In recent years, there has been an increasing demand for use of advanced luminaires in multitude of applications such as residential & commercial buildings, industrial facilities, and public spaces. These lighting fixtures are designed to provide better illumination, higher energy efficiency, and greater flexibility than traditional lighting systems. Due to the design complexity of these lighting structures, traditional methods of manufacturing are not able to keep up with the demand for customization and innovation. 3D printed electronics can bridge the gap between design and manufacturing, enabling designers and engineers to create advanced lighting fixtures with integrated sensors, wireless communication, and other advanced features. The luminaire that has been manufactured through this effort has been fabricated using 3D printing processes Including electrically conductive inks to print the circuit for illumination and sensing capabilities. Surface Mount Technology (SMT) and supporting electronics has been attached to the printed traces. Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) have been mounted on multiple angles to study the effect on efficiency of the luminaire.
Automated tools for the design of freeform illumination optics have enabled a new class of high-quality, high-efficiency luminaires for general lighting. Additive manufacturing takes this concept to the next level – allowing for completely custom luminaires to be designed and manufactured for very specific use cases. This paper looks at the optical designs created and manufactured for a Department of Energy project exploring the use of additive manufacturing for the lighting market. The subtle nuances of designing freeform optics for additive manufacturing as well as results of optical testing of material and surface quality will be discussed. Finally, comparisons will be provided between the simulated, as-designed optical performance and that of the measured parts.
The development of industrial luminaires is often confronted with design and manufacturing challenges that traditional design, tooling, and fabrication methods are not best suited. Additive manufacturing (3D printing) offers a means to implement complex shapes and component customizations that conventional methods cannot easily support. Luminaire designs leverage greater weight saving, thermal management optimization, component reduction, and optical distribution customization when utilizing an additive approach. This enhanced flexibility in product design and deployment better supports high mix, low volume applications that are often too specialized to warrant the investment of production tooling to create an appropriate solution. As digital tools like extended/augmented reality mature and allow more precise definitions of an application environment, additive manufacturing design and production methods become increasingly important in the industrial luminaire market vertical. In this article, we seek to highlight some of the benefits of additive manufacturing in developing and deploying a custom solution to illumination of an industrial space.
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