Editor’s Note: Your humble editor has had several discussions with NliteN™ inc, a company we know very little about. We will withhold commenting on this product until we receive our samples which should be in the next few weeks.
LED light bulbs have taken on a new dimension of function and style with today’s Indiegogo launch of the flat-shaped 2D-Lite™ LED Disk, ( https://igg.me/at/2DLight ) designed and manufactured by NliteN™ inc.
Born of Silicon Valley innovation and scaling, telecom and aerospace ruggedness, and highly-efficient and low-cost automated manufacturing, the 2D-Lite LED Disk delivers the innovation, style, functionality, high quality, and reliability expected of an American made product – yet at a market-leading price point that’s 30% lower than most reputable competitors, and more than 60% less than the average price of dimmable 60W incandescent-replacement, 800 lumen class, LED light bulbs.
Today’s 2D-Lite LED Disk launch, recognizing the 165th birthday of lighting pioneer Lewis Latimer, will represent the moment in history that the vacuum tube packaging of early light bulb inventors, which subsequently defined standard household “bulb” shapes and manufacturing methods, became obsolete. People will find it awkward, now, to refer to LED-optimized, mass automation-assembled, stylish, energy-efficient, “LED Disks” (or “light disks”) as “light bulbs”.
2D-Lite LED Disk’s technology looks brighter, and reduces energy consumption by about 80% over the 60W incandescent light bulbs it’s meant to replace, and by almost 30% over the 14W, mercury (a neurotoxin) -containing, short-lived, non-dimmable CFL bulbs it’s meant to displace.
The primary bulb-selection criterion for consumers, a low price, is achieved in 2D-Light LED Disks by a patent-pending and unique flat design, enabling the disks to be manufactured on highly-automated electronics assembly systems. Hand soldering and manual assembly that necessitate low-quality Chinese manufacturing of light bulbs have been eliminated, delivering American-made quality and reliability at the lowest cost and highest lumens/$.
Automated manufacturing is scalable, and benefits greatly from increased volume. This scaling, and the R&D funding NliteN plans to garner via its Indiegogo supporters, will enable the delivery of the next generation 2D-Light series of LED Disks, with the goal of producing a $6, dimmable, 60W-replacement, light disk in 2015 and a “Light Disk for the World™” at a $3 price point by 2017. NliteN believes its aggressive goals will enable everyone to be able to afford high quality, energy efficient lighting, improving quality of life everywhere and creating worldwide adoption of this clean, green, energy saving, LED technology.
Simply Brilliant
The 2D-Light LED disk’s unprecedented flat configuration faithfully mimics the lighting and electrical behavior of a standard 60W A19 incandescent bulb by design. “I must be psychic”, said Dennis McCarthy, solid state lighting applications guru and one of the experts and writers at the Philips-sponsored, UBM Electronics’ All Led Lighting site. “NliteN’s radical new LED disk’s features, performance, and price points are eerily close to the attributes of an LED bulb I predicted would enter the market around 2018 in my recent postings in several lighting industry groups and forums. NliteN have jump-started my predictions by about four years with Turudic’s 2D-Light LED Disk technology, without compromising the near-ideal lighting quality CFLs and LEDs have failed to deliver.
“The novel flat design of the LED disk is nothing short of brilliant….pun intended,” quipped McCarthy, “Its unique construction enables a back-to-back LED arrangement so the LEDs can act as a single point source of omnidirectional light, which will make them look brighter in a light fixture than either CFLs or the LED arrangements of other LED bulbs. NliteN’s 2D-Lite-d™ model includes an orientation switch invention that shuts off the disk’s upper LEDs when mounted in a ceiling fixture’s horizontal base. Eliminating upwards-directed light, which is usually lost inside fixtures using all other bulbs, enables the 2D-Lite-d to deliver an additional 50% or so in energy savings.”
“The 2D-Light keeps its LEDs cool using a nifty disk-shaped integral heat sink which matches the A19-bulb silhouette and fully meets ANSI-standard specs for overall shape, max size, and light source location,” McCarthy continued. “Few, if any, other energy-saving bulbs deliver this killer combination of capability and features. I’d note that the deceptive, yet clever, smooth plastic cylinder at the bottom is just a guide – the circuit board indentations actually do screw into a standard Edison light socket, making electrical connections.”
An Affordable, Efficient, 23rd-Century Light Source
“The world looks to technology to deliver energy efficiency, better quality of life, and greater capabilities for lower cost”, said Andy Turudic, inventor of the 2D-Light technology. “My epiphany came about when I applied my semiconductor industry thinking, and extensive and multidisciplinary design and manufacturing experience to create the patent pending 2D-Light technology. Despite NliteN’s highest lumens per dollar price point, this scalable design can offer all of the world’s consumers an extremely low cost LED disk that has a clean, energy efficient, point source of light with the style, quality, reliability, innovation, longevity, and attention to detail, expected of American made and designed products.“
Born in Canada of Croatian parents, Turudic’s vision doesn’t stop at American borders. “Over the next couple of years, I expect NliteN’s products to consequently save energy and green our environment, by making energy efficient, non-toxic, long life, lighting cost-effective, affordable, and available, to everyone on the planet. I won’t be happy until 2D-Light’s technology completely displaces toxic CFL bulbs. To accelerate near-term consumer adoption, a patent pending, grid friendly, load shedding, utility-dimming capability in 2D-Light should result in electric utility rebates, by reducing their spend on additional grid infrastructure, lowering prices of light disks to CFL levels. NliteN is building jobs, stronger economies, and a cleaner, more hopeful future for everyone and plans to do so, worldwide, without resorting to Chinese outsourcing.”
Turudic has also entered “The Next Big Idea” Philips (NYSE: PHG) /Indiegogo/Bloomberg Innovation Fellows competition. Indiegogo donations, expected from those people wanting to not just get a 2D-Lite LED Disk, but to help Turudic’s vision happen in making a worldwide impact with affordable LED lighting, will be used for tooling, testing, materials and equipment, and funding the R&D to realize a product roadmap to greater functionality & light bulb types, and to achieve the objective of lowering costs to the extent of fully displacing CFLs without utility rebates.