Though the national COVID‑19 pandemic reached an inflection point, the lighting industry has yet to regain its pre‑pandemic prosperity. For domestic lighting enterprises that have resumed work and production, how to survive and develop amid adversity has become an urgent priority. Judging from the latest developments of resumed lighting manufacturers, cross‑sector transformation has become a distinctive development strategy for some enterprises during this special period.
Lighting enterprises each have their core strengths in R&D, manufacturing and marketing. Venturing into unfamiliar sectors may bring unforeseen challenges. How do lighting firms carry out cross‑sector transformation? What are their strategic objectives amid the pandemic? China Lighting Network answers these questions in detail.
Expanding into UV‑Disinfection Products to Meet Epidemic‑Prevention Demands
Since the COVID‑19 outbreak, market demand for UV disinfection products has surged and drawn wide attention across the lighting industry. Compared with mainstream segments such as outdoor landscape lighting, outdoor functional lighting and indoor lighting, UV disinfection was once a niche special‑lighting sector. Before the pandemic, market demand remained low and few domestic lighting companies were active in this field. After the outbreak, however, many lighting enterprises extended their product lines to UV disinfection to meet urgent anti‑epidemic needs.
NVC Lighting, a leading domestic enterprise focusing on indoor home and commercial lighting, recently launched its Guardian Series and Care Series UV disinfection lamps.
Since the pandemic began, NVC Lighting was among the first lighting companies to support front‑line anti‑epidemic efforts in Wuhan. UV disinfection lamps were among the urgently‑supplied products donated to Wuhan Huoshenshan Hospital and Leishenshan Hospital. This reflects its strong R&D capability enabling rapid cross‑sector product development. Leveraging its solid brand influence, NVC Lighting’s entry into UV disinfection represents a key move to seize emerging market opportunities.
Another leading home‑and‑commercial‑lighting player, Opple Lighting, disclosed progress on its share repurchase plan and stated that it had begun developing sterilization‑related products including UV‑LED lamps for upcoming market launch.
Opple Lighting was also one of the earliest enterprises supporting lighting‑facility construction for Huoshenshan and Leishenshan Hospitals, donating batches of professional lighting fixtures for epidemic response. Its launch of UV disinfection lamps embodies corporate social responsibility and constitutes an indispensable part of its pandemic‑era market strategy.
Guangpu Co., Ltd. maintains diversified layouts covering LED smart lighting, smart home, smart healthcare and medical beauty. Drawing on accumulated technologies and market experience in the health‑care sector after the pandemic broke out, the company developed a portfolio of UV disinfection products including UV air‑sterilizing devices, LED UV germicidal instruments, UV modules and UV germicidal lamps. It also obtained the Hygiene License for Disinfectant‑Product Manufacturers and made vigorous inroads into the previously‑unfamiliar UV‑disinfection market.
Faced with uncertain prospects for its main‑line business amid the pandemic, Guangpu Co., Ltd. announced that it would prioritize donations of UV disinfection products for epidemic prevention regardless of costs and profits. Orders for such products would only be accepted after donation‑oriented production capacity was secured. Its cross‑sector expansion into UV products and self‑less anti‑epidemic efforts were not profit‑driven. Instead, the enterprise aimed to help society defeat the pandemic and restore a thriving environment for the lighting industry.
NightSun, a manufacturer specializing in stage‑lighting products, also expanded into R&D and production of UV disinfection products to satisfy public epidemic‑prevention needs. The enterprise donated 300 UV germicidal lamps worth RMB 100,000 to the Hongkou Red Cross in Hubei Province, followed by 100 UV‑disinfection bracket lamps to Badu Middle School in Jishui County, Jiangxi Province, demonstrating its social responsibility for national epidemic prevention. It later launched special‑price UV germicidal lamps to help enterprises resume operations and households guard against coronavirus risks.
NightSun’s cross‑sector move into UV disinfection reflects the collectivist spirit of lighting enterprises, shifting from commercial‑value pursuit to maximizing social value and elevating the life values of its team. It sets a positive example for the industry in building a healthy industrial and social environment through joint efforts.
Overnight, UV‑disinfection products became highly sought‑after, attracting lighting enterprises to enter the segment regardless of costs amid the sudden pandemic. Nevertheless, time and industrial trends will determine how long market enthusiasm persists and whether lighting enterprises will retain UV‑disinfection products within their core‑business portfolios after the pandemic subsides.
It is worth affirming that niche special‑lighting products such as UV germicidal lamps deliver powerful practical functions. They meet market demands triggered by public‑health emergencies, helping lighting enterprises explore new market opportunities amid industry downturns and elevate their social‑economic value.
In recent years, steady advancement in smart‑city, smart‑community and smart‑building construction across China has made smart manufacturing an important benchmark for evaluating lighting enterprises’ comprehensive strength. During the pandemic, smart‑manufacturing‑oriented lighting firms leveraged intelligence, informatization and digitalization to expand into public‑venue epidemic monitoring as well as pandemic‑era production and office scenarios, supporting the restoration of social order with robust smart‑technology capabilities.
Unilumin Technology develops LED full‑color displays, professional LED lighting and urban landscape lighting in parallel. As a representative enterprise with successful cross‑sector layouts in display and lighting, it has built solid smart‑manufacturing strength centering on smart street lamps.
During the pandemic, Unilumin Technology integrated smart‑manufacturing technologies with its long‑term LED‑display R&D strengths to develop a high‑definition visual‑solution system for national epidemic prevention and control. Based on Unilumin’s fine‑pitch LED display system, epidemic‑data resources, population statistics, GIS platforms and video‑command subsystems, the solution transforms epidemic‑prevention headquarters into integrated information, dispatch and decision‑making centers for coordinated national‑regional epidemic response.
In addition, recognizing the vital role of smart‑street‑lamp‑mounted 5G micro‑base stations, environmental‑sensing modules, security‑monitoring devices and smart‑municipal functions in epidemic surveillance, Unilumin Technology upgraded its smart‑street‑lamp epidemic‑detection capacity and launched street‑lamp‑integrated human‑body‑temperature measurement and mask‑wearing‑monitoring systems for epidemic prevention.
The epidemic‑prevention human‑body‑temperature‑monitoring system adopts dual‑sensor visible‑light‑infrared hardware embedded with intelligent human‑image‑recognition engines. Combining infrared thermal imaging and face‑detection technology, it automatically identifies individuals with body temperatures exceeding 37.3 °C, triggers alarms, captures facial snapshots and transmits data to epidemic‑prevention command centers to support big‑data‑driven epidemic response. The mask‑monitoring system detects, snapshots and identifies unmasked personnel and crowd gatherings, automatically broadcasts anti‑epidemic reminders and synchronizes data to command centers.
LatticeLight has long specialized in R&D and manufacturing of LED lighting equipment and control systems, delivering outstanding smart‑lighting solutions for numerous urban‑renovation‑lighting projects. When the pandemic struck, the enterprise deployed its smart‑manufacturing‑management platform featuring data‑driven intelligence and industrial‑internet capabilities. It interconnected R&D, production, quality‑inspection and statistical‑analysis workflows to realize automated production with machine‑and‑computer‑aided workflows, providing intelligent innovation support for work resumption.
Data from the smart‑manufacturing‑management platform is transmitted via internet to LatticeLight’s central control hub for real‑time monitoring of equipment status, production efficiency, inventory levels, order volumes, production‑line quality, delivery status and defect rates. This achieves corporate‑management objectives including cost‑efficiency improvement, energy conservation, quality enhancement, shortened delivery cycles and customized‑order fulfillment, boosting overall core competitiveness. In the future, the platform will support fully‑automated smart production lines, cutting shop‑floor labor by over 60 % while lifting production efficiency beyond 200 %.
Leyard and AOTO Electronics also actively developed pandemic‑prevention‑monitoring solutions.
Focusing on smart displays and night‑tour‑economy businesses, Leyard stated in institutional‑investor surveys that it would vigorously promote its LED conference‑all‑in‑one devices to mitigate pandemic‑related disruptions to work resumption.
According to a recent corporate announcement, AOTO Electronics — whose core businesses cover LED displays, fin‑tech and smart lighting — is developing new customer‑diversion systems with infrared‑temperature‑measurement functions and emergency‑information‑release systems to support national epidemic‑prevention efforts.
During the pandemic, lighting enterprises delivered epidemic‑oriented product‑technology innovations via smart‑manufacturing approaches, gradually restoring office workflows and production‑line operations. This validates the foresight and value of crossing traditional lighting‑information‑technology boundaries toward smart‑manufacturing transformation. After the pandemic, cross‑sector expansion into intelligence, informatization and digitalization on the basis of core‑business focus will become a new strategic trend within the lighting industry.
After the domestic pandemic outbreak, masks became essential daily goods, and electronic thermometers once limited to medical institutions were deployed at epidemic‑prevention checkpoints nationwide. Even with mask‑and‑thermometer manufacturers working overtime, anti‑epidemic supplies remained in short supply. Accordingly, some lighting enterprises and their subsidiaries joined R&D, manufacturing and sales of masks and epidemic‑prevention equipment.
Free‑Light, a manufacturer of urban‑landscape‑lighting fixtures, saw its formerly‑prosperous core‑business suspended by the pandemic. Rather than halting production lines, the enterprise responded to government calls and rapidly built a mask‑workshop for mask production.
Dong Faqun, Chairman of Free‑Light, commented: “No one is a bystander amid the pandemic. Facing severe shortages of protective supplies, enterprises must shoulder social responsibility and ease supply shortages with concrete actions. Masks may not be daily necessities in ordinary times, yet letting machinery sit idle and sustaining corporate losses is far less harmful than exposing the public to viral risks. If no one can go out safely, how can enterprises achieve development?”
Besides Free‑Light’s mask‑production initiative, Leyard, Topstar Lighting, Huanyuanhong Lighting and Yunao Electronics also engaged in R&D, production and sales of masks and anti‑epidemic supplies.
In cooperation with Shenzhen Aolan Technology, Leyard applied nano‑hydrophobic‑coating technologies originally used for LED displays to improve masks’ waterproof, dust‑proof and anti‑corrosion performance, achieving phased progress in upgrading non‑medical masks to medical‑grade standards. Topstar Plastic, a subsidiary of Topstar Lighting, leveraged specialized technologies to develop and mass‑produce polypropylene melt‑blown materials required for mask manufacturing.
Huanyuanhong Lighting, focused on R&D and sales of landscape‑lighting fixtures, supplied KN95 masks to meet public high‑grade‑protection demands. Yunao Electronics, a lighting‑source vendor, supplied non‑contact infrared forehead thermometers for public‑venue epidemic‑prevention screening. Both cross‑sector‑selling lighting enterprises obtained Class‑II Medical‑Device Business Filing Certificates issued by Shenzhen Administration for Market Regulation, demonstrating their commitment to public anti‑epidemic efforts.
For lighting enterprises, developing, producing and selling masks and epidemic‑prevention equipment may seem unrelated to core‑business. However, supply‑shortage‑caused work‑resumption delays would produce counter‑productive outcomes. Based on the interdependency of industry and society, lighting enterprises’ cross‑sector engagement in mask‑and‑epidemic‑equipment businesses, though seemingly unusual, represents a rational approach toward restoring sound industrial conditions.
The lighting industry does not develop in isolation. It maintains countless connections with other industries and all spheres of social livelihood. Its vital role across diverse sectors relies heavily on strong support from information technology, medical science and other technical fields. Therefore, by expanding into related sectors amid pandemic‑driven industrial adversity, lighting enterprises can not only break through industrial bottlenecks but also realize value during public‑health emergencies and enhance brand influence within target markets.
Moreover, the pandemic impacted not only individual enterprises but also the broader social ecosystem sustaining industrial development. Should enterprises embrace self‑less dedication to public welfare and expand R&D, manufacturing and sales of urgently‑needed anti‑epidemic and livelihood‑related supplies, they can identify pathways out of pandemic‑era development predicaments through holistic‑public‑interest‑oriented thinking.
Cross‑sector transformation appears to be both a forced‑response and an inevitable trend for lighting enterprises during the pandemic. Such cross‑sector moves enable the lighting industry to demonstrate developmental vitality amid adversity and embody its universal value in social‑livelihood‑oriented construction during public‑health emergencies.
