturer of printed circuit boards (PCBs), Eiso Enterprise Co., Ltd. has recently branched out into the light emitting diode (LED) lighting segment, and launched a patented lighting tube.

This patented product is of acrylic tubing, fully transparent, has maximum surface temperature of 40C, and generates no glare, a long-standing problem plaguing LEDs with narrow-angle luminous source. "The tube is patented in Taiwan, mainland China, the United States and Japan," says R.S. Hsu, the company's vice president for LED lighting business.

Built of methyl methacrylate (PMMA, or arcylic) with high-power LEDs at both ends of the tube, this patented item taps the inherent properties of acrylic to transmit light without allowing lateral scattering, hence achieving glare-free lighting.

Typically makers build LED-lighting use tubing integrated with long PCB strips with multiple LEDs, which tends to cause glare if the LED casing is inadequately designed. The issue is further complicated by the added cost of trying to overcome glare.

Light Amplified

Eiso amplifies light output by coating the tubing with reflective material: "Doing so allows us to eliminate using reflectors, which adds to cost. Different colors of reflective coating can be used to generate different visible wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum according to customers' demands," Hsu says, adding that tonal changes can also be achieved by using red-green-blue LEDs.

Hsu says that the lighting tube has high efficacy-generating 75 lumens per watt, with the white-light tube delivering color rendering close to 80. Overall, the tubes achieve color temperature between 2,700-7,000K. "And the light output decay is only 2% after six months of non-stop operation," Hsu says.

The company has built such light tubes into lighting grids, desk lamps, straight lighting fixtures and stairwell lighting fixtures, among others. "We are also aggressively promoting the product to convenient stores and premises that have long business hours. Many operators are satisfied with our products after seeing demonstrations at our company," says Hsu confidently.

According to Hsu, a lighting grid with eight LED tubes retails for approximately NT$4,000 (US$121 at US$1:NT$33), or about three times that of a fixture with four T5 fluorescent tubes. "We are working on a four-tube fixture that is brighter than one with eight-tubes," he says.

CNS Approved

The company's lighting grids and desktop lamps are Chinese National Standard (CNS) approved, an official certification qualifying a product to be used in Taiwan government procurement projects. Also the LED tube meets standards set by the state-run Veterans General Hospital as hospital lighting.

To avoid patent infringements involving the chips and phosphorous powder, Eiso, Hsu says, is working with the incubator center at the National Central University in Taiwan.

Eiso has also introduced 10W, 20W, and 30W recessed lights; 6W, 9W and 18W E27 PAR lights and garden lights.

According to Hsu, Eiso diversified into LED lighting five years ago by buying stakes in an LED startup, and then merging the LED venture shortly thereafter. "We thus became Taiwan's first PCB maker to enter the LED lighting segment," he reports. "Our advantage in LED lighting is aluminum PCB that we began making seven or eight years ago, one that is used by most LED lighting manufacturers now as thermal-conductivity substrate," he notes.