Acuity Brands shows new use cases for its Marker OLED luminaire, which uses Amber OLED panels made by OLEDWorks. The Marker has been introduced in 2013, but now Acuity reveals more details (such as the OLED supplier) and new applications.
Acuity Brands says that the OLED markers can be used for decorative, orientation and low-level illumination. This we've known before - but now Acuity also tells us that this concept also has specific applications for healthcare facilities - as directional beacons in high-traffic areas and low-level illumination in critical care areas.
The Amber OLED panel emits light at a 590 nm peak, and has a fixed luminance of 600 cd/m2. Those OLEDs are free of blue wavelengths - which disrupt circadian rhythms. Acuity Brands says these features makes it ideal for night lighting in healthcare applications.
It's great to see Acuity Brands continue its recent push into OLED technologies. The company recently released new lamps, upgraded the panels to the latest LG Chem panels in their existing luminaire series and commented that "OLED is the perfect light source". Last week I interviewed Acuity's OLED group's marketing and biz-dev Director.
It's also great to finally see OLEDWorks panels adopted in an OLED luminaire - even if it's just a concept for now. OLEDWorks was established in July 2010 by former Kodak OLED business experts with the goal to become an OLED lighting panel manufacturer. In 2013 the company successfully completed its Series A fund raising, with plans to start producing "low-cost" OLED lighting panels. In the past year or so, OLEDWorks received three grants (see here, here and here) to further develop is OLED technology.
OLED panels are also being developed for phototherapy applications. Two UK companies, Lumicure and Polymertronics, developed the technology as back as 2009. We haven't head any updates since then though. In 2009 I interviewed Lumicure's CEO.
