Thomas Edison is credited with inventing the first practical electric light 128 years ago, but it’s an Oxford-based company that’s perfecting the idea.
Located at 925 N. Lapeer Road (across from Meijer), Relume Technologies has revolutionized the lighting industry by enabling LEDs to burn brighter, last longer and cost less.
‘We just get more light out of the LED than anyone else without abusing it,? said Peter Hochstein, chairman and founder of the company.
Because of the technology Relume developed, LEDs now have practical applications in everything from commercial signage to street lights to military operations, all of which are making the company very profitable.
‘Over the last four years, we’ve doubled the size of the business every year and we’re on that same path this year,? said Chief Executive Officer Michael McClear. ‘If things go right we’ll triple the size of the business next year.?
Inside the technology
LED stands for light-emitting diodes, which are semiconducting devices that emit light when voltage is applied. The color of the light emitted depends on the semiconducting material being used.
Relume Technologies, founded in 1994, doesn’t make LEDs, it specializes in what Hochstein called ‘thermal management.?
As the operating temperature of an LED rises, its light output decreases and its ‘useful life is cut in half.?
To prevent this, Relume invented and manufactures aluminum circuit boards coated with a patented insulator that ‘absorbs then dissipates heat,? which keeps the circuitry from shorting out, according to Hochstein.
All the LEDs on the Relume’s circuit boards are connected with patented circuitry made from 95.5 pure silver. The LEDs themselves are bonded to the boards using silver epoxy. Silver makes extraction of heat from the diode into the aluminum more efficient.
The result ? a brighter, longer-lasting light.
‘We package (LEDs) in a different way that gets 2? times the light output and three to four times the useful life than anyone else in the world can get with LEDs right now,? he said. ‘There are other people who make lamps with bright LEDs, but frankly they don’t last.?
Relume’s technology can make LEDs last up to 100,000 hours. Compare that to the incandescent light bulb, which lasts about 2,000 hours.
Not only does the LED burn brighter than the incandescent lamp, it’s much more energy efficient.
LEDs ‘use 10 percent of the energy for the same amount of light output as an incandescent lamp,? according to Hochstein.
Lighting streets one city at a time
Although manufacturing commercial signage for companies like Hudson Bay, Zellers (in Canada), and Toyota Scion currently make up 80 percent of Relume Technologies business, the future is street lighting.
‘That’s probably going to make up 70-80 percent of our business next year,? McClear said.
‘If Relume can populate 10 percent of 10 percent (of the street lights in the United States), that still numbers in the millions,? according to Bob Hahn, general manager of Lumecom, the marketing, sales and distribution arm of Relume Technologies.
Relume makes both cobra head street lamps (the most widely used design since the 1960s) and decorative street lights such as those seen along Washington Street in downtown Oxford.
Ann Arbor, Battle Creek, Benton Harbor and Canton, Ohio have already contracted with Relume to do all their decorative street lighting, while Welland, Ontario decided to install LED cobra head lights.
McClear’s hoping to get the contract to replace Ann Arbor’s cobra head lamps, too.
Relume takes the existing lights, keeps the exterior the same, but retrofits the interior with LEDs that have an average life of at least 10 years.
Depending on the climate, the lights can last anywhere from 12 to 20 years. In Miami, which has the hottest nights of any city in the U.S., they’ll last 10 to 12 years. In Oxford, where night time temperatures are cooler, the lights could last between 15 and 20 years.
Relume’s lights stay under warranty for seven years.
Considering the average street light lasts a maximum of three years, LED street lights reduce maintenance by 80 percent. They also use burn brighter using less electricity, another savings to taxpayers.
More and more cities seem to be catching on to the idea.
‘We have over 85 sites right now across the country and in Canada that are currently testing Relume products,? Hahn said.
Downtown Oxford is now one of them.
On Tuesday, Relume and the DPW retrofitted the four decorative lamps along Hudson St. with LED lights, at no cost to the municipality, as part of a 30-60 day trial period.
This will allow people to see the new lights and compare them to existing ones.
A similar demonstration was conducted in Ann Arbor where Relume lit one city block. The public was able to comment on the new lights on a website. Of the 150 responses received, 147 were positive, according to McClear.
Besides street lights, Relume also makes illuminated street signs, traffic control signs (such as those box-type signs which indicate left-turn only) and parking structure lamps.
The Michigan Department of Transportation has already retrofitted 400-500 of it state highway signs with Relume’s LED technology. More will be replaced as they burn out.
California’s Department of Transportation has also adopted Relume’s specifications for all their highway applications.
LEDs help the environment
Hahn noted that, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, ‘if every single light fixture in the U.S. today went to LED, it would reduce the dependency on foreign oil by half.?
Because LEDs utilize less electricity than incandescent lights, their use would require less fossil fuels to be burned at power plants, thereby reducing carbon emissions ‘by almost three-quarters,? he noted.
‘We talk about cars doing a lot of polluting, but electricity is right up there too,? Hahn explained.
Even the technology that goes into manufacturing Relume’s products is environmentally friendly.
Ninety percent of the copper photo-imaged on a standard circuit board must be etched away using harsh chemicals, which must be disposed of.
The silver circuitry screen-printed on Relume’s aluminum boards is placed ‘only where you need it,? according to Hochstein, so there’s no wasted metal and no chemicals to dispose of.
Because the LEDs are bonded to the circuit board using a silver epoxy, which acts as a conductive adhesive, there’s no lead solder involved, another plus for the environment.
Military applications
Since 2004, Relume Technologies has enjoyed a relationship with the U.S. military, making things such as a portable 7 million candlepower searchlight, 16,000 candlepower warning beacons for military checkpoints and LED lamps for military shelters such as mobile command units and field hospitals.
Recently, Relume delivered four prototype LED headlights for the military’s humvees. The company received a $500,000 grant from the Department of Defense to develop them.
The lights are designed to allow ‘further visibility? and put out wider beams to ‘cover more of the road,? particularly the sides where improvised explosive devices can be placed, according to Hochstein.
Unlike typical military headlights, which put a lot of light into the sky and are therefore not ideal for covert military operations, the LED beams have a ‘sharp cutoff? that doesn’t give away a vehicle’s position.
Relume also invented technology that aids military communications during covert operations when radio silence must be maintained.
Digitally pulsed LEDs securely send encrypted messages via infrared light, which is invisible, between computers as far away as 10 kilometers. The technology plugs into a typical USB port so it can fit standard notebook computers.
‘It’s like Morse Code with invisible light,? McClear said.
Grant money provided through the federal Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) enabled Relume to develop all this interesting technology for military and commercial purposes.
‘Dual use is the spirit of the grant,? McClear said. ‘It’s worked out very, very good for us.?
Every year, 11 federal departments and agencies including the Department of Defense, are required by the SBIR to reserve a portion of their research and development funds for award to small business.
A growing company
When Relume Technologies was founded in 1994, it started as a Research and Development company.
Then three years ago, it began manufacturing its patented products.
‘We started with three employees in 2004,? McClear said. ‘Now, we’re up to 25 and we plan to hire 10 more between now and the end of the year.?
Operations increased to the point that Relume Technologies had to move from its 10,000-square-foot home in Sterling Heights to its current 35,000-square-foot facility in what used to be the Odyssey Industries/Sea Ray building.
The company is expected to ‘triple? in size next year, according to McClear.
‘We don’t see it stopping for the next three or four years,? he said.
For more information about Relume Technologies visit www.relume.com.