With more and more players participate the horticultural light place , it is essential that you trust a major lighting society with this critical part of your farm . You ’ll likely have plenty of companies — from newfangled and unproved to commit and acclaimed — vying for your attention , all promising the safe and brightest lighting solution . They ’ll in all likelihood throw around cant as well , all the while assure you that they have a powerful ignitor that will move your farm forward .
by Robert Spivock , Director of Technology , GE Current
But lost in all the talk about light spectra and office is the brightness ’s dependability . Too many people take the long lifespan of LEDs for granted without considering free fall - offs in lineament . A grow visible radiation can be bank to reverse on , but for how long ? How long will it maintain its loose grade ? Will the spectrum change over time ? Can it hold out the thermic scads of a greenhouse ?
Ultimately , agriculturist need to demand : What does it intend to be a reliable LED fixity ? And how can you distinguish a reliable fix from an treacherous one ?
To the team at Current , reliableness means timber over time . The thing is , what makes a “ quality ” light-emitting diode grow luminosity is unlike to each grower . Quality is about all the thing that are important to the customer , whether they talk about it or not . It ’s like a car with no steering wheel — you seldom ask for a steering wheel when buy a railroad car , but you would be unhappy if you did n’t get one .
The Accelerated Product Life Test Labs at Current
Designing dependableness from the beginningWhen designing a new LED fixedness , you need to understand the surroundings it will be in , as well as what the customer involve for and gestate it to do over time . The environment is the first divisor , and it contains a number of condition that should be turn over when select or designing an LED fixture — water , chemicals , sun , dirt ball , operators and manufacturing equipment , to name a few .
Other thing to consider let in electric surges and electromagnetic dissonance . While these may not be thought of as traditional components of a grow space , they could have a major impact on the state of matter of your surround and the functionality of your lights .
Building caliber into light-emitting diode fixturesAt Current , dependableness is intertwined with our new product presentation process . As we design and build raw light products , we come a rigorous operation to ascertain the LED secureness meet our customers ’ quality standard — both what they do remark and what goes unmentioned .
Step 1 : coiffe clean-cut targets free-base on client needs and intersection environmentYou ca n’t work up a superscript product without understanding the factors that will be most authoritative to the customer — in other words , what elements are going to make it a quality product . Get to eff the agriculturalist , the harvest and the growing surround to determine what characteristics will be most important .
tone 2 : Translate those goal into numbers and statistic - base objectivesThe next step is turning those important quality into mensurable quantities . For example , if a customer has an objective of a quantity of luminance over the living of fixture , it could be translated into an end product rated L90 over 36,000 hours .
Step 3 : Design reliability into the product through constituent derating and prognostic analysisDerating is take high - quality components from proven trafficker and using them in a pattern that does not stress them to their demarcation line . This assure that the intersection can survive for more time and under stressful conditions it may see over its life . If a component part typically experience 300V in operation , it may be rated to 600V.
Step 4 : Conduct reliableness growth examination to find oneself the watery point in time in the designAt Current , we ’re always testing our merchandise by taking them to the demarcation to see how they will function in extreme conditions . This stand for run that push the lights to the verge and beyond , identifying any impuissance . We learn what would give out first and can make for to eliminate those payoff and strengthen the overall production .
measure 5 : Accelerated life examination to show reliability objectives have been metOnce we have reached a final excogitation , we statistically demonstrate quality over metre by doing accelerated life story examination .
Our process provides an accurate look at how long the fixture and LEDs will perform and at what level . Providing growers with a realistic picture of what they can expect — rather than only offering a surmisal or a best - casing scenario — help them make an informed decision about their investment and better plan for the future .
