Luminaires

The use of LEDs has led to a paradigm shift in lighting technology and the lighting industry. Long service life, a wide variety of lamp designs and new areas of application are placing higher demands on product development and on measurement and testing technology.

During the development of LED luminaires, the most important requirements for testing technology are service life testing and heating and safety tests complying to EN 60 598-1. The tests ensure, among other things, that a luminaire does not overheat even in the event of a fault and that it doesn’t become a fire hazard.

Trends in measurement and testing technology

• LED units not fully standardised. A diverse range of forms and special designs require testing. Safety and durability tests of LED power supplies and LED modules also require measurement equipment to have full galvanic isolation and to provide input and output measurement of AC and DC values.
  
  
• New areas of application for LED technology result in highly varying requirements from testing equipment. The available test equipment has considerably expanded ranging from a basic setup with a temperature data logger through to a luminaire testing device with fully automated measurement and evaluation technology.

Automated testing with new functions

• New functions for luminaire testing devices. Hardware and software updates keep testing technology up to date with regular implementation of new functions. A software update can then enable test results to be automatically inserted into your own standardised Word/Office-based reports.
  
  
• Full connectivity. Testing under predefined temperatures in an air-conditioned environment is supported by test samples being prepared and evaluated separately and managed via a network. Data is accessible from a central database and results can be recorded there.

High-quality measurement and testing technology for luminaires

• Example of thermal testing complying to EN 60 598-1: Measurement and evaluation technology in luminaire test devices automatically performs all the test requirements specified in the standard. This includes cold measurement of winding resistances, the warm-up phase and final testing of electrical parameters. The test system automatically recognises when the test object has reached a "steady-state". Temperatures are then automatically normalised and converted to 25 degrees Celsius. In addition to normal operation, testing also includes reduced and increased nominal voltages. Testing can also be performed in anomalous mode when, for example, a ballast is defective. The individual test phases are carried out automatically and a test report is created.
  
  
• Example of service testing: The service life of a lamp depends on a number of factors such as the design of the luminaire and conditions during operation. In LEDs, the increased luminance and power density in the smallest of spaces leads to greater heating so detailed measurement of heat development is particularly important in service life testing. Since the thermocouples are also attached to live components, all measuring channels are galvanically isolated to protect the measurement equipment. In automated testing, the AC and DC input and output variables are also measured.