Taiwan T&T Sees Bright Future In T6 Lighting Equipment

Taiwan T&T Technology Co. believes that T6 lamps will soon take over from T8 lamps as the mainstream lighting source in daily life, and has dedicated itself to the supply of T6 equipment ever since its establishment in 2001.

The firm's sales of T6 lighting equipment-lamps, electronic ballasts, and lighting fixtures--have grown by 50% annually over the past two years, to reach NT$40 million (US$1.2 million at NT$33:US$1) in 2003.

C.S. Tseng, chairman of Taiwan T&T, claims that his company is now the biggest supplier of T6 lighting equipment in Taiwan. T6 equipment was first introduced in Japan and has been gaining popularity recently because, Tseng explains, it is more efficient than T8 counterparts thanks to the electronic ballasts used. T6 lamps are around 30% more efficient in terms of light generated per watt, are 1.5 times brighter, and use 35% less power. Compared with incandescent lamps, Tseng adds, T8 lamps are 80% more efficient.

The reason for this advantage is that most T8 lamps use traditional coil-type ballasts, which limit the power factor (a measure of efficiency) to an inefficient 58%, while for the T6 it is over 90%.

In addition, the diameter of a T6 lamp, at 18mm, is thinner than that of a T8 lamp, at 26mm. This cuts down on the materials used to make T6 lamps (which, according to Tseng, account for half of the total production cost of a tube), including glass, fluorescent powder, and mercury (a pollutant), while increasing brightness.

To make T6 lamps more environment-friendly, manufacturers have begun using bismuth-indium-mercury (Bi-In-Hg) alloy grain to generate ultraviolet rays which are transformed into visible light by the fluorescent powder on the walls of the lamp. This new (solid) material replaces the standard liquid mercury, which can cause serious pollution problems.

Big Advantages

"For light-fixture makers," Tseng notes, "the biggest advantage with T6 lamps is that they don't have to be designed from scratch, because they are identical in length to T8 lamps and the distance between electrodes is the same with both types." The world's top three lighting manufacturers-GE, Osram, and Philips-are boosting the even shorter T5, but Tseng remains skeptical about this move. "In addition to comparative size unfriendliness," he explains, "the T5 is limited by its minimum perfect working temperature of 35 degrees Celsius, while for the T6 it is 26 degrees."

To be safe, Taiwan T&T is nevertheless developing electronic ballasts for T5 lamps. It claims to have succeeded in winning patents for a ballast that fits lamps of all brands; the new ballast will be introduced to the market this year, and sales efforts will be focused on overseas markets. The company's strategy is to form patent-licensing alliances with big lamp makers.

T6 lamps are more costly than T8 models because of the electronic ballasts they use as well as their eye-soothing tri-wavelength technology. However, Tseng comments, the electronic ballast allows a T6 lamp to burn as long as 16,000 hours, nearly twice the life of a T8 lamp, and this makes the former more economical to use.

Tri-wavelength technology gives T6 lamps a light that 80% identical to natural light in terms of color rendition, and thus shows truer colors of objects they illuminate.

Taiwan T&T vice chairman C.L. Hung demonstrates the advantages of T6 lamps to visitors, compared with T8 lamps, by using a well-equipped display box in which both types of lamps are installed. He slowly reduces the amount of current going to the two lamps until the T8 dims and begins blinking. The T6 dims somewhat, but its light remains steady. When the current is reduced to 70 watts the T8 shuts off completely while the T6 keeps burning. "For places that don't have stable electric current," Huang emphasizes, "the T6 is really an outstanding alternative."

During a demonstration Huang points to the two ends of the T6 and T8 lamps, reminding viewers that the dark areas on the ends of the T8 are lacking on the T6. "The dark areas affect efficiency," he claims, "and only Taiwan T&T has the technology to eliminate those areas."

The vice chairman also claims that his company is the only lighting-equipment supplier in Taiwan to have been awarded Taiwan's Chinese National Standard (CNS) mark for its T6 electronic ballasts, the key components of which come from Japan. "Our reliable quality has enabled us to capture between 60% and 70% of the domestic market," he says. "We now ship 3,500 sets of lights, each with four lamps, each month."

T6 Savings

To date sales of T6 equipment have primarily been to Taiwan's domestic market, and the firm lists numerous prestigious companies, schools, department chains, and airports among its satisfied customers. "Executives from one major department-store chain have told me," Hung reports, "that their 30 stores around the island have saved an average of about NT$500,000 (US$15,000) on their electricity bills every year since they started using our T6 lighting equipment."

Hung is unworried about the many competitors that are challenging his company in the domestic market, claiming advantages that include a group of ballast specialists who once worked with Philips Taiwan's lighting unit and another leading local maker of electronic ballasts. Another reason for confidence is that Taiwan T&T is working with the island's National Cheng Kung University and National Sun Yat-sen University, as well as with specialists cooperating over the Internet, on the development of even more advanced lighting technology.

"For the most part," Hung notes, "we develop lighting fixtures on our own and assemble them with our own ballasts." The lamps used come from a Taiwanese supplier in mainland China. Hung says that most of the island's T6 lighting manufacturers outsource their lighting fixtures and lamps, and claims that his company alone is able to make fixtures and ballasts on its own.

To expand its T6 customer base, Taiwan T&T hopes to form an alliance with the China Electric Manufacturing Corp., the island's No. 1 lighting manufacturer, under which Taiwan T&T will provide contract manufacturing services while China Electric will sell the resulting lighting equipment through its sales outlets. The big manufacturers are not likely to turn out T6 equipment on their own in the near future, Hung says, because the market is not big enough to offer economies of scale. For this reason, the vice chairman expects more of the lighting manufacturers to use his offerings.

Hung is optimistic about the future of the T6 market in Taiwan, noting that the island has a well-developed electronics industry that provides a good foundation for electronic ballast manufacturing, and that technological maturity will bring about a continuous decline in the prices of T6 products. A set of T6 lighting equipment with four lamps now goes for around NT$1,000 (US$30), he comments, down from three times that much just two years ago. This trend suggests that "the market will begin to grow rapidly soon."

Despite its emphasis on T6 equipment, Taiwan T&T has not ignored the T8 market. The local 7-Eleven convenience chain once contracted the government-backed Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) to measure the efficiency of T8 electronic ballasts offered by Taiwan T&T, China Electric, Taiwan Fluorescent Lamp, Philips Taiwan, and one other local manufacturer, Hung reports. The results, he claims, showed Taiwan T&T's offering being second only to that of Taiwan Philips, with 76.26 lumens per watt versus Philips' 77.3 lumens per watt.