LED Panel light now is booming in the market, it’s one of the best lighting options for indoor applications, considering its easy installation, modern design, and efficient light quality. Now almost every supplier producing led lights can also produce led panel lights, so how to choose the most suitable panel light for your requirements? This post will tell you the differences of the materials used in the panel and learn how it affects the quality and cost.

First, let’s take a look of the structure of panel light:

From the explosive photo you can see that panel lights are mainly consist of frame, LED, diffuser, LGP plate, LED driver and back plate. Now let’s go over these materials and see what are the differences when you choose a panel light.

Frames(aluminum heat sink)

There are mainly 3 moldings of frame for panel light.

1. Stamping aluminum

Stamping alu normally made by 1mm aluminum board, and then welded to assemble as a frame, apply wiredrawing surface treatment.

Advantage: from appearance, the joint area of heat sink can reach a seamless level, it’s more light, easy to install and low cost.

Disadvantage: heat sink made with stamping aluminum is easy to scratch hands. And, for 36w and other higher wattage panel lights, heat dissipation is very bad, the situation of LEDs burn out is very often.

2. Extruded aluminum

Panel light with extruded aluminum, mainly made by AL6063 and AL6061 material, the structural strength of AL6061 is stronger than AL6063, but appearance and surface treatment are not as good as AL6063, basically, the differences are tiny. Frame made by extruded aluminum is most common for LED panel light.

Advantage: heat dissipation is good, with exquisite appearance, diversified surface treatment, low tooling cost and easy to shape up. And the sizes can be custom made according to different applications, with good plasticity. All these features make it the most ideal model to make led panel light.

Disadvantage: cost is higher compared to stamping aluminum, and material is more heavy.

Although the extruded alu is the best material to make LED panel, in the market now there are many short-term-business-suppliers have eyes only on profit only, they use cheap, unqualified materials to produce panel light. Normally, the thickness of the frame has to be 2mm, only that it can reach good heat dissipation.

3. Die-casting aluminum

Die-casting aluminum is mostly applied to the panel lights with small sizes that diameter is under 300mm.

Advantage: integration, a truly seamless profile, with elegant outlook, good heat dissipation and cheap price.

Disadvantage, tooling cost is high, size is fixed that it’s unable to modify randomly in accordance with customer requirements and without plasticity.

Diffuser

Type of diffuser: PC, PMMA, PS, PP

1. PC——Polycarbonate

Advantage:

• with high Intensity and elastic coefficient, high impact strength, wide using temperature range.
• high transparency and free chromaticity.
• high grade of H.D.T.
• good fatigue durability.
• good weather resistance (weather resistance is the ability of a material, paint, film, or the like to withstand the effects of wind, rain, or sun and to retain its appearance and integrity).
• odourless and harmless to people
• shrinkage rate of shaping is low and with steady size stability.

In a word, PC is with the best stability, the fire-rated level is high and safety certification is better.

However, in terms of production and marketing, PC is more expensive and because of the big static electricity, it’s easy to absorb dust during assembling, it also has higher labor cost(PC diffuser is with protective films on both sides, takes more time and energy to get it off ). Also, the light transmission for PC is much lower, at around 86%.

2. PMMA — known as acrylic

Features:

• PMMA is with excellent weather resistance, higher Surface Glossiness, and better high-temperature behavior
• PMMA board have good printability and sprayabilit, it can make ideal surface decorative effect process with appropriate print technology
• Flame resistance
• PMMA is fragile, easy to break

The advantage of PMMA applied to LED Panel Light:

• Economical, PMMA is easy to pre-forming and materials are inexpensive, which makes it very common earlier in the production of panel light.
• Silk print effect is excellent if you need to print your own logo and lamp parameters, PMMA is preferred.
• Super high light transmission, up to 90% or so, but it also brings some troubles. Due to the high light transmission, it’s difficult for a diffuser to cover dust and other small stuff, so sometimes it always has a light spot. Like PC, PMMA also has protective files on both sides, that it’s easy to absorb dust due to static electricity, so it requires a very strict production environment (need to be dust-free) to produce panel light.

When you buy a panel light from suppliers, you can evaluate from their workshop environment whether it passes dust-free standard. Penglight have strict procedures to follow when selecting a supplier, see how we do with our supply management. 

3. PS——polystyrene

PS is with excellent chemical stability, thermostability, Optical transmission characteristic, insulation characteristic and with minor moisture absorption tendency, it can be used in a moist environment and it’s with high radiation resistance. But it’s fragile, with low impact strength and bad weather resistance, it’s easy to turn yellow and get crisp. Heat resistance is also bad, distortion temperature is 70-90°, only available to use under 70°, cold resistance is also not good, the brittle temperature is -30°

Although there are so many defects for PS, when apply for indoor the room temperature is normally more than 0° and without solar radiation, PS can be a good material for panel light. Compared to PMMA, it’s with small static electricity makes it easier and convenient to arrange production. PS is cheap, easy for produce and incise, light transmission can up to 88%, All of these features make it the favorite materials for suppliers when it first launched to market.

4. PP——polypropylene

PP is mainly used as a low-cost product. People in the industry call it waste materials.

Advantage:

• non-poisonous, odorless, it’s one of the lightest variety of all kinds of plastic.
• tenacity and fatigue durability is as same as PC
• high light transmission, close to PS, can also up to 88%
• without films on the surface, easy to produce and assemble.
• PP is with good heat resistance, melting point between 164~170℃. without the external forces, it has no deformation even in 150℃

Disadvantage:

• When apply to low temperature, it’s easy to get crispy, not wear-resisting and ageing easily
• high static electricity, get dusty on surface after longtime used.
• soft, panel light of big sizes are very likely to sag naturally

LGP (light guide plate)

LGP is a kind of PMMA with high light transmission, its main processing methods include: silk print, laser engraving and injection moulding. The thickness of LGP has 8T, 6T, 4T and 3T, the thicker the LGP, the higher the luminous efficiency, price is higher as well.

1. Silk print

Silk print is a common processing method for producing LGP.

Advantage: good effect and high luminous efficiency.

Disadvantage: costly, easy to create poor products and it’s difficult to regulate printing ink.

2. Laser Engraving

Laser engraving is another common processing method for LGP, but the production process has reduced the printing ink.

Advantage: low labor cost and material cost, product consistency is good and less defective products.

Disadvantage: luminous efficiency is with 3%-10% lower compared to silk-screen, and it will have a Grid effect on LGP as a result of laser engraving, need frosty and high diffusivity diffuser to solve this problem.

3. Injection Moulding

Injection moulding is normally applied to small products.

Advantage: extremely low material cost, good product consistency, few poor products.

Disadvantage: poor luminous efficiency, only have 90% of silk print, no plasticity, high tooling cost.

LED PCB

Using what kinds of LEDs will have direct impact on the cost and optical parameter. If you don’t specified, normally the panel lights are with Sanan led chip, packing type is SMD2835, with  following  optical parameter:

• CRI: RA>80
• Color temp: 3000K/4000K/5000K/6000K
• SDCM: <6
• Luminous efficiency: 100lm/w to 120lm/w

These are the most common configuration, matured and cost-effective. and for the PCBs are mostly fiber glass not aluminum. For some special requirements that need CRI>90 or SDCM<6 or need color temp at 2700K, this can also be achieved by changing a different LED chip, but price will be more expensive.

LED Driver

Driver plays a crucial role in the lifespan of led lighting, it’s very important that a driver is selected that is matched to the lamp and to be illuminated.

When selecting an LED driver, the following are five factors that you should take into consideration and determine which one is the best fit for your application:

1. Total LED power per function: this is the key to determining LED driver topology.
2. The ambient temperature of the electronic components: For example, with rear lighting where brighter LEDs are required, a linear driver is not the best option because of its high power dissipation; instead, a switching driver is a better choice because it is more efficient and, hence, runs cooler at higher power levels.
3. Flexibility to change LED configurations: light adjustment capabilities by using multiple luminance methods such as voltage reference control and PWM control. A wide operating supply range allows configuration of power supply and the number of LEDs to drive.
4. Supported features: such as auto dimming, individual LED control, color change.
5. Supported diagnostics and safety compliance: such as thermal warning, thermal shutdown, open circuit, short, over-current protection, single LED failures, under voltage and overvoltage on the booster, LED temperature monitoring.

Now many suppliers offer their panel light with a branded driver, such as Meanwell, Inventronics, Lifud, etc, quality is guaranteed and with competitive price.

Back Plate

Back plates are for sealing and assist heat dissipation. Normally 1mm thickness back plate made by aluminum is better for heat dissipation and make entire structure stronger, but now in the market the back plate are mostly with 0.8mm thickness and some factories produce back plate with metal to further reduce material cost. Metal back plate can be rusted after long time used and have big impact on service life.

Conclusion

So, now you have a pretty good idea of what you need to look for in selecting a LED panel light that is sufficient enough for your application. I know it will be a lot to digest for you, especially if you’re new in this field. But don’t worry, just leave your comments or questions below, or you can contact us directly at info@penglight.com, we will get in touch with you and reply your questions anytime.

In the lighting industry, now there are many discussions about the products of LED Light Engine (also called DOB, a drive on board design), people are having entirely different views on the products of LED Light Engine.

Some said this kind of products and technologies are the savior to the current chaotic LED lighting market, the other said this product will lead traditional lighting companies to dead end, there are also views that LED Light Engine is the future for traditional lighting companies.

So why is that? Is this product still in developing? is the technology hard to master? Or is it because this product is useless? In this article, Penglight will help you understand and learn what is LED Light Engine and its applications.

What is LED Light Engine?

LED Light Engine originates from Zhaga consortium. According to Zhaga definition,

LED light engine or LLE is the combination of one or more LED modules, together with an LED driver (also known as electronic control gear, or ECG).

Some LLEs contain an integrated driver, while some LLEs consist of one or more LED modules together with a separate driver. Therefore, LED Light Engine is a device between LED fixtures and LED Luminaire.

In a more simple definition: make led module and constant current driver printed on one Alu PCB.

What is the marketing advantage of LED Light Engine?

With the booming in LED Lighting Market, everyday there are new lighting companies enter into this industry, along with new led lights. It brings lots of inconvenience to the standardized manufacturing and promotion of indoor led lights since there are so many diversified led lights flooded into this market.

As LED Light Engine is a standardized product, led light factories can choose different LED Light Engine to design and produce their light fixtures according to various applications.

Especially for the New entrants, they only need to find several types of standardized LED Light Engine to design light fixture, without the worry of the mass production issue, because the same type of standardized LED Light Engines is available in many manufacturers, also the standardized LED Light Engines is convenient for mass production.

Optics and structure are what is all about for the design of traditional luminaires, but when it comes to the design of led lighting, since there is still no standard for led light products, not only we need Optics and Structure Professionals, but also need professionals in field of electronic, electrical, thermal dissipation etc.

These increase the burdens of led light manufacturers and set a high threshold to new entrants, which are bad for the development of lighting industry. So how to effectively lower the R&D cost and shorten the production time become the main problem in the lighting industry.

Things will work out fine with standardized led light engines, since the led light engine has consist of electronics, first heat dissipation, and first light distribution, what light suppliers need to consider is the lighting structure, second heat dissipation, and second light distribution. It dramatically lowers the R&D cost and shortens production time.

LED Light Engine has specified the parameter of output lumen, CRI, luminous efficiency, uniformity of color temp, beam angle, etc in different applications, and the specified parameter reaches the highest level in lighting industry, it helps a lot to improve the quality of led lights.

Compared to traditional DC LED, AC LED does not involve with AC/DC conversion, it’s a lighting technology that can directly connect to AC power. Traditional LEDs need to be powered with proper direct current to make it work, so an AC/DC transformer is a must to add between Mains supply and LED load to achieve DC drive.

The use of transformer increases the total size, quality, and cost of led light, and generate certain electricity loss during the AC/DC conversion process, cannot give full play to the efficiency of led light. With the AC LED technology, the problem can be solved.

 

Disadvantage of LED Light Engine:

Currently, since the lack of normalized and unified standard components and the disparate development of equipment and technological level among suppliers, there is a variety of LED Light products emerged in market, with different performance and bad interchangeability, which on some level has prevent led lighting industry from developing healthily.

Questioners thought that LED Light Engine is not developed in a smooth way, there are still many challenges leave to manufacturers.

First, the technology of linear constant current is still in low efficiency, and the core technology of led light engine is the driver chip of high voltage linear constant current;

Second, AC driver(AC LED) meets many problems of integration in multiple subjects, it needs to integrate the Chip design, High voltage technology, thermal dissipation, application design and so on.

Thirdly, led driver and led module will generate the heat simultaneously while led light engine is on work, and because of the low driver conversion efficiency of led light engine in the market, in the long run, it will definitely shorten the life span of led light engine. So currently led light engine has not yet shown its superiority in terms of cost and promotion.

Due to the limited of life span and thermal dissipation, etc, led light engine is not that much popular and a large portion of them are only applicable to low wattage industry.  In high wattage market, there are very few in matured applications.

About ZHAGA Consortium

Zhaga is a global lighting-industry organization that aims to standardize components of LED luminaires, including LED light engines, LED modules, LED arrays, holders, electronic control gear (LED drivers) and connectivity fit systems.　This helps to simplify LED luminaire design and manufacturing, and to accelerate the adoption of LED lighting solutions

Standardized interface specifications make the lighting industry more efficient, and efficiency is essential to break the barriers that block it from realizing smart lighting on a massive scale.

Zhaga develops interface specifications for different LED light engines. These define the interfaces – mechanical, thermal, optical electrical and control – between an LED luminaire and an LED light engine. When applied correctly, these specifications ensure interchangeability. For example, Zhaga focuses on the mechanical and thermal fit of the heat sink, the size, and height of the light-emitting surface, and the photometric properties regarding different application areas.

Following are several existing specifications for different product types from Zhaga:

Book 15 defines a family of rectangular LED modules that are intended to be used with lenses or arrays of lenses (also known as lens plates).

The modules require a separate LED driver (electronic control gear) and usually will be mounted on a heat sink.

The specification defines several attributes of the LED modules, to enable accurate alignment with the lenses, but the lenses themselves are NOT defined in this specification.

Book 15 modules with lenses are typically used for outdoor lighting applications, including roadway, pathway and outdoor-area lighting.

Book 16 defines a family of planar, circular LED light engines (LLEs) with an integrated driver. Such LLEs are especially suited for use in flat, circular, low-luminance applications.

Book 16 has five LLE categories, defined by their maximum diameter. Two more sub-categories allow easy mounting in existing luminaires.

By describing a connectivity fit system for smart outdoor luminaires, Book 18 marks Zhaga’s first contribution to the rapidly-emerging world of smart lighting.

Book 18 defines a standardized interface between an outdoor LED luminaire and a sensing/communication module that sits on the outside of the luminaire. The module connects to the LED driver and control system and typically can provide sensory inputs while also communicating with other luminaires in a network.

The Zhaga specification will include a socketed receptacle that allows a compatible sensing/communication module to be easily removed and replaced. This will allow the luminaire to be upgraded easily via the addition of new smart capabilities to the module. Note that Book 18 will define the luminaire-module interface, but will not define the capabilities of the module.

Conclusion

Although now the application of LED Light Engine products are still chaotic, also with some problems and obstacles, we cannot denied that there is a future for LED Light Engine products with the development of led lighting market and introduction of more detailed and various LED Light Engines.

Let’s wait and see!