Analysis of the difference between fiber optic lighting and LED lighting

Nowadays, under the advocacy of the concept of green lighting, various lighting technologies are constantly emerging. Fiber-optic lighting and LED lighting as emerging lighting technologies have always been at the forefront of the era of green lighting.



1, fiber optic lighting
Fiber optic lighting is an emerging form of lighting in recent years. Due to the unique physical properties of the fiber itself, fiber optic lighting is used in interior decorative lighting, local effect lighting, billboard lighting, guided lighting in public areas of buildings, indoor and outdoor underwater lighting, and building contours and facades. Among the lighting, and good lighting effects have been achieved. The fiber optic illumination system consists of a light source, a mirror, a color filter, and an optical fiber. When the light source passes through the mirror, a bundle of approximately parallel light is formed. The light beam is turned into colored light due to the action of the color filter. When the beam enters the fiber, the colored light is sent to the intended location along the path of the fiber. The light source is generally strong due to the loss of light on the way. Commonly used light sources are around 150~250W. And in order to obtain an approximately parallel beam, the point of illumination should be as small as possible, similar to a point source. Mirrors are an important factor in the ability to obtain approximately parallel beams. Therefore, aspherical mirrors are generally used. A color filter is a part that changes the color of a beam. According to the need, the corresponding color light source is obtained by changing the filters of different colors. Optical fiber is the main body in a fiber-optic lighting system. The function of the fiber is to transmit or transmit light to a predetermined place. The optical fiber is divided into two types: end light emission and body light emission. The former is that after the beam is transmitted to the end point, it is illuminated by the tail light, and the latter itself is the illuminator, forming a flexible beam. For fiber optic materials, it must be in the visible range, the loss of light energy should be minimized to ensure the quality of the illumination. However, it is practically impossible to have no loss, so the optical fiber transmission distance is about 30 m.

Features of fiber optic lighting:
1. A single light source can have a plurality of light-emitting points having the same light-emitting characteristics.
2. The light source is easy to replace and easy to repair.
3. The illuminator can be placed in a position that is difficult for non-professionals to contact, and thus is tamper-resistant.
4. No ultraviolet or infrared light, which can reduce damage to certain items such as cultural relics and textiles.
5. The light-emitting point is miniaturized, light in weight, easy to replace and install, and can be made into a small size, and placed in a glassware or other small object to form a special decorative lighting effect.
6. Without electromagnetic interference, it can be used in special places with electromagnetic shielding requirements such as nuclear magnetic resonance room and radar control room.
7. No electric spark, no electric shock hazard, can be used in chemical, oil, natural gas platforms, fountains, swimming pools and other special places with fire, explosive hazard or wet and multi-water.
8. Automatically change the color of light.
9. Reusable, saving investment.
10. Soft and easy to fold, not easy to break, easy to be processed into a variety of different patterns. The system heat is lower than the general lighting system, which can reduce the power consumption of the air conditioning system.

Second, LED lighting
LED (Light Emitting Diode) is a semiconductor capable of converting electrical energy into visible light. It changes the principle of incandescent tungsten filament illumination and energy-saving lamp trichromatic toner illumination, and uses electric field illumination. It has the following characteristics:
1. Voltage: LED uses low voltage power supply, the power supply voltage is between 6-24V, depending on the product, so it is a safer power supply than using high voltage power supply.
2. Performance: Energy consumption is reduced by 80% compared to incandescent lamps with the same efficacy.
3. Applicability: Each unit LED chip is a square of 3-5mm, so it can be prepared into various shapes and is suitable for a variable environment.
4. Stability: 100,000 hours, the light decay is the initial 50%.
5. Response time: The response time of the incandescent lamp is millisecond, and the response time of the LED lamp is nanosecond.
6. Environmental pollution: no harmful metal mercury.
7. Color: changing the current can change color. The light-emitting diode can conveniently adjust the energy band structure and band gap of the material through chemical modification method to realize multi-color luminescence of red, yellow, green and blue.
8. Price: The price of LED is relatively expensive. The price of a few LEDs can be comparable to the price of an incandescent lamp. Usually, each group of signal lamps needs to consist of 300 to 500 diodes.

Third, fiber optic lighting applications
1. Video conference desktop lighting
2. Effect lighting placed in a place with a high top, difficult to maintain or unable to bear weight
3. Guided lighting in public areas outside the building
4, outdoor fountain underwater lighting
5. Building outline lighting and facade lighting
6. Local lighting of buildings and cultural relics
7. Light box, billboard lighting

The line illuminating fiber is soft and easy to fold, not easy to be broken, easy to be processed into different patterns, no danger of electric shock, no need for high voltage transformer, automatic color change, convenient construction and installation, and can be reused. Therefore, it is often used in buildings. Billboard lighting on the screen. Compared with traditional neon lights, fiber optic lighting has obvious performance advantages.

Fourth, LED application areas
1. Signal indication application.
2. Display applications: signs, billboards, large screen displays, etc.
3. Lighting application:
a, portable lamps: flashlights, headlights, miner lights, diving lights and so on.
b. Automotive lights: High-position brake lights, brake lights, turn signals, reversing lights, etc. High-power LEDs have been widely used in automotive lighting.
c. Special lighting: Solar garden lights, solar street lights, underwater lights, etc. Due to its small size and easy dynamic brightness and color control, LEDs are more suitable for architectural decorative lighting.
d. Backlighting: Common electronic device function display backlight, notebook computer backlight, large size and large size LCD display backlight, etc. LED as the backlight of mobile phone display is the most widely used field of LED.
e, projection light source: RGB light source for projector.
f, general lighting: all kinds of general lighting, lighting sources.

Because fiber optic lighting and LED lighting are fundamentally different, and the performance is also different, so the sales market is also biased. Although fiber optic lighting now accounts for a small share of the lighting industry, it is proportional to accelerated growth. According to the characteristics of fiber optic lighting, the sales market for fiber optic lighting mainly faces decorative lighting, entertainment lighting, art lighting and special lighting.

As a new type of light source, LED has developed more and more types of LED lighting products in recent years and its market share has also increased. However, since the technology of high-power LEDs has not yet matured and the cost of white LEDs cannot be effectively reduced, LED lamps cannot be effectively expanded in the field of lighting.