At the forefront in the field of energy efficiency: Environment minister Tanja Gönner awarded the 1st prize of the Baden-Württemberg environmental technology award in the category “energy efficiency” to CeramTec, headquartered Plochingen. The award was presented for the fully ceramic CeramCool® LED Spot at a ceremony on June 24th, at Römerkastell in Stuttgart. “Our winner, the CeramCool® LED Spot, is a further symbol of the environmental friendliness and innovative strength of CeramTec. We are proud of this honor, “said Rolf-Michael Müller, head of finance at the company. The award places CeramTec together with such companies as Daimler AG, Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG and Festo AG, which were awarded in other categories.

“In some cases the decisions between the competing products were quite close,” explained Ms. Gönner. “The level of the entries was high right across the board.” CeramTec was able to beat out 57 other entries in the category “energy efficiency”, which had the most entries of any category. The main reasons for CeramTec winning the award are the approximately 90 percent energy savings and reduced waste thanks to the tenfold increase in service life achieved by the CeramCool® LED Spot relative to conventional halogen lamps.

Light-emitting diodes, or LEDs for short, are becoming more and more popular in lighting applications such as vehicle lighting and as a replacement for household light bulbs. However, high-performance LEDs that are used in these applications are subject to high temperatures, which can cause damage to the LEDs themselves. A remedy for this up to now has been to use metal heat sinks. Conventional systems use several layers and materials to ensure mechanical contact, electrical insulation and heat transfer from the LED to the heat sink. But each layer also represents a barrier to heat dissipation, so that at the hot-spot the chip heats up to as much as 160°C.

The temperature management system reduces the temperature in the CeramTec 4W CeramCool®-LED-Spot to a maximum of 60°C. The secret lies in the high-performance ceramic material, which offers electrical insulation and good thermal conductivity. This means the chip can be mounted directly on the heat sink without intermediate layers and the resulting heat can be directly conducted away. This increases the service life and optical power in comparison with conventional LED systems. High-performance ceramic is an environmentally friendly material, one in which technology, environment and economics are combined in an innovative product — something entirely within the spirit of the environmental technology award.

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