Luxeons Are NOT Made In The USA...

...at least that's what I gather from the outside labels of boxes of them which I've been receiving, still sealed from Lumileds.

What inspired me to start this thread was another thread about developmental lighting in third world countries and how Lumileds was possibly donating thousands of Luxeons. And from what I can see so far, our beloved Luxeons are MADE IN MALAYSIA!!!

So I'm thinking we should ask some of our international CPF members to check around if they live in Singapore, etc., as it might be a way of getting them directly from the Malaysian factory, at possibly much lower prices, unless Lumileds has them in a binding legal arrangement some way.

And even something like that has never stopped the flood of production overruns and outright counterfeits of name brand items from reaching our shores...if true, it's no wonder QC can be so dismal at times.

Thoughts and opinions, anybody?

hrmm....that's interesting. do you have any more details? i'll try asking around

well anyway try not to get too upset...it might just be lumileds outsourcing the production to malaysia, albeit with US QC standards.

I wonder if US corps.are going to make led like these? maybe G.E. or others.It would be nice to have more compitition so the price would come down.You know, like light bulbs.
David

Damn, I live right next door and as far as I know, the only way to get them is to order from Future in the states.

I think I read somewhere that Lumileds does have facilites or something in Malaysia. So no real big surprise then to me.

nihraguk, I think I can save you the trouble and safely say I've never seen them sold locally in any shops. To top it off, the local Future Active office A) only does bulk sales to big clients, and B) didn't even have any record of LS part #s.

Well.....
I think it is not news in some other area like semiconductor. The AMD CPU is made in malaysia too. But I don't think AMD will make their IC chip outside U.S.. The package and testing process are manpower needed and somewhat low-end comparing with making chip.

The CMG Reactor is made in Taiwan. Does anyone know further information? Maybe I can find lower price reactor even Luxeons from the factory.

Legend LX is made in Macau but I have to purchase it from the States:-(((

Alan

What???!!! Hey all you international guys, you can't just follow the "rules". Like if you go to the gate and the security guard says, "no entry", you don't just go home! At the end of the day you go to the rear exit, make friends with one of the people coming off work, etc., next thing you know he's buying a few LS's (or LX's or AMD's) at his employee price and selling them to you, then a few hundred, then a few thousand, etc., etc., etc!!! Or do the same at the local Future shop -- the real key to success in the business world is informal contacts!

Why do you think the Japanese go out drinking all night with their clients?

And whenever I want some information to be spread around at work, instead of a memo (the official way which nobody reads) I simply exaggerate the message a little and casually drop it in someone's ear. Next thing you know everyone's talking about it, and now that I finally have everybody's attention, I do "rumor control" to get the real information out.

Again, Wait at the gate in the afternoon!

Originally posted by MR Bulk:
Why do you think the Japanese go out drinking all night with their clients?

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Just a guess, but maybe to get alcohol on the brain, and try to forget the fact that they have a low value on their currency? They do this up here in Canada (local joke that our $1 coin is an American quarter)

Mr Bulk is right about informal contacts - but it can alot easier than that. If the security guard at the front gate says no, slip him say 50 ringgit - probably a week's wage to him and equivalent in value to $US10 and you're in.

Bribery gets you anywhere in Malaysia. Good for traffic offences, etc too.

Originally posted by Tsao:
The package and testing process are manpower needed and somewhat low-end comparing with making chip.

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">When I worked for National Semiconductor we made the chips in the USA and sent them to Asia for injection-molding, wire-bonding, and package printing. The final packaged devices were then stamped with the Asian country of "origin". It was impossible for an end user to figure out where the semconductor was processed.---Marc

Originally posted by MR Bulk:
the real key to success in the business world is informal contacts!

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Informal contacts is our formal business

Alan

Mr.Bulk
I will learn the lesson well.

Ok....
Is this gate worth to wait for it open? ( 15/Nov) It is 22CD LED @150mA white color (7000K), view angle 10 degree. around $4/EA still don't know how much LED I can get yet.
Any comment?

Lucien:
thanks for the info....but does anyone know where the factory is exactly? next thing we may find out surefires are actually made in thailand or something

22CD??? Does that stand for "22 candela"? If not, how would this compare to a Luxeon?

Yes, "22 candela" according the data they gave me.
No Mr. Bulk, it couldn't compare with the Luxeon(this one 150mA; Luxeon 500mA). I think it could be another cool toy between Luxeon and single Nichia.

If it is really 22Cd but only a 10 degree beam angle, then this LED is producing less output than a standard Nichia. Now, if the beam angle were larger, this would be a different story.

In fact, the 150mA sounds suspiciously like the Lumileds 'SnapLED' packaging, so I would _love_ to see more information.

-Jon

Guys, AFAIK (and I'm pretty sure), the Lumileds factory is in Penang, Malaysia. I was working in a semiconductor trading company for 3 years and my ex-boss told me this. He's been trying to help me get luxeons both direct AND thru the "back door" for months now, but to no avail. I'm sure some policy is in play here and that these things cannot be obtained without first "getting stamped" by Lumileds USA. Either that, or they're all already spoken for.

Apparently, HP/Agilent have production facilities in Penang too. Most, if not all of Dell Computer's AsiaPac sales are manufactured and shipped out of Penang too. All this shouldn't be a surprise though: Solectron, which is the world's largest contract manufacturer, has a base in Penang.

Anyway, I'd rule out buying luxeons from Penang for now, unless someone steals a container load or something (which I understand, is not such an uncommon occurrence).

You can, however, buy luxeons from FA in Hong Kong. They most definitely have the inventory and the knowledge that the parts exist.

hotfoot, it would seem that even going through your boss's "back door" contact is still semi-formal. If someone could get into the employee group somehow, perhaps find out how they dispose of "rejects", then either have the employee(s) make a good batch but label them as rejects (hey it's just an innocent thought, okay?), or find some other avenue of procuring them, etc., now that would truly be IN-formal...

Mr Bulk... you are a policeman no? How could you even suggest such a wonderful idea? I simply lurve it!

I figure bribery/backdoor dealings are part of the culture there. I am not sure the LEOs there don't participate in similar schemes themselves.

Like in Hawaii the asian culture is big here, so even though we have laws against fireworks, at New Year's/July 4th you won't see officers blazing with strobe lights and sirens to fireworks violation calls, looking to confiscate/arrest anything/anybody. In fact after duty I would bet they go home and partake of it themselves (although I have never played with fireworks myself...*wink*). Different jurisdictions, different sets of enforcement criteria. Just my take on things.