The three generations of mainstream lighting products still in use at present: incandescent lamps, energy-saving lamps (fluorescent lamps), and LED lamps, almost all of which dominate the international market.
As early as 2007, the output of incandescent lamps produced in China reached more than 4 billion, of which about 3 billion were for export, accounting for about 40% of the world market. After the emergence of energy-saving lamps, China also occupies more than 70% of the global market share and is a well-deserved leader.
Three generations of mainstream lighting products
And when LED lights have gradually developed and become more and more mainstream lighting products, China still has not stopped: In 2010, China’s LED lighting only occupied 1% of the market, and today, ten years later, with China’s semiconductor lighting With the rapid development of the industry, China's LED lights have occupied nearly 30% of the world market.
2016∽China's LED lamp output and export volume in 2019
Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say that China is the leader of the world's lighting industry. The "light" from China is lighting up the dark night of the entire world.
What kind of lights are the lights that light up the world?
Speaking of lamps, the first story that comes to mind is probably Edison invented the electric light bulb, which was the earliest incandescent lamp. However, due to low efficiency, short life, and high energy consumption, incandescent lamps have almost been eliminated today. Replaced by fluorescent lamps. After continuous optimization, the energy consumption of fluorescent lamps has been continuously reduced. In the end, fluorescent lamps with extremely low energy consumption are energy-saving lamps.
Energy-saving lamps mainly rely on fluorescent substances coated on the tube wall to emit light. There are electronic ballasts and filaments coated with electronic powder at both ends of the energy-saving lamp, and the lamp tube is filled with argon gas and mercury vapor. When energized, the filament heats up, and the electron powder on it emits electrons, and the electrons collide with argon atoms, transferring energy to it.
The argon atoms gaining energy are also insecure, and hit the mercury atoms again, causing the mercury atoms to ionize and emit ultraviolet rays. These ultraviolet rays illuminate the fluorescent material on the wall of the lamp tube, and the fluorescent material emits light that we can see.
Energy-saving lamp principle
Compared with incandescent lamps, the working temperature of energy-saving lamps is much lower, which makes the life of energy-saving lamps more than 4 times that of incandescent lamps on average, and the energy consumption is much lower. To achieve the same lighting effect, the power of energy-saving lamps is required. Only about 1/4 of incandescent lamps.
However, as described above, energy-saving lamps contain mercury, and this heavy metal element has a great destructive effect on the environment. If mercury enters the human body, it will cause serious poisoning accidents. Therefore, LED lamps are gradually replacing energy-saving lamps and become a new generation of mainstream lighting devices.
Colorful light-emitting diodes
The full name of LED is a light-emitting diode, which is a kind of semiconductor device. The core of the LED lamp is an LED chip. This chip is mainly divided into two parts. One half is called the P zone, which has fewer free electrons and more electron-releasing positions (holes), and the other half is called the N zone, which has more free electrons.
When the two ends of the chip are energized, the electrons in the N area will move to the P area and meet the holes, and the two will recombine and emit photons. Different semiconductor materials can be made into light-emitting diodes of different colors to meet various needs of people.
Why can China's lighting industry light up the world?
First of all, the state's attention and support account for a big factor. Speaking of energy-saving lamps, Philips in the Netherlands invented energy-saving lamps in 1978, and China, as a major energy-consuming country, focused on this technology. After the introduction of energy-saving lamps to China in the 1980s, a group of state-supported enterprises stepped up research on the production process and key technologies of energy-saving lamps, breaking through a series of technical problems including high-power electronic ballasts and tube bending. , Realizing the mass production of various energy-saving lamps. Since then, the state has even given a 50% subsidy policy for replacing energy-saving lamps, quickly allowing the energy-saving lamp industry to develop and grow.
As for LED lighting technology, as early as 2003, the state started the "semiconductor lighting project", and then introduced a series of subsidy policies, and included multiple LED projects in the 863 plan, truly positioning it as a national priority High-tech project. In recent years, as the country attaches importance to the semiconductor industry and chip research, semiconductor lighting, that is, LED lighting technology, has once again received tax-exempt subsidies. It is the support of the country that has allowed the light of China to shine in all countries in the world.
National High-Tech Research and Development Program (863 Program)
In addition, China's unique advantages have also allowed the lighting industry to flourish. For energy-saving lamps, the phosphor is an indispensable material, and the main component of phosphor, rare earth elements, has huge reserves in China, far higher than any other country. Various semiconductor materials for making LED chips are also abundant in China. In addition, compared with Europe and the United States, China has richer human resources, and lamps with different shapes need to be produced semi-automatically, which requires a certain amount of labor costs. China's unique advantages make it stand out in the lighting manufacturing industry.
