PRESS RELEASE
- IALED technology allows car manufacturers to integrate headlamps with lowest power
consumption and fewest LEDs
Singapore, 16 September 2010 – Mainboard-listed Meiban Group and its associate company
i3 Lab today announced a breakthrough technology that allows cars to incorporate headlamps
that offer higher performance, lower power consumption and other benefits.
Known as Intelligent Automotive Light-Emitting Diode (IALED), the revolutionary technology was
developed by i3Lab. IALED is currently believed to be the world’s most efficient LED headlamp
module with the lowest power consumption and the fewest light-emitting diodes (LEDs).
Currently, car headlamps that incorporate existing LED technology uses minimum of 7 LEDs
(Source: Just-auto Global Market Review of Automotive Lighting - Forecasts to 2015. (2009
Edition) whereas IALED technology uses 1 LED in energy-saving mode (low beam).
Due to the reduction of emitter count, headlamps designed using IALED will have a maximum
power consumption of 10 watts (low beam). This represents a savings of 35W of energy
compared to existing 45W halogen car headlamp (low beam) – with no loss of lamp brightness.
Internal tests conducted by i3 Lab show that an IALED-based prototype headlamp offers better
illuminance than halogen headlamps, which are the most commonly used headlamp. For
example, a 10W IALED-based prototype provides better illuminance than a 45W halogen bulb
because LED colour temperature (5600K) is closer to daylight.
These product characteristics of IALED give Meiban Group and i3 Lab a significant edge in
terms of developing state-of-the-art LED technologies for car headlamps. According to a 2009
global market review of automotive lighting by just-auto.com (the leading online resource for the
automotive industry), by 2015 high-performance LED headlamps will typically incorporate one
emitter count, down from the current figure of seven. Yet, IALED allows car manufacturers to
incorporate headlamps with as few as one LED (low beam) – not in five years, but today!
Using IALED, car manufacturers will be able to incorporate headlamps that offer better visibility,
higher brightness and reduced glare with lower power usage. Car headlamps that integrate
IALED will also have a longer lifespan and provide better fuel efficiency. This will indirectly lead
to reducing carbon emission.
“Today i3 Lab is proud to bring to the world a revolutionary technology IALED, allowing LEDs to
be affordable and available to all car makers, elevating the standard of car lighting system
globally. LEDs will no longer be only the privilege of luxury cars,” says Ms Carol Goh, Executive
Vice President of Meiban Group.
“Through clever innovation of LED headlamp technology, we are able to optimize the design of
IALED to achieve equivalent or better performance than existing products at an affordable cost.
We believe this will have huge potential and drive market adoption for LED lighting especially in
Electric Vehicles (EV), motorcycles and other similar applications. Our future innovations will
include more intelligent lighting system like AFL (Adaptive Front Lighting) WITHOUT moving
mechanism, that provides additional sensing and detection of environmental and adverse road
conditions for driving.” says, Mr Sim Lye Hock, Chief Technology Officer of i3 Lab.
To commercialise IALED, Meiban Group and i3 Lab intend to target manufacturers of low to
mid-range cars in Asia, which currently is a growing market.
To undertake further research and development on IALED-based products, we will expand our
Singapore R&D team to 11 man-strong and a new testing lab will also be set up. The R&D
facility will focus on LED automotive lighting such as Adaptive Front lighting that uses no moving
mechanism for directional headlamp. We believe the advancement in R&D efforts can make
driving experience safer and more enjoyable.
Meiban Group and i3 Lab also intend to embark on efforts to market the IALED technology by
attending major international car shows and trade missions organised by IE Singapore.
“IE Singapore assists local enterprises to export their technology to overseas markets and to
leverage on Singapore’s brand image as a hub for technology in Asia. We would like to
encourage traditional Precision Engineering companies to enhance their core product offerings
through innovation, research and product development. The IALED project is an excellent
example achieved through successful collaboration with a technology partner, and IE Singapore
is ready to support the internationalisation efforts with our enhancement schemes in the areas
of Branding, Design as well as IP Acquisition,” said Mr Yew Sung Pei, Assistant Chief Executive
Officer, IE Singapore.
“We are pleased to have home-grown companies like Meiban Group and i3 Lab bringing their
strengths together to innovate in technology, develop and manufacture new products to capture
emerging business opportunities in Asia. This is a good manifestation of the transformation of
our $23b precision engineering industry, extending our strong supplier capabilities into product
and solutions development,” said Mr Chang Chin Nam, Director, Precision Engineering,
Singapore Economic Development Board.
“Meiban Group believes in Innovation and the potential return on investment innovation can
bring. The partnership between Meiban Group and i3 Lab is a fine example of breakthrough
innovation that combines Meiban Group’s strengths in contract manufacturing with i3 Lab’s
expertise in optics engineering. Our IALED technology can revolutionise the car headlamp
market to improve performance, reduce cost for the drivers and help preserve the environment.
We are grateful to our Singapore Government agencies such as EDB and IE Singapore for their
support to local inventions and industry.” said Mr. George Goh, Executive Chairman of Meiban
Group Ltd.
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