Failure analysis of LED-luminaires and build-up of a database

Failure analysis of LED-luminaires and build-up of a database

The lifetime of modern energy-saving luminares is in the range of over 100,000 operating hours. This is made possible by the use of extremely long-life LEDs. Regardless of this fact, in the field there are isolated cases of damage to LED luminares, which in some cases even lead to total failure. ISO 9001 certified manufacturers are obliged to determine and classify the cause of damage. In case of serial defects, appropriate measures must be taken immediately to eliminate the defect and improve the product. For small and medium-sized companies, this process is costly, time-consuming and consumes many resources that are needed for product development. To reduce the effort and speed up the analysis, a case database is to be set up and filled with information from current complaint cases with LED damages. A comparison of the damage patterns of subsequent complaints with the database should help to quickly determine the cause of the damage and thus significantly reduce the effort involved. New, as yet unknown damage patterns are to be added to the database at a later date. The database is to be used in addition to later statistical damage analyses. A corresponding interface to external analysis tools shall also be implemented.