110 labs in world’s largest interlaboratory comparison of LED test labs – improving testing competency to support market transformation

摘要

Light Emitting Diode (LED) technology has been gaining significant market share in general illumination applications around the world, but reliable measurement of the performance of LED lamps and luminaires has been challenging. Furthermore, the lack of a global accreditation scheme has driven up costs of getting LED products tested. The IEA 4E SSL Annex therefore initiated a programme starting in 2011 looking to support a global laboratory accreditation scheme. The problems were the lack of an international test method and the difficulty in proficiency testing. To assist accreditation bodies to establish testing accreditation programs for LED lighting products, the 2013 Interlaboratory Comparison (IC 2013) was developed and conducted. IC 2013 was designed to serve as proficiency testing by complying with ISO/IEC 17043, covering several test methods used in different regions, thus serving many regions of the world. IC 2013 brought together and compared test results of 110 laboratories around the world on their ability to measure photometric, colorimetric, and electrical quantities. The sample of products took into account the most important products in the different regional markets, but all test samples included integrated LED lamps and LED luminaires. While most laboratories were within the expected levels of agreement, a few extreme outliers were observed which suggests problems meeting the test method requirements. Identification of these large deviations for a few laboratories demonstrates the importance of proficiency testing. Overall, this large-scale interlaboratory comparison clarified the level of agreement in measurement results for these products, and will help governments and manufacturers around the world to learn the uncertainties of the measurements of LED lighting products and ensure that new LED products sold to consumers and companies are of high quality and meet the claimed performance.