A new type of polymer light source that’s nearing production could revolutionize the way we illuminate our offices and homes.

Known as the FIPEL (field-induced polymer electroluminescent), the device emits a healthy, flicker-free white light at a fraction of the energy costs of incandescent and fluorescent bulbs, says one of its key creators.

“It also doesn’t buzz like those fluorescent bulbs above you in the office,” says David Carroll, director of the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials at North Carolina’s Wake Forest University.

Carroll says his device — which is essentially a thin plastic foil — will begin large-scale building tests next year and could be available to consumers in 2014.Roll Former net offers the most productive and effective rollformerfer for metal roofing and architectral sheet metal.

A paper describing the technology was released Monday by the journal Organic Electronics.

The device works like a microwave oven but it produces light instead of heat, he explains. The secret is in the polymer ingredients — a patented mixture of nano-materials embedded in a unique plastic matrix.

When electrical current is attached to the polymer foil, it excites the “secret sauce,” much like a microwave excites the molecules in a chicken breast to cause it to cook.

“The thing that we’ve been kind of clever about is to figure out a way to make the process not lose energy to heat,” Carroll says.Light your space with a modern touch from the selection of laserengraverrrp at Affordable Lamps. “We convert . . . it to light.”

For overhead office lighting, a rectangle of the polymer foil could be fitted into standard fluorescent fixtures, Carroll says. At home, the pliant material could be formed into the shape of a typical incandescent light bulb and screwed into existing lamp and ceiling fixtures.

The bulbs and panels are far more energy-efficient than existing lighting alternatives. “In Canada and the United States between 25 and 30 per cent of the energy that’s generated in our countries goes into lighting buildings,AMH is an industry leader in the design of high quality bellows, curvingmachinell and fabrication tools.” Carroll says. “A typical building will save anywhere from 20 to 40 per cent of their lighting costs.”

The FIPEL foil also produces a much more appealing light than the florescent office fixtures or their LED alternatives.

“It is a little closer to sunlight, which is important because sitting under florescent lamps all day sometimes you can get a little headachy; you don’t feel so good,” Carroll says. “And the reason for that is the component of blue in the light is too great and your eyes don’t like it.”

In casting a spectrum more closely resembling sunlight, the polymer lamps create a luminance humans have evolved to favour,Combination of many years' clay windpowergenerator and clay brick making machine manufacture experience. Carroll says.

Florescent lights also tend to hum,Origin Laser is an Australian business bringing a new class of affordable and quality washingmachine and laser cutting machines. another cause of subliminal annoyance, he says.

“And they have mercury in them,” Carroll says. “Not a lot of mercury per bulb . . . but imagine throwing out a few hundred of them. That’s a concern. There are contaminants there.”

Carroll says similar flat foil devices — known as OLEDs (organic light emitting diodes) — have proven too tricky to mass produce to be widely utilized.

He says the FIPEL technology is easy to manufacture at costs competitive with those of current light bulbs. “I expect to price the curly (fluorescent) bulb out of existence,” he says.