A lighting partnership that works

What defines a reliable lighting partner? In an age characterized by the speed of change, that's a more complex question than it seems at first sight. But the bedrock of reliability is constant: an absolute focus on quality, meaning that lighting will continue to be relevant and deliver value for years to come.

Other factors are important, of course, but working with a lighting partner committed to quality will enable manufacturers and lighting specifiers to steer clear of the sub-standard products and components that are out there. In one exercise reported in luxreview.com in 2015, for example, UK trading standards officers carried out targeted inspections of imported LED products and found that 64 percent of LED lamps tested were unsafe and 76 percent of LED lighting products overall were unsafe or non-compliant.

To give customers, lighting professionals in the field and partner manufacturers the confidence that they have access to the highest quality products and lighting, Philips Lighting has developed a reliability program that spans the full lifecycle of lighting infrastructure, from product design and testing to installation and maintenance. The program has four key building blocks:

1) Quality control

The starting point is a modular design that promotes easy maintenance, supported by the use of pre-tested components whose design is optimized to ensure that they stay within specification during use. The Six Sigma standard is used to eliminate product defects, and well-established reliability models and simulations allow the accurate prediction of product lifetimes. Further, carrying out failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) creates a development cycle that constantly improves products.

2) Testing

Before releasing any products or systems to the market, they are tested rigorously in-house at Philips Lighting. System architectures are validated at the component, product, and system level using a process of accelerated release and extensive field testing, which enables testing for all potential failure possibilities, and the prediction of product reliability with accuracy.

3) Validation

Among the validation testing processes used are Advanced Life Testings (ALT), including accelerated thermal tests and stress calculations to guarantee the lowest product and component failure levels achievable in the industry. There's also functional lifetime tests, tests on multiple performance parameters and their degradation over time in different environments, and continuous field tests and customer feedback loops that take prediction accuracy to industry-leading levels.

4) Meeting international standards

Complying with international standards is integral to the way Philips Lighting does business. Among the standards that Philips Lighting products and systems meet are IEC 61347 (LED control gear), IEC 60598 (luminaire), PR 15 (electromagnetic compatibility), IEC 62560 (self-ballasted LED lamps), IEC 62861 TS (LED light component reliability testing), and IEC 62368 (product safety).

Delivering innovations that drive the industry

As well as creating these comprehensive reliability measures, Philips Lighting has developed programs that make a number of its technologies available to partners. The SR Certified program, for instance, lists companies, components, sensors, and control systems that are certified to work with Philips' Xithanium SR (sensor-ready) driver, which enables a host of current and future 'smart city' applications.

The YellowDot program lets manufacturers test and certify that their LED luminaires are interoperable with Philips' Indoor positioning technology, which means more manufacturers can bring the power of GPS indoors using coded light as the core infrastructure. And the EnabLED licensing program for LED luminaires and retrofit bulbs allows manufacturers to incorporate more than 200 of Philips' patented products and inventions in their products – see a snapshot of the latest licensees here.

These programs support ongoing innovation and growth in the LED lighting market and allow partners to use high-quality, sophisticated technologies to explore a myriad of customer possibilities without the need to invest in their own technologies. They reduce complexity and cost, and thus they grow the range of what's possible.

Quality and reliability in the era of IoT

As lighting moves beyond illumination to become a smart infrastructure capable of powering IoT connectivity, it's essential to partner with a company that can ensure compatibility and reliability across multiple connected components and light points. This can be a critical advantage to business partners who need to know that the components, products, and systems they are building into their solutions have been designed, built, and tested with hyperconnectivity in mind.