PHILIPS LIGHTING GAINS DESIGN FREEDOM, PRODUCTION COST CONTROL BY SELECTING XANTAR® PC AND AKULON® PA FOR URBANA LUMINAIRE

Royal Philips Electronics (AEX: PHI, NYSE: PHG) Lighting business benefits from increased design freedom and lower overall production costs by using Xantar® polycarbonate (PC) and Akulon® polyamide 6 (PA6) from DSM Engineering Plastics for Philips’ new Urbana decorative urban luminaire product.

Aesthetic components, including the housing and lens, are made of Xantar resin. Structural components, including the pole mount and internal electrical box, are made of Akulon resin. During development, Philips designers tapped DSM expertise in resins, moulding and thermoplastics engineering to optimise the luminaire and reduce its costs.

“In the final analysis, we based our choice of DSM materials on a combination of mechanical and technical performance, plus overall cost,” said Lukasz Stefaniak, senior buyer, Philips Lighting. “The full luminaire is heavy, so we needed strength in the areas involved in supporting it. Resistance to heat was important because the ballast and electrical components are housed close together and become quite warm. As the design evolved, DSM provided us with a number of candidate materials. Overall, our working relationship with DSM has proven to be beneficial to both sides—at this point, our businesses are quite aligned.”

“The Urbana project shows the benefits of technical cooperation during development,” said Francis van Vehmendahl, DSM Lighting Segment Development Manager. “Together Philips and DSM were able to optimise product and tooling designs in exploiting the versatility of Xantar and the strength of Akulon.”

Produced in nine interchangeable, decorative models, Urbana achieves up-to-the-minute looks with a variety of striking styles featuring built-in reflectors and smooth transitions from the pole to the lamp bowl. The Urbana luminaire’s primary applications include station yards, parks, business centres, residential areas, shopping centres and footpaths.

The various Xantar-based lens/reflector assembly designs, which include clear, opal, and prismatic lenses to provide buyers with a choice of lighting effects, are engineered for long life without cracking, yellowing or fogging in urban environments.

The paintability of Xantar also contributes, with both white and black painted parts in the light path for control, preventing upward light pollution and reflecting light down.

Akulon offered aesthetic freedom and reduced costs for the mount, which are traditionally made of metals. The Akulon pole mount and housing are designed to withstand the loads and temperatures experienced by the luminaire. In addition, the non-conductive Akulon is ideal for containment of electrical elements. Beside the electrical conductivity of metal and its tendency to corrode, metal is especially costly to form into the smooth transitional shape of the Urbana mount.

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