A review of solid-state lighting and its impact on the marketing and production of decorative coatings

Abstract

Solid-state lighting in the form of light emitting diode lamps is quickly taking over the world as replacements for existing lower efficiency lamps. The lighting standards, which phased in from 2012 to 2014, do not ban incandescent or any specific lamp type, but they do require that lamps need to use about 25% less energy. The bipartisan Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA 2007) established these efficiency standards. Many commercial lamps meet these new standards, including halogen incandescent filament, CFLs, and LEDs. The new bulbs provide a wide range of choices in color and brightness, and many of them last much longer than traditional lamps. However, the spectral distribution of flux from some of these new lamps do not match or even correspond to the spectral power distribution of traditional office and home lighting. In this review, the impact of the new lamp lights on the design, marketing, and production of modern decorative coatings is assessed. The decorative coatings industry has followed recommended guidelines for many decades, producing color-matches that are acceptable under a series of standard illuminants (D65, CWF, A) which are representative of the lamp lights in most common facilities. The new solid-state lamps do not render object colors in ways similar to the currently adopted standardized illuminants. The primary obstacle to the coatings manufacturer is the lack of standards on how to test color-matches for quality conformance under the new lamp lights. As the energy efficient lighting industry is currently still in a technologically developing phase, it appears that it will be some time before any agreements on the characteristics of modern lamp light will be reached. Therefore, guidance is provided on creating and/or using illuminant data representative of these lamps until official reference illuminants are published.