U.S. Made Spiral CFL « on: September 08, 2012, 10:52:15 PM » Author: Patrick
I noticed TCP now has a SpringLamp CFL assembled in Ohio.  This may be the first spiral CFL claiming U.S. origin since LOA sold spirals labeled Made In USA in the early 2000s.  However, only the 23W 12 Pack is assembled in the U.S.  All others are still made in China.  I wonder if they plan to expand U.S. production or if they're just doing the bare minimum either for good publicity or to qualify for some kind of government funding or contracts.
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Lighting-Gallery.net

	Re: U.S. Made Spiral CFL « Reply #1 on: September 09, 2012, 12:23:47 AM » Author: funkybulb
That a great start hopefully they can expand production, but how ever I think the ballast quailty need to improve. we might put pride in to this lamp.
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No LED gadgets, spins too slowly.  Gotta  love preheat and MV. let the lights keep my meter spinning.

	Re: U.S. Made Spiral CFL « Reply #2 on: September 09, 2012, 02:08:35 AM » Author: Medved
What does it mean "Assembled in ..."? Taking tube, socket, box, complete electronic board manufactured overseas and do the easiest part of the manufacturing (snapping that together) "in the US"? Do you really think that could have any effect on the reliability, when both the tube and the electronics are made far away by seasonal workers happy only with virtually three grains of rice per day?
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No more selfballasted c***

	Re: U.S. Made Spiral CFL « Reply #3 on: September 09, 2012, 07:42:31 AM » Author: dor123
I heard of this phenomenon (Assembled in <Home country of the brand/company>) many times in LG, including the L-Prize lamp (Seen the actual phenomenon in the US Philips website). I'm fearing that this is a tactic for consumers misleading to make them think that they recieved a high quality and reliable lamp at a very low price, because it is local in origin, where in fact, the components (Ballast PCB and components, discharge tube and its components, plastic case and base, was made in CHINA and the assembly of these components to a complete single unit, was done in the US).
« Last Edit: September 10, 2012, 03:36:06 AM by dor123 »		Logged

I"m don't speak English well, and rely on online translating to write in this site.
Please forgive me if my choice of my words looks like offensive, while that isn't my intention.

I only working with the international date format (dd.mm.yyyy).

I lives in Israel, which is a 220-240V, 50hz country.

	Re: U.S. Made Spiral CFL « Reply #4 on: September 09, 2012, 09:54:18 AM » Author: funkybulb
Know what else I find bad about this. that price of CFL is $6.33 for each one and for the same wattage and brand but made in china that my utilty company give those things away each month.
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No LED gadgets, spins too slowly.  Gotta  love preheat and MV. let the lights keep my meter spinning.

	Re: U.S. Made Spiral CFL « Reply #6 on: September 09, 2012, 09:20:10 PM » Author: Patrick
It would be neat if they'd release a video of the assembly process.  I'm sure many of the components that they don't normally make themselves are still imported, but I'd consider they're USA claims to be basically honest as long and their US assembly line mirrors their one in China.  If they're just snapping two halves of their Made in China CFL together in Ohio, that's not enough to justify the "Assembled in USA" designation in my opinion.  The FTC has some guidelines regarding country of origin labeling, but they are somewhat ambiguous and open to interpretation.
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Patrick C., Administrator
Lighting-Gallery.net

	Re: U.S. Made Spiral CFL « Reply #7 on: September 09, 2012, 09:51:34 PM » Author: DetroitTwoStroke
I read that TCP wanted to have a US plant for a couple of years. I just hope they put some care into the bulbs so they are safe and don't turn into smoke bombs, like some of the China-made ones do. The spec sheet says it has EOL protection, so this could be good!
« Last Edit: September 09, 2012, 09:53:33 PM by DetroitTwoStroke »		Logged

Pride and quality workmanship should lie behind manufacturing, not greed.

	Re: U.S. Made Spiral CFL « Reply #8 on: September 10, 2012, 03:38:27 AM » Author: dor123
My former comment explains good this case. The manufacturing of the components of the lamps is done in China and the assembly is done in the US.
		Logged

I"m don't speak English well, and rely on online translating to write in this site.
Please forgive me if my choice of my words looks like offensive, while that isn't my intention.

I only working with the international date format (dd.mm.yyyy).

I lives in Israel, which is a 220-240V, 50hz country.

	Re: U.S. Made Spiral CFL « Reply #10 on: September 12, 2012, 12:57:55 PM » Author: Medved
The "EOL protection" alone does not prevent the ballast ending in smoke, mainly when the lamp is still "somehow" operating and/or with ballast failures. The protection against "soft" lamp faults (when the lamp operation does not trigger the protection circuit yet, but already overload some ballast components) lay only in overrating the critical components so, the ballast could operate in such overloaded mode without any component being actually overloaded. But that mean you need components, that are physically larger and so do not fit into the small CFL ballast case. And the small ballast case, it's proximity to the lamp and the enclosed space with poor ventilation in many incandescent fixtures cause all the components running hot, so their lifetime get quite short, causing the chance of these being the first thing to fail. And then no control circuit could be effective to prevent from excessive overheat and smoke...
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No more selfballasted c***