Horticulture is a growth market that will become even more important in the coming years.
Special lighting systems for indoor farming and vertical farming are therefore increasingly in demand. We are not only highly committed to this area of application, but a capable partner that can supply luminaire manufacturers with the right components, well-designed system solutions and particularly long system guarantees.
High energy costs, the latest technological developments and recent scientific findings on plant growth are not leaving the horticulture sector unaffected. In many places, new greenhouses have to be built and, above all, existing indoor lighting systems have to be brought up to the latest state of the art – for example, to meet specific requirements, to be able to grow plants more efficiently and faster, and to save electricity costs and CO2. This presents specialized luminaire manufacturers with challenging, but also lucrative tasks. We support them in finding the right solutions – with high-quality components and customized LED systems, but also with expert advice, rapid development work and long-term system guarantees on the combination of our LED drivers and LED modules. Read on and discover four of the most important growth drivers when working with us!
Anyone who wants to keep up with the competition in today’s emerging horticulture market needs not only comprehensive know-how about the cultivation and care of crops in indoor farming, but also the right lighting technology. In this context, it’s good to be able to rely on partners who know exactly what’s important. Here are four of the most crucial growth drivers that you can benefit from when you partner with us to create horticulture lighting systems:
- The right hardware and software for special lighting tasks: Reliable LED technology with the special properties to last in the demanding horticulture environment. We offer robust, durable and low-maintenance LED modules and precisely programmable LED drivers for indoor and vertical farming. Thanks to their versatile application possibilities (including the possibility to interface with different wired and wireless control systems to control the light intensities and spectra), they can be used specifically to promote optimum growth and to produce healthy, nutrient-rich plants – and to operate more efficiently than ever before! It is also very important that our LED modules can maintain particularly relevant parameters, such as a stable light spectrum, practically over the entire product life. Today, we can adjust the amount of light to current needs at any time with our LED drivers, while the LED modules have a fixed spectrum. For tomorrow, we are working on modules where the light spectrum can also be flexibly controlled via the LED drivers. For example, systems that can work with more bluish light at the beginning and more reddish light at the end of the growth phase and thus reflect the latest state of agricultural science.
- Rapid customization: The best results are achieved with precisely thought-out solutions. Of course, this also applies to the field of horticultural lighting. Here, we benefit from our special ability to develop customized systems very quickly, flexibly and in line with requirements. We have a very broad portfolio of products (e. g. PlantaSeed Horticulture based on High Power LEDs and 5050 packages, linear modules and even Flex modules), which we can adapt in a very short time to the wishes of customers, the needs of specific plants and, of course, to the form factors of existing horticulture luminaires. This also and especially applies to the existing and standard white light solutions without additional functions that are still used in many places. And all this without having to intervene in existing luminaire setups – so you have the greatest possible flexibility in luminaire design! In doing so, we do not act as a competitor to the luminaire manufacturers, but draw on our own inventory of LED modules and drivers, which our customers can use as a platform to create, adapt and further develop their own tailor-made horticulture applications.
- Having a strong partner at your side is always an advantage: We are such a partner. We have very good contacts worldwide with leading LED manufacturers and other high-tech suppliers who provide us with the high-quality materials needed in the horticulture sector. We relieve you of the time-consuming development work that you would need to create your own systems. Another major area in which we can support you with our expertise and products is the upgrade of general lighting industry luminaires into solutions for horticulture, using the same platform, but adapted for the needed spectrum. And, of course, we will be happy to provide you with advice and support at any time during the further course of the project. This way, you can get the maximum efficiency, service life and yield out of your horticulture lighting system.
- Long-term system guarantees: Long guarantee periods of 3 to 8 years are already available for individual LED drivers and LED modules from us, even if you combine them with components from third-party suppliers. When using combined systems of our LED drivers and LED modules, the guarantee periods can even be significantly extended: We provide a system guarantee of up to 10 years on each component. Detailed warranty conditions can be found at: www.osram.com/system-guarantee. This gives you and your customers the security of working with a low-maintenance, high-performance and energy-efficient LED lighting system. A system that reliably does what it’s supposed to do: optimally supply plants with the right kind of light, so that indoor farmers can offer healthy, tasty products that are easy to market!
A whole range of different product families are suitable for use in modern indoor greenhouses or in vertical or even container farming, such as:
- Our extended 230 V constant-current LED driver families for outdoor applications, e.g. with OPTOTRONIC 4DIM, ICUTRONIC DALI E / P7 or OPTOTRONIC DEXAL and LINEAR drivers: Depending on specific tasks and requirement profiles, they offer different ingress protection ratings, e.g. IP20 or IP67, and a wide range of output powers from 20 W to 240 W, depending on the product family. Via these LED drivers, the connected LED modules can be dimmed and controlled precisely and systematically, which makes them ideal for use in the horticulture sector. That way, every plant always gets exactly the right type and dose of light that it needs to grow optimally.
- Under the name PlantaSeed Horticulture, we offer a wide range of LED modules that can be quickly and precisely adapted to achieve the perfect result for integration into your customers’ luminaires. We use our existing LED module families as a reliable and versatile platform to provide you with exactly the right lighting solutions for a wide range of horticulture tasks. For example, the following product lines can be adapted to the special requirement profiles in this area: PrevaLED BRICK and PrevaLED BAR LED modules, PrevaLED AREA LED panels and LINEARlight FLEX LED strips, as well as our BackLED and BoxLED modules originally developed for the signage sector.
