Panel Debate David Morgan takes a closer look at the expansion of Applelec’s ventures into the world of OLED technology and its various applications in the industry.
I
t is ironic that OLED, one of the most recently developed light sources, is being marketed in the UK by a company that started life
as a traditional metal fabricator. Applelec celebrates 20 years in business this year.
Over this period it has developed first into
illuminated signage, then into LED lighting
panels and now into OLED panels.
Applelec was started by two boyhood friends, Ian Drinkwater and
Paul Stothers, who first met at the age of 13. Ian was employed in his father’s metal working company and Paul joined as an apprentice in his early 20s. Ian is now the MD of Applelec, looking after business development and strategy, with a passion for innovation and R&D. Paul is the Production Director.
Applelec were early adopters of LED light sources as a way of
replacing fluorescent lamps for illuminated signage. After seeing
Korean-made side-illuminated prismatic panels at a lighting show in Hong Kong that had been originally developed for use with LCD TVs, Ian realised this would be an excellent back light source. He
recognised it would work for not only signage, but also for general
architectural and retail lighting. Marketed in the UK under the LED
Light Sheet brand, the material has been enthusiastically adopted by architects, interior designers and lighting designers for use in a wide variety of applications. Applelec has been awarded the UK licence to the three patents covering the construction of LED Light Sheet.
Notable projects that Applelec has supplied LED Light Sheet for include back lighting the windows of the Tardis in Dr Who and integrated into New Dawn, the contemporary light sculpture
celebrating Women’s Suffrage by artist Mary Branson, situated at the Houses of Parliament.
The latest venture for Applelec into the world of lighting materials has been to distribute OLED panels from both LG Display and
OLEDWorks to complement their existing LED Light Sheet business. I reviewed the OLED materials from LG Display for arc magazine
in 2016 and it seems that full scale production of their range was
delayed for a couple of years while a new production facility was built. The LG OLED products are now in production and marketed under
the Luflex brand name. The Luflex range now includes nine different OLED panel products, including both rigid and flexible panels with their largest size flexible panel at 300mm x 300mm, the largest
available in the market. The company’s main business is producing display components and systems for TVs, mobile phones and other digital devices.
While OLEDs for display use and for lighting applications share
the same basic technology and science, it is not clear how much crossover there is in the production details of the two types of
material. The most impressive applications for AMOLEDs (Active
Matrix Organic LEDs) to date are the flexible displays being proposed for flip phone designs, and in huge screen TVs including the 88-
inch LG TV. This size has been shown in prototype form this year
at various trade shows. The TV application is a high volume use for OLED materials and presumably helps to provide the commercial support for products to be used in lighting applications.
The second OLED brand being marketed by Applelec in the UK is from the US company OLEDWorks. OLEDWorks purchased the Philips OLED business Lumiblade at the end of 2015 after Royal Philips
decided to exit the lighting industry by floating the lighting division as a public company with a new brand name.
OLEDWorks, based in Rochester NY, was formed in 2010 and the
management team includes John Hamer, who was responsible for David Morgan runs David Morgan Associates, a London-based international design consultancy specialising in luminaire design and development and is also MD of Radiant Architectural Lighting. Email: david@dmadesign.co.uk Web: www.dmadesign.co.uk
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commercialising OLEDs at Kodak in the late 1990s. OLEDs were
invented at Kodak in the late 1970s and AMOLED displays were used in early Kodak digital cameras.
The OLEDWorks flexible panels branded LumiCurve Wave (Applelec brand it the Ripple) are based on the super thin Willow glass from