Christoph Petersen (Head of Design) about the genesis of OMLED One.
During our 20 years of dealing with the subject of light and the development of tailor-made lighting solutions for major international projects, we have always dealt with innovative technologies. So we started very early on researching the topic of OLED and followed developments in this area closely.
What fascinated us about this future technology is the possibility of producing homogeneous, even light from a wafer-thin layer with little energy expenditure. This creates new possibilities in working with light. With this technology, light could be used as a material and completely new applications were suddenly conceivable.
With this technology, light could be used as a material and completely new applications were suddenly conceivable.
Discussions took place with the leading OLED developers at the Fraunhofer Institute in Dresden, among the companies Novaled, Philips and Osram. Again and again we were asked as creative "lighting people" for the "killer application" for the new light technology, with which it succeeds to develop the largest possible market.
However, the results from the research laboratories after the first 10 years of intensive development work, have been more suitable for purely decorative applications or elaborate and costly installations, since the luminosity of the OLEDs was not yet sufficient.
When Dr. Dietrich Bertram from Philips presented the latest OLED generation in Aachen in summer 2013 to us, we were immediately impressed by the new, natural light and started with the development of the world's first OLED lighting family for general lighting.
First of all, we asked ourselves how do we create a wide range of applications with the least possible effort, so that it is possible to equip a complete living area with this unique light?
We had to think in system.
One of the main advantages of the OLED is that you do not need lenses or diffusers to direct or scatter the light. Heatsinks for heat dissipation are also superfluous, since the OLED produces virtually no heat. In other words, the OLED module, with its glare-free, soft and warm light, would be a finished luminaire if it could be made manageable for the user.
During the conception phase, we searched for a suitable material to support the OLED modules, the natural light and to give the family a contemporary look and value.
It quickly became apparent that glass, with its wonderful and versatile properties, was the perfect material for our project.
