The global lighting market’s transformation from legacy light sources to solid-state lighting was enabled in part by the thoughtful and deliberative development of industry consensus performance, measurement, product, and safety standards. Just as light emitting diodes (LEDs) markedly reduced the amount of material associated with electric light sources, additive manufacturing offers the same promise for the luminaires enclosing them. With SSL componentry now commoditized and the architecture, engineering and construction sectors working to identify more sustainable manufacturing methods of the future, additive manufacturing is poised to disrupt lighting markets yet again. These are still early days, but not too early to begin discussing how standardization will help enable the 3D-printed illuminated environment of the future.

A product designer’s perspective on utilizing additive manufactured parts for decorative lighting fixtures including an overview of the key benefits and challenges that additive manufacturing has for our company and types of products/projects. Key benefits include, customer centricity, sustainability and circular economy, bespoke designs and mass customization and pursuit of mastery. Initial challenges include price per part, technology limitations and available materials.

Exploring design and post processing considerations for additively manufactured light shades made from a recycled wooden media. The base media is collected from various waste streams including paper and furniture making. This wood pulp is then glued together with a binder layer by layer to produce a porous base structure. The printed part is then infiltrated with an epoxy resin to add strength and protection to the surface. This report will explore the various design considerations for printing with wood, including creating transparent elements. Also exploring the benefits of different types of post processing techniques, infiltration medias and coatings.

A different way of thinking, designing and processing. A real game changer. I will talk on Why we made this investment. How we went about the process. How we jumped the hurdles to for fill our manufacturing dreams. Show what the process has delivered.

Neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd: YAG) ceramics are extensively used as lasing media. However, limitations in traditional fabrication methods, such as long timescale and difficult structural customization, restrict its potential for advanced applications. Herein, we successfully fabricate Nd: YAG ceramics with customized 3D structures by micro-continuous liquid interface printing at a speed of 10 μm·s–1 and a resolution of 5.8 μm·pixel–1 followed by post-sintering. For the optical properties, photoluminescent spectra and emission images show that the sintered parts photoluminesce at 1064 nm. In summary, this new approach provided a potential solution for faster prototyping of customized lasing media.

SSL lighting requires precise design and fabrication of optical components to control the direction, intensity, and spread of light. Achieving high color rendering index and color temperature consistency while balancing heat management and light extraction efficiency is crucial but challenging. NanoVox has developed a cost-effective inkjet print gradient index optics additive manufacturing platform to create SSL optics with non-symmetrical refractive index distributions, providing more efficient control over light distribution and color balance. Detailed manufacturing processes and examples of structured freeform GRIN optics designed for SSL applications are presented.

Overview: In this talk we will review what makes additive manufacturing different than your traditional processes. We will highlight how other industries are leveraging mass customization for their customers and how you might apply these same concepts to enhance your offerings to your customers. We will also cover where our printing technology does and does not make sense to use so that you can use it in the best way possible.

Recent advances in 3D printing technology have enabled the development of new classes of functional materials for various applications. This presentation will focus on 3D printed functional composites for thermal management of electronics and in particular, lighting systems utilizing highly tunable and molecularly cross-linked (solid-solid) plant-based phase change materials (BioPCM). The BioPCM family of products can be engineered to store and release thermal energy at any precise temperature within the range of -75°C to 175°C, enabling maximum energy performance as the material transitions between solid-to-solid phases without a volume change.

Specification-grade lighting jobs often require product customization. Custom products are expensive to manufacture because it involves engineering costs, changes in tooling, sourcing of special parts, modifications to manufacturing schedules, and often require low volume runs. Beyond the known benefits to redesign, prototype, test, and validate product change orders, emerging 3D printing technologies and materials offer different solutions to lighting manufacturers for functional parts. This presentation will describe potential scenarios where 3D printing can be used to provide the flexibility and speed-to-market needed by manufacturers of custom, high-end architectural lighting products to remain competitive.

Photopolymer 3D printing of optically clear resins is a promising technology for producing custom optical elements for general illumination. However, the transparency of the final 3D-printed part may depend on secondary processes. Residual photoinitiator can result in a yellowish tint that can be photobleached after exposure of the 3D-printed part to a light source. The study was designed to understand the tradeoff between the spectral characteristics of the light source used for the photobleaching and the irradiance to which test samples were exposed on the rate of photobleaching. A total of 14 samples were tested at room temperature for 120 minutes under a combination of three light sources (xenon, phosphor converted white LED, and direct emission blue LED), and up to five irradiance levels for each source in the range 0.0025 to 0.2238 W/cm². The results showed that for the white LED, irradiance can increase the magnitude of the photobleaching. In this study, the maximum chromaticity shift was equivalent to a 4-step MacAdam ellipse. These results seem to indicate that it is possible to expedite photobleaching by increasing the irradiance, although more testing is necessary to find an optimum value. The results for the blue LED tests (peak wavelength 450 nm) showed that this spectrum can be as effective or slightly better at photobleaching than the white LED tested for the same total irradiance. The samples exposed to the xenon light source resulted in increased yellowish tint, presumably because of additional oxidation on the surface of the sample. For these samples irradiated with the xenon lamp, the tint increased with increasing irradiance.