Electroluminescent Coating Has Some Serious Untapped Potential

"Everything can be a lamp with LumiLor," writes Darskide Scientific, the company that developed it. LumiLor is a patented coating that glows when a current is applied to it. (And yes, it's safe to touch, as it's sealed and insulated.) The brilliance of the system is that since it's water-based, you can load it up into any paintspraying system or airbrush and you're off to the races. Here's how the process is applied:

While the first target market for the relatively new product was bikers...

...it seems obvious that once furniture designers, environments designers, interior designers and architects learn about the product, we'll start to see some truly revolutionary objects and spaces being created. "Imagine taking any object of any shape, contour or substrate," the company says, "and having it emit light specifically where you paint it, without changing its form or function."

Since the stuff can be applied to metal, wood, plastic, glass and even flexible vinyl sheets, I'm sure the furniture and lighting designers among you already have the gears turning. But let's look at some examples of a potential application by peeping these concept images for the movie Tron: Legacy:

As it stands LumiLor requires application by a trained pro, but I imagine as the material proliferates, more and more people will sign up for the training.

Learn More Here: LumiLor Link

Being an architect, I'm already being asked about this product and its introduction into modern office designs.
I have made a call to the supplier and they are sending samples and specification materials to my office soon, hopefully after a seminar by their staff I will have a better understanding of the problems associated with field use of this revolutionary lighting type system.
I think it looks awesome and there are many more colors to come, there could be thousands of practical uses in our world in many different mediums.
More information as it comes on this one. . .

Hope you like, AB

Amazing!

Tron - come on!

Fake.

I already see an issue with this I will have to ask them when they come.

Look at the guy in the cars helmet vs. the car itself, much brighter. Since I believe the paint acts as a circuit, the farther away from the electrical source, the less efficient the illumination or something like that. . .

a reply to: Psynic

So Antebellum is receiving fake samples then?

Well, okay then.

a reply to: Junkheap

. . . from a fake company, with a fake patent, that went to a fake demonstration at Sturgis, using fake motorcycles driven by fake bikers and now is sending me a fake quotation.

I'd list their fake phone number but a mod would [snip] it, Psynic go and call them and speak to the fake representatives. It's listed in the fake links I provided.

From the same people who brought you this:

www.snopes.com...

The helmet is def glowing but it looks to be a lighter color. Perhaps a white. Or likely, it has it's own power source.

Very interested in this though. Please share what you can after you speak with them. Thanks for posting.


a reply to: AnteBellum

a reply to: Psynic

I think your confusing 'flip-flop' paint with this one.
I assure you it's a real company which 10 seconds of your time could verify. I did forget to add the original link though: Link to original story

I'm a little concerned there may be other, hidden properties plausible here, with a "paramagnetic" quality…
I wonder what the ferrous oxide content is:

Pigment quality Fe3O4, so called synthetic magnetite, can be prepared using processes that utilise industrial wastes, scrap iron or solutions containing iron salts (e.g. those produced as by-products in industrial processes such as the acid vat treatment (pickling) of steel):

In other words, I wonder what other potentials this may have, undescribed here, as it may essentiallly be magnetite. And I'm wary of applying electricity, after this.
tetra

a reply to: tetra50

Can you go into more detail please about the chemical composition and it's effects. I'll have better questions to hit them with once I speak to their representative directly.
Looks like this is only going to be cosmetic for the charge degrades the paint in time. I won't allow that for architectural elements in the office I'm doing for it will be costly to maintain.
There just isn't enough time tested info at the moment, as a designer it will only be a novelty to use until they work out all the bugs. This is one of those cases that I can't push it at the present time, unless the client really wants it.

Ok - I'm sold. I have something I could immediately do with this. It's stupid, but people would pay for it.

(rubs hands together, cackles)

originally posted by: AnteBellum
Looks like this is only going to be cosmetic for the charge degrades the paint in time. I won't allow that for architectural elements in the office I'm doing for it will be costly to maintain.

You bet. EL coatings degrade with use, with UV, with humidity and with time. In a few years they stop working altogether. But for what I'm thinking of, it won't matter a lot. It would be great for novelty items, or something that will only be in use for a year or two before being replaced.

a reply to: Bedlam

That's exactly what I'm thinking also.

I can see this becoming a standard soon from streets, signs, accent lighting, cosmetic pieces, police/fire identification, gadgets, too many to list.
Being able to switch it on and off is a big plus too. Add solar connections with power cells and you have a stand alone system.
I can imagine a world with this in it everywhere once the cost barrier breaks.

originally posted by: AnteBellum
a reply to: tetra50

Looks like this is only going to be cosmetic for the charge degrades the paint in time.

Oh yeah.

That makes sense.

a reply to: Psynic

I'd like to know what is it about this that seems to have put a thorn in your. . .

You've given no pertinent information as to your allegations and just keep ranting off one line answers like we are supposed to know what you are talking about. This is a new product and if you actually took the time to read/watch/contact them you would learn the benefits and drawbacks it has at the moment, being in what I consider a 'beta' stage of development right now.
It's a great idea, has unlimited potential and these creators will be multi-millionaires before 30 if they get the bugs worked out before a large conglomerate steals the idea. Anyone in the architectural/industrial/advertisement/automobile/infrastructural industry can plainly see where this one product will make existing products better and then create new products from those. Personally IMO, if it gets cheap enough, you will see this on product packaging as well.

So when it comes to this you will soon be a reluctant participant yet again.

If associated with a device that is semi-permeable to glucose, you could have a tattoo that lights up according to how much insulin you need.
Or a tattoo that lights up if you are about to experience a seizure.
Or a tattoo that lights up when you are really angry with someone but are too polite to express to him to shut up.
The medical applications are endless.