GE's LED lighting business is renamed Lumination

This is GE's latest move in developing its former GELcore business, following last year's announcement by GE of an investment of $100 million and the formation of a strategic alliance with the Nichia Corporation, the world's largest LED manufacturer and a leader in phosphors and optoelectronics (see GE takes full control of GELcore, teams with Nichia).

GE says that the new name "reflects the fast–growing business unit's vision of imagination with light, and embraces GE's heritage of innovation and optimism for the future." The company has grown more than 30 percent annually since it was founded as a joint venture between GE Lighting and Emcore.

"Our name change emphasizes an important element of our growth strategy," states David Elien, president of Lumination. "Our focus since our inception has been lighting applications that leverage the benefits of LEDs to drive real value for customers."

Elien says that Lumination will continue to deliver LED products for signage, architecture, transportation signals and retail display, while also setting its sights on the emerging general illumination market segment.

Lumination expects to introduce numerous white LED signage, commercial refrigeration, architectural and general illumination solutions in 2007. The company also plans to release a white LED emitter that targets high quality-of-light general illumination applications.

Lumination's LED system expertise and its ability to help customers significantly reduce energy and maintenance costs have contributed to the development of numerous important customer relationships. Leading companies such as Hilton Hotels Corporation and The Home Depot have entrusted Lumination to provide outdoor signage solutions for all new construction work. Entire states such as Kentucky and large metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles have used Lumination solutions to retrofit traffic and pedestrian signals.

"We're going to capitalize on our ability to provide GE "ecomagination" LED solutions for signage, architectural, transportation signals and retail display applications," says Elien. "This will be especially important as we move down the path toward general illumination with viable LED alternatives to incumbent lighting technologies such as fluorescent.

"While the technology shift won't happen over night, Lumination will be at the forefront of the transformation."