LED Industry News: Seren, Phoseon, Fernplas

Seren Photonics has completed its first funding round, Phoseon Technology is expanding its headquarters in Hillsboro, Oregon, and Fernplas has invested in injection-molding capabilities.

Seren Photonics raises ?475k in funding

UK-based start-up Seren Photonics Ltd has completed its first round of funding, which will enable the company to build its first pilot-scale HB-LEDs. Seren's funding round raised a total of GBP475,000 from a number of investors, including Fusion IP AIM: FIP the university IP commercialization company, and IP Group.

Seren intends to exploit an LED processing technique developed by Tao Wang from the University of Sheffield, UK. The funding will be used to purchase capital equipment and complete several pilot-scale manufacturing cycles involving Seren's manufacturing processes. The packaged HB-LEDs will be used as demonstration products to showcase the technology to larger HB LED manufacturers. Seren has already started discussions with three Far East based manufacturers.

Phoseon expands in Hillsboro

Phoseon Technology has announced a significant expansion of its headquarters in Hillsboro, Oregon, boosting its manufacturing capacity by about 50 percent. The company's growth is driven by accelerated demand in the United States and overseas for its ultraviolet LED technology, which is used to dry and cure products for a variety of industries ranging from printing to wood finishing to medical device manufacturing.

Phoseon's proprietary UV curing technology allows for accelerated production speeds, lower production costs and reduced energy usage when compared to previous curing methods using heat for drying or solvent evaporation.

Fernplas change name, invests in injection-molding capabilities

Following its takeover by the Fern-Howard group earlier this year, UK company Scottlamp Ltd has changed its name to Fernplas Plastic Engineering and invested in its injection-molding facility in Alton, Hampshire, UK. The company has been supplying the lighting market with front covers and plastic cases for over 18 years.

Fernplas is now able to offer a Formed-In-Place-Foam-Gasket using the Sonderhoff process. Using this process the company is able to robotically place a polyurethane seal that attaches to the base unit, hence making it a fixed gasket. The process can be complementary to plastic parts that Fernplas has molded, or as a sub-contract service to parts in plastic, metal or other materials.