LED lighting – tailored polycarbonate products for innovation
Our Makrolon® portfolio for lighting applications
Our wide range of Makrolon® products meet the needs of luminaire manufacturers when it comes to creating energy-efficient lighting solutions that are both sustainable and effective. Depending on the application, this requires high lumen efficiency per watt, light guiding or thermal conductive properties, flame retardancy, or a multifunctional design.
The Covestro portfolio includes transparent, translucent, reflective white, light blocking, thermal conductive, and flame retardant grades:
• Makrolon® LED: Upmost transmission (> 90%) to improve efficacy for transparent luminaire covers, lenses, light guides, or other optics.
• Makrolon® DQ: Three levels of translucency with maximum transmission, offering individually suitable opacity for your luminaires.
• Makrolon® RW: Ideal surface for reflectors in aesthetic white with up to 97% diffuse reflection in all directions. Easy for the eyes without glare and available as a light- blocking variant to avoid light leakage.
• Makrolon® TC: Maximized thermal conductivity for plastic solutions, e. Enabling the replacement of metals in heat sinks with less weight, more design freedom, and an energy- efficient production.
• Makrolon® FR: Flame retardant variants of LED, DQ, RW, and TC products for high demands on light and safety. Special solutions also for high requirements in rail, aircraft or other public transportation applications.
More sustainable material solutions in the lighting industry
Sustainability is a central aspect of Covestro's strategy. Our polycarbonate solutions for lighting applications enable energy-efficient and long-term stable systems with significantly lower weight than glass or aluminum products. In addition, alongside fossil-based production, our core products are also available as Makrolon® RE grades. These are manufactured using raw materials from ISCC Plus certified mass-balanced biowaste and residual materials, as well as renewable energy, and enable significant CO2 savings.
Build your individual lighting solution with our LED Product Finder
Makrolon® polycarbonates offer a bunch great deal of diverse lighting solutions for more efficiency and design freedom. Take a deep dive into our efficient and sustainable lighting portfolio to learn more about our transparent, diffuse quality, reflective white, thermal conductive, and flame- retardant products.
Use our LED Product Finder for detailed information on the individual products in these categories or contact our experts. Choose the polycarbonate category in which you are interested in and find out which Makrolon® grades we offer.
Key benefits
- Specialized: Individual materials for a wide variety of applications in optics, lenses, luminaires and heat sinks.
- Glass-like transparency: Highest light transmission capability, more design freedom, and much lighter than glass.
- Long-term stable: Optimized products for exposure over long periods (significantly reduced "yellowing").
- Ultra-tough: Strong Impact and break-resistance even at low temperatures.
- Ease of use: Excellent processing properties due to individual products for injection molding and extrusion.
