By successfully completing the measures required for compliance, Color Kinetics will also be prepared to meet similar regulations pending worldwide, including RoHS adoption by Australia, Canada, Korea and Taiwan.
"Color Kinetics is increasingly a global business, and since inception we have taken many steps to meet or exceed global standards - whether to gain UL and CE certification for safety, or to comply with IEC standards for product interoperability across international markets," said Bill Sims, President and CEO, Color Kinetics. "The investment made in achieving RoHS compliance for Europe will serve us well as the US and other regions follow suit to enforce environmentally responsible manufacturing policies."
As per the RoHS directive, Color Kinetics' current and future products will not contain more than the mandated levels of lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants. This excludes Color Kinetics products that are currently slated for discontinuation.
Completing RoHS compliance marks the latest accomplishment in Color Kinetics' long-standing commitment to industry standards, which are critical to the adoption of LED lighting. The company was the very first to secure UL-listing for LED-based illumination systems in 1998, and today its products adhere to required UL and local regulations. In addition to safety, emissions and electrical testing, Color Kinetics performs extensive validation and environmental testing using third-party facilities to ensure product quality. This includes rigorous tests such as thermal cycling, humidity, water immersion and others to verify the functionality and robustness of products in various environmental conditions.
In addition to meeting existing standards, Color Kinetics is actively involved in the creation of entirely new standards related to LED lighting, which cannot be measured or tested by the same means as conventional lighting. The company works with organizations such as the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), Illuminating Engineering Society (IES), International Commission on Illumination (CIE), American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and Next Generation Lighting Industry Alliance (NGLIA) to determine standards and testing criteria for important factors like LED system lifetime and lumens per watt. These factors can often be miscalculated if not tested within real-world applications and operating conditions.
"The importance of standards in our business cannot be overstated, as they will ultimately dictate the design of technically sound and safe LED lighting systems that users can adopt with confidence," said Sims. "Safety and environmental issues, including energy conservation, are of utmost importance to Color Kinetics. But our emphasis on standards also extends to creating much-needed industry benchmarks for system lifetime and performance, which in turn can help bring about widespread use of LED lighting."
(Lee Baldock)
