Louisville, Ky.--Grote Industries unveiled its breakthrough LightForm technology during a press conference at the Mid-America Trucking Show.
"LightForm will alter the way the industry uses lighting while challenging all of our imaginations in the process," said Vice President of Sales and Marketing Dominic Grote, noting that it was also the 20th anniversary of Grote Industries' introduction of the first commercially viable LED marker lamp.
The audience got its first glimpse of LightForm as Grote walked around the room, holding an illuminated sheet of paper-thin material, which he flexed, bent, twisted, and rolled.
As Grote moved past the rows of onlookers, he was unencumbered by any visible cord because the LightForm product he held required so little energy that it was able to be fully illuminated by a small handheld battery pack.
During the presentation, Grote suggested that the audience throw away everything they know about LED illumination, adding that at less than 1 millimeter thick, LightForm is a highly advanced, thin-film, solid-state lighting device. He added that LightForm is a most environmentally friendly lighting technology.
Showing the components that make up a standard LED marker lamp, Grote compared and contrasted the material volume used to make an equivalent marker lamp using LightForm and underscored the reduced environmental impact.
Grote also said that with less material, mounting a LightForm lamp can be quickly accomplished via a peel-and-stick method, using the familiar adhesive now found on conspicuity tape and other similar products.
Grote also noted that the company would draw on its considerable optical expertise to engineer never-before-seen light patterns and configurations.
"We can achieve the same FMVSS 108 photometric requirements for a P2-rated marker lamp with just 2 percent of the material used in a traditional LED lamp," he said, "all while eliminating the installation cost and time associated with drilling holes, affixing mounting brackets, and utilizing traditional fasteners."
Grote underscored his company's understanding of the demanding needs of the commercial vehicle marketplace and said Grote engineers have already subjected the product to a rigorous battery of stress tests including salt baths, extreme humidity, heat and cold.
"LightForm is already hardened and robust far beyond the mere prototype stage," he said.
"Tomorrow's truck interiors, as well as a variety of other vehicle interiors including aircraft and watercraft, will be much more interesting, attractive, and functional because of LightForm," Grote said.
The audience was able to handle and examine product specimens and was shown examples of 3-foot and 6-foot strips of LightForm. The product was also shown in an assortment of colors and decorative finishes, many wrapping around complicated geometries.
