720678Innovative Large Area Printer for LED Lighting Applications Proposed by Reprint LtdClosedGRD Development of PrototypeInnovate UKLight-emitting diode (LED) technology is affecting every part of the commercial and industrial lighting industry. With global shipments of LED lighting products increasing substantially over the coming years, the replacement lamp sector, large LED displays and the dedicated luminaries markets are those that are expected to grow the most rapidly. Florescent tubes up to 1.8m in length account for a substantial part of the replacement lamp market. Couple this with the demand for larger roadside and advertising displays and other merging luminary markets, replacing these with LED equivalents will provide considerable savings in global energy consumption and thereby produce significant falls in greenhouse gases. An essential component of new or replacement LED t lighting system is a printed circuit board (PCB). Producing PCBs up 1.8m long can be achieved by using readily available small board printers and mechanically joining boards together to achieve the required size, or by using large board printers which are predominantly manually operated. Both processes are slow and inefficient requiring significant manual labour. Consequently most existing high volume LED board production is done in the Far East. However, automating the production process of the large PCBs would allow Europe and the USA to compete and to re-shore a proportion of world LED production. Additional benefits of local manufacturing include a reduction in shipping distances with a consequential cut in fossil fuel usage and also an increase in local job prospects.