Hella in a Hundred Years: Glowing "Youth" in Lighting Innovation

As one of the top 100 companies in Germany, the Hella Group has been established for more than 120 years. It is a global company with 70 factories, sales agencies and joint ventures. It currently employs 25,000 people, including more than 3,200 employees. The engineers and technicians are engaged in professional research and development. While paying attention to product quality, we are also committed to pursuing the use of the most optimized production methods to meet market demands, and creating new values ​​for customers by establishing advanced service concepts.

All along, as the world leader in automotive lighting technology, in addition to creating a number of industry first, relying on the superior stability of quality, Hella has become the helm of the automotive lighting market for a hundred years. While creating the world's first legend of lights, it is also constantly looking for new market opportunities.

While the domestic LED market is surging, and a large amount of foreign capital is flooding into the Chinese LED market, the Hella Group has entered the Chinese LED road lighting market in a low profile. What are the advantages of Hella in Germany compared to other LED companies? What is Hella Group's innovation in LED road lighting? How to stand proud and youthful in the industry for a hundred years? ... In recent days, Aladdin Lighting Network has asked Mr. Yang Jinfu, Product Manager of Hella Group, to conduct an exclusive interview with the above series of questions.

Aladdin Lighting Network: In terms of LED applications, why does the Hella Group choose LED road lighting as a breakthrough?

Yang Jinfu: As a LED light source lighting application expert, Hella Group chose LED road lighting as a breakthrough, and more based on market factors and our own technology accumulation. First of all, in the European market, Hella conducted a thorough investigation and analysis of the development trend of the LED market. As early as around 2008, it carried out research and design, production and sales of LED road lighting products, and achieved good market results. Secondly, in the Chinese market, Hella Group fully saw the broad prospects and rapid development of China's LED lighting, so the first product we introduced from Germany entered the LED street lighting products and used this as a breakthrough.

Aladdin Lighting Network: What achievements has Hella made in the manufacture of lighting products? What are the difficulties in overcoming lighting technology?

Yang Jinfu: As a German company with a history of more than 100 years, Hella has spared no effort in pursuing quality. We have consistently adhered to the rigor of the process and manufacturing of this product – even a nearly harsh system for manufacturing automotive lamps. . Especially for Chinese factories, German experts participated in and guided the construction of the factory and the construction of the production line. All production lines were designed in accordance with POKA-YOKE's concept of mistake prevention and error protection, which ensured zero defects in the product. It also ensures that the product has a 100% German quality from the very beginning.

At the same time taking into account the manufacture of lamps and other products, to consider the waterproof, lighting and appearance, and many other inspection requirements, Hella in the production of LED street lamps, draw lessons from the production experience of many automotive lamps, which solves many difficulties.

Aladdin Lighting Network: Hella has many years of global leading experience in automotive lighting technology. How does it help to solve the technical bottlenecks of LED road lighting products? Compared with other LED street lighting companies in the market, what advantages does Hella occupy? What are the inputs in research and development?

Yang Jinfu: The advantage of Hella is firstly to accumulate and innovate automotive lighting technology that has more than one hundred years, and it helps to solve the technical bottlenecks of LED road lighting products, especially for new LED light sources and products. On the level of understanding and understanding. This understanding is different from the characteristics of other manufacturers in the same industry, because Hella's requirements for automotive lighting are very demanding.

For example, for the heat dissipation of LED lamps, we know that heat dissipation is a major problem that restricts the design of LED products. The use of LED road lighting products, the temperature range is generally -30 degrees to 50 degrees, while the automotive lighting requirements are required to meet the harsh conditions of -40 degrees to 80 degrees. This is a great challenge for the thermal design and long life guarantee of the LED. However, Hella did a full-LED headlamp in 2008 and is the only company in the world that can do it. This fully demonstrates Hella's leading experience in LED lighting applications. Of course, these experiences and technical accumulations have played a very direct and helpful role in the design of our LED road lighting products.

Compared with other LED street lighting companies in the same industry, I think Hella’s main advantage is reflected in the accumulation of experience and technology accumulated as a global company with more than one hundred years of experience in lighting.

For investment in research and development, many companies use capital investment as a measure, but I personally think that investment in R&D needs to be reflected in technology and talents more often than not. Funding investment often cannot buy technology and talent. So, from a global perspective, Hella has brought together hundreds of highly experienced senior light engineers for LED lighting products. Of course, these engineers cover optical engineers, electronic engineers, structural engineers, thermal engineers, analytical engineers and processes. Engineers and many other aspects. These senior engineers, together with Shanghai's leading technology accumulation in LED lighting, are our most valuable R&D investment.

Aladdin lighting network: In the high-power LED products, heat dissipation, light distribution, light efficiency, longevity and other issues, Hella is how to solve it?

Yang Jinfu: In the issue of technological innovation, I mentioned some solutions to Hella. I think that these design problems, we still learn more from the advanced technical experience of Hella in the field of LED automotive lighting. For example, the problem of life span, automotive lamps and lanterns are considering the entire vehicle life cycle of 10 years cycle, so the corresponding LED automotive lamps also need to be not less than 10 years of life cycle, which is a very big challenge. For the entire product, heat dissipation design, structural design, and electronic drive design all need to be considered as an overall consideration, not only considering the life span but also the light efficiency in the entire cycle. So, in a nutshell, we need to think about it in the initial stages of design. Only in this way can a really good LED lamp be made.

Aladdin lighting network: Looking back at Hella to enter the LED road lighting in the past few years, what has been done in terms of innovation? What have been impressive innovations?

Yang Jinfu: In the history of lighting innovation in Hella for more than one hundred years, it is the concept of constantly pursuing technological innovation and pursuing excellence in quality. Recalling the past, in the field of automotive lighting, from the world's first automotive lamp history to the world's first halogen lamp, to the world's first HID Xenon headlights, to the world's first LED lights, Hella has always been an innovator and leader of technology. He also made many revolutionary innovations in LED road lighting. For example, the light distribution of Hella LED street light can be achieved by various combinations of optical components and LED modules. As a result, each street lamp in Hella can carry out reasonable light distribution and road lighting according to the specific location of the road.

As another example, in the global context, Hella has taken the lead in applying the hot-plugging hot-plugging technology to the field of street lamps. We know that hot-plugging is more commonly used in computer suites, that is, hot plugging. This technology, after being introduced into LED street lamps, has great advantages in the maintenance and maintenance of the lamps. When the customer performs LED street lamp lighting module replacement or maintenance, workers can easily and safely insert and pull the corresponding LED module without affecting the simultaneous illumination of other LED street lamps on the road. This greatly saves on after-sale maintenance costs and provides customers with ongoing cost savings. In China's current customer feedback, we have received a high rating. These are the direct competitive advantages brought to Haila Streetlight products through technological innovation.

Aladdin lighting network: In the field of LED street lamps, what achievements has Hella achieved? What are the application cases? What praises are received by customers?

Yang Jinfu: Currently, for the LED street lighting products, Hella has been widely used in many cities around the world, including many cities in China. I hereby present a specific case that can better reflect the value of Hella's products. At the beginning of 2011, we replaced the customer's road and dock lighting at a seaport in Shanghai and replaced it with the Case series of Hella LED street lamps. The feedback given by our customers at the time was only that the lighting effect was very good. However, after almost a year of use, the customer unexpectedly gave us more positive feedback, especially reflecting that the LED street lamp product of Hella has very good weatherability. Originally they used some other brands of LED street lights, but due to the seaside, the humid air makes the lighting very corrosive. The new LED street lights often fail after one year. Therefore, many manufacturers do not dare to install. However, after one year of use, Hella’s products did not have any problems and was fully recognized by customers. In fact, we are also more surprised because our products are not designed specifically for the seaside use environment, but they are universal design. However, this also precisely demonstrates our dedication to excellence in the German product concept in different customers. There is full recognition there.

Aladdin Lighting Network: What are the planned new products and new technologies that will come out? How are these technologies currently in the industry?

Yang Jinfu: For LED lighting products, this year, Hella will have many new products and technologies coming out. At the Frankfurt Lighting Fair in April this year, Hella will launch a variety of new products. For Hella, it is currently further enriching its LED lighting product line, including LED outdoor lighting products, LED indoor lighting products, LED industrial lighting products and LED airport lighting.

Among these, LED street lamps are products, in addition to the existing LED street light product series, we will also introduce high-power smart LED street lighting products. In particular, the street lamp has a new application of intelligent communication technology, which is a revolutionary technology application in the entire industry, and it will be a brand new product worth looking forward to.

For LED indoor lighting products and LED industrial lighting products, Hella will have a number of series products. These products have a lot of originality from the optical design to the entire lamp performance, which can fully meet the LED lighting requirements of different places.

Finally, I would also like to focus on the LED airport lighting products of Hella. At present, Hella has developed a full range of LED airport runway lights and taxiway lights. These lights have many high-tech applications, and Hella has applied for a corresponding Technology patents. For example, in addition to ambient temperature -40 degrees to 85 degrees, the lamp also has the function of automatic heating and deicing. From a mechanical point of view, LED-embedded airport lights also need to withstand the weight of the Airbus A380 tires. So in many ways, these product features are representative of high-tech LED applications.

Aladdin lighting network: Some experts believe that in the future, many LED street lamps market will still be dominated by large companies, because large companies are more standardized and more mature technologies. It is relatively difficult for small businesses to compete with them. How do you think about this phenomenon?

Yang Jinfu: In fact, this issue has been discussed in China for a long time. I personally believe that everything will depend on the market and allow the market to follow the natural rules of survival. Because big companies and small businesses all have their own strengths, and their respective strengths are often complementary, as the poet Tagore's verse says: You can't see yourself. All you see is your shadow.

Therefore, large companies often overlook their own deficiencies and overemphasize their own advantages. The Chinese LED street lamp market is like a newborn child, and his strength is the power of growth. I think that in the future, whether large companies or small businesses, they will grow together with the growth of the market. Whether or not they succeed will depend on the development of the company and whether it is consistent with the development of the entire market.

Aladdin's “light” point: The heavy sense of a company’s history will bring heavy shells to development, and it will depend on a kind of enterprising attitude demonstrated by the company’s continuous development. In the development trend of an industry, following the general trend and constantly changing, adapting to the relocation of the big environment, it is possible to use its own advantages to develop new fields and create its own new advantages in a timely manner. Fallen to the ground. One of the most persuasive examples is Kodak’s centuries-long collapse of digital technology. Just as in the lighting industry, with the emergence of new light sources, the dominant companies doing traditional lighting are also faced with the choice to seek transformation in a new field......

In the lighting industry, the Hella Group is also a hundred-year-old giant, from the advent of the world's first car lights to the world's first halogen car light that was born in the 1950s and was born in the 1970s. A gas lamp, until 2008, Hella realized the world's first full LED car headlights, opened the LED into the new era of automotive lighting. With the experience of a hundred years of automotive lighting, the company has successfully explored the field of LED road lighting and entered the Chinese LED road lighting market under the trend of the rise of global LED new light sources. With keen innovation and continuous improvement, the meticulous and meticulous stigma is deeply placed on the shoulders of Hella. This allows Hella, a century-old veteran, to remain young and dynamic after a century, and continues to fight for a new world in the lighting world market. In the continuous breakthrough, continue to write their own brilliant legend.