Ed Miliband visits Forge Europa

Published : 13 May 2010 at 08:31

'Pictured:  John Woodcock, Labour MP for Barrow and Furness; David Scott-Maxwell, Forge Europa Technical Manager; Ed Miliband, former Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.'

Ed Miliband, the former Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, visited Cumbria on the 29^th April and made a special trip to Ulverston based firm Forge Europa. Forge Europa Ltd are a shining light in the Cumbrian business community, recently awarded the Queens Award for Innovation for their UK and International activities in the Solid State (LED) Lighting Market. Forge Europa design and manufacture LED Lighting Solutions for manufacturers of Industrial, Commercial and Domestic Light fittings around the world.

The visit was a chance for Forge Europa to show Mr Miliband the latest developments in LED Lighting Technology and an opportunity to demonstrate that LEDs are the beginning of a brand new era in lighting technology and truly represent a significant opportunity to reduce UK Energy Consumption.

LED based lamps or Solid State Lighting products are reported to be twice as efficient as compact fluorescent lamps and nearly 10 times as efficient as the older and more traditional style incandescent and halogen lamps. Domestic adoption alone of Solid State Lighting products could save up to �100 per year for a household (~30% reduction in electricity bills), and nationally could save 15TWH per year, equivalent to the output of three power stations (750MW at 80% average capacity factor).

Mr Peter Barton, Forge Europa's Managing Director, was keen to point out that a national adoption of LEDs or Solid State Lighting Products would help the UK meet its targeted reduction in environmentally damaging greenhouse gas emissions.

The South Lakes region of Cumbria hosts a community of companies specializing in Solid State Lighting Technology which is a real advantage to UK being able to adopt the technology ahead of Europe.

Forge Europa Ltd have recently announced major expansion plans and therefore Mr Miliband's visit could not have been better timed as this clearly demonstrates the company's commitment to undertake significant investment in both the infrastructure and skills necessary to support the development of products that can deliver serious reductions in global energy consumption.

Cree Solutions Provider

Published : 13 April 2010 at 09:14

Forge Europa Visible Solutions is privileged to be the designated Cree Solutions Provider for the UK and northern Europe; recognising the company's extensive knowledge in the design and volume manufacture of ultra efficient LED based lighting solutions. With over 17 years experience in the field of LED technology, Forge Europa has built a dedicated technical team with a broad range of skills including thermal and optical design, electronic engineering and pragmatic product manufacturing

Read more about the Cree Solutions Provider programme

CREE Breaks 200 Lumen per Watt Barrier

Published : 10 March 2010 at 11:19

As an industry leader in the manufacture lighting class white power LEDs Cree have announced a reported laboratory efficacy record of 208 lumens per Watt; surpassing a significant milestone in the solid state lighting industry and demonstrating Cree's relentless drive to improve the performance of its LEDs.

The results were measured under standard LED test conditions at a drive current of 350mA at room temperature.

Forge Europa 'switches on' its expansion plans

Published : 12 February 2010 at 10:15

LED lighting company, Forge Europa has a bright future ahead after announcing investment plans to build a new research and development facility and boost staff numbers. Forge Europa has unveiled its scheme, after being granted planning permission to build a brand new purpose-built additional four storey facility for research and development and additional offices on its current site at The Old Railway, Ulverston.

CEO, Peter Barton said,
"At Forge Europa, our team has created great LED products and a sound business model to lay the foundations for further long-term growth and stay one step ahead of the competition."

Forge Europa develops, designs, manufactures and supplies innovative LED lamps, displays and solid state lighting assemblies. It was founded in 1993 and today supplies its products to 34 countries around the world. Peter Barton, who was a finalist in the recent CN Group Businessman of the Year Award added, "fortunately for us, a huge variety of industries are coming to us because of increasing energy costs and government pressure on businesses to become more environmentally-friendly, which means our low energy, longer lasting and mercury-free LED Lighting Solutions are in big demand."

For further information please contact Andrew Tomlinson, mailto:andrew@forge-europa.co.uk

A Call for Government to Support Solid State Lighting in the UK

Published : 11 January 2010 at 10:30

Peter Barton, Managing Director of Forge Europa was the guest speaker on both Radio Cumbria and at the Solid State Lighting Event: Energy Efficient Lighting Solutions in Lancaster in November 2009. The event was organised by the NWDA and Envirolink North-West. Peter took the opportunity not only to promote the potential low energy benefits of LED lighting but also to request British Government support into solid state lighting development.

Peter explained how at Forge Europa, "our USP is our capability to meld together all the various engineering disciplines mechanical, electrical, electronic, thermal, optical, production etc. in our range of LED lighting solutions." He cited how many other major economies are putting the equivalent of tens of millions of pounds into the development of SSL for their home and export markets and believes that unless the UK does the same, companies like Forge Europa, which currently has a competitive and technological edge, could lose out to the sheer scale and financial force of the competition. "The British are excellent at innovation, as evidenced by the number of Nobel Prize winners we have from the UK, as well as ground breaking inventions that have changed the world," Peter said. He believes Britain has a great opportunity to establish itself as a global leader in solid state lighting technology to turn its innovative ideas into success and growth for UK businesses.

Forge Europa Sponsor Local Cricket Team

Published : 09 November 2009 at 11:18

Local cricket club Lindal Moor has a wonderful 125 year cricketing history and a fantastic record of welcoming and developing young players to the club. Forge Europa is proud of its ongoing support of the club and pleased to have sponsored the kits the U15 players are pictured wearing.

Forge Europa is proud of the success of its apprentices

Published : 07 October 2009 at 11:38

Congratulations to Zena Walker who was recently awarded an NVQ Level 2 in Accounting and to Tom Marshall who gained his NVQ Level 2 in Performing Engineering Operations. For many years Forge Europa has successfully run a business administration apprenticeship in-house supported by Furness College, but 3 years ago this was extended to include accounting technician training. In the last year Forge Europa has also appointed its first engineering apprentice. Both Zena and Tom are continuing their training with Zena on target to achieve her AAT Accounting qualification in the coming months and Tom embarking on an NVQ Level 3 Electrical Engineering course.

Daylight Visible Dot Matrix Displays

Published : 25 August 2009 at 13:19

FND-3881Y0460STBC is a new dot matrix display from Forge Europa designed to achieve the same output characteristics, in terms of intensity, aesthetic appearance and viewing angle, to that of a surface mounted LED device.

Packaged within a 32mm black surfaced reflector and encapsulated within water clear epoxy, each of the 64 dice is mounted centrally within the dot aperture and bonded onto a white display substrate to aid contrast in high-glare outdoor environments.

Forge Europa Limited off to the Palace

Published : 28 July 2009 at 10:55

Forge Europa Directors, Peter and Julie Barton visited Buckingham Palace on Monday 13^th July 2009 after the firm was awarded the equivalent of a company knighthood in this year's Queen's Awards for Enterprise. They attended a special evening reception for 2009 Queen's Award winners, hosted by Her Majesty The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, The Duke of York, other members of the Royal Family and Lord Mandelson, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills.

Forge Europa won its Queen's Award in the Innovation category in April this year. It was commended for achieving its custom design and manufacturing capabilities in providing LED lighting solutions for a large variety of applications. James Cropper, Lord Lieutenant of Cumbria presented the company with a certificate signed by both The Queen and the Prime Minister together with an engraved rose bowl to commemorate the company's Queen's Award success.

Benefits to customers of the company's innovations range from better optical and energy efficiency to greater reliability, longer product life and therefore lower maintenance costs. Customers from a huge array of market sectors are supplied with products value engineered specifically for their purpose.

EUROLED 2009

Published : 12 June 2009 at 15:58

Once again Forge Europa has received an unprecedented level of interest at this year's EuroLED 09 exhibition. Hosted again by Aston Science Park at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, last year's successful show has been undoubtedly surpassed. Ian Dixon and Grant Huck from Forge Europa would like to thank all customers and new contacts for visiting the newly designed exhibition stand and look forward to following up on your interest very soon. David Scott-Maxwell, Forge Europa R&D Manager, would also like to thank those visitors who attended the conference presentation "Design Considerations for Effective LED Integration". The presentation was well attended and extremely informative.