Starlim concept puts a new twist on lighting with LSR

Marchtrenk, Austria-based injection molder Starlim Spritzguss GmbH has unveiled a highly flexible innovative lighting concept made from liquid silicone rubber that provides precise and diffuse illumination.

Roland Pirsic, vice president of business development and project development, presented the concept at the biannual silicone elastomers conference organized by SKZ Süddeutsches Kunststoffzentrum in Würzburg, Germany.

The flexible LED-illuminated light panel is designed with translucent LSR. This provides homogenous white and diffused LED light over a large surface, including when it is curved or twisted, with various possible degrees of flexibility, depending on the Shore A hardness of the chosen LSR.

The panel can take the form of different surface structures, whether as design features or to raise wear resistance, Pirsic said. Surface activation can used as preparation for further process stages, he added.

After demonstrating flexibility of the "Flexilight" prototype, the highlight of Pirsic's presentation, causing both amusement and amazement among conference participants, was when he picked up a hammer and struck the LSR panel several times.

This was a convincing demonstration of the robustness of the new approach, as the panel remained not only physically intact, but also fully illuminated.

Pirsic said that when the panel does finally fail, there is no way it is going to break into splinters, as would be the case with less resilient materials like glass or thermoplastics.

Beyond the SKZ conference, Pirsic was recently featured as the inventor of an October patent submitted by Audi AG for vehicle interior illumination integrated into door, seat and roof lining lighting systems. The application includes silicone for the optical light guide.