Matsushita to Release 10,000-Hour Long-Life Fluorescent Bulb

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., a major manufacturer of electronic products in Japan, will launch the "Palook Ball Premier," Japan's longest life energy-saving fluorescent light bulb in October 2006. This light bulb has a product lifespan of about 10,000 hours, ten times longer than the company's incandescent silica bulb Type 60 (54 watt), and consumes only 20 percent of the power needed by the silica bulb.

To achieve a longer life, the company has introduced a newly developed quadruple coil to expand the product's coil surface, and increased the number of coats of emissive material, which had a decisive effect on product cycles. When compared with conventional fluorescent light bulbs, the new product's thinner and longer arc tube contributes to reducing power consumption from 12 Watts to 10 Watts with the same brightness and body size.

Amid increasing demand for electrodeless fluorescent lamps in Japan, the company estimates the domestic demand in fiscal 2006 to be 23 million bulbs, up by 106 percent from the previous year. The new products are expected to be priced slightly higher than the conventional bulbs (about 1,000 yen or 8.7 U.S. dollars), although the actual market price remains uncertain.

http://panasonic.net/

Posted: 2006/10/20 03:30:02 PM
Japanese version