Nature
The passion for light and our innate propensity to innovate, can be said to be two constants in SIMES history. Everyone who looks at our products can immediately recognise our desire to place light quality at the centre of the design. The beauty of our work lies not only in the products themselves but also in the options and opportunities they present in which they are used: in the potential to directly create architecture with and from light.
It is difficult to specify tje innovation. Will we always be able to innovate is a question we ask ourselves all the time. Then one understands how life teaches that each innovation inspires the next innovation.
The dream
IP System® was the result of a visionary notion that I had for many years and that slowly began to take shape in a dream. In a way, it was a tribute to the interior lighting sector, where businesses have long offered systems, rails, on which products could be placed as you wanted, and different sorts of spot lights. And for years, I questioned not only whether it was possible, but also how a system, such as an outdoor rail, might be practical. And “no” has been the response for more than three decades.
The challenge
A luminous silicone strip. Here is the intuition: the silicone strip is actually an electrified gasket. We would have had our own waterproof system if we had been able to “collect” electricity using this premise at any location along the strip.
The idea, or vision, was that this needle system might capture the energy by piercing the silicone and then find itself already wrapped in the material, safe from the water. The prototype, created in just three days in a truly handcrafted manner, was the subject of a frenzied race with staple fragments, resin, and Loctite. The first test, which involved intercepting the copper component by penetrating the silicone strip, was successful: we had our idea.
The develpoment
IP System® required a considerable effort, we obviously had to develop the product but at the same time face an innumerable number of problems, given the fact that the concept was completely new and the idea behind it was also completely new: capture energy in a waterproof way through an electrified silicone gasket. For the development phase we could not rely on reference points or historical practices, but only learn from our own mistakes and build experience on those.
The fine-tuning phase was accurate and frenetic, going to define every millimeter and functional aspect of the many components of the system. We started from scratch three times, each time correcting, expanding and modifying the project, overcoming the details that made it unsuitable for the market and that allowed it to be understood and used by our customers.
One issue concerned how to insert the product into the silicone strip by correctly intercepting the copper tracks beneath the silicone strip while preventing the very tiny needles from naturally bending when inserted into a dense substance like silicone.
The electrified strip we created for IP System® has a dual power source, one for lighting the LED strip itself and one for powering the plug-in products.
So, the accuracy of needle insertion is a crucial issue that we addressed with a template-comb that serves as a guide for the needles and that, when put on the IP System®, slides and enables you to choose the ideal location for applying a plug-in element: this helps to guide the needles during insertion so they can connect to the structure.
At the end of the first year of development we realised that if the accessories and plug-ins installed on the track could not be removed, moved and reinserted, IP System® would not fully meet the expectations of the market. To enable the removal and subsequent successful reinstallation of the plug-in product on the system, we developed a “needle straightener”, in fact a small masterpiece of technology.
We have developed this accessory consisting of four small components that acts at the same time as a protective cap, and which becomes a tool that allows you to straighten the needles, realigning and tilting them by half a degree, thus recovering the ideal angle to fit into the silicone track and perfectly hitting the copper strip. A multifunctional cap that I can proudly call a masterpiece of engineering.
The success of the idea
IP System® is technically a IP54 product, therefore suitable for outdoors and all humid environments, such as wellness SPA, wineries, indoor swimming pools. But thanks to its design, details and functionality it can also be used indoors. It is a system that can give continuity between interior and exterior, a perfect hinge that coordinates the internal lighting and ends in the external one.
IP System® offers diversified control, thanks to two independent and separate circuits: the first circuit illuminates the only LED strip, generating a diffuse light; the second allows us to independently power the installed accessory, so we can independently control and dim the two circuits. For getting the “right light” depends to a large extent on the ability to control.
This product paves the way for countless developments, and some have already taken place, such as the introductions of both recessed and suspended options in addition to the originally planned surface mounted solution.
IP System® recessed version for ceiling in plasterboard and in Aquapanel® panels
IP System® suspended version
IP System® surface version
Watch the complete video interview to know the story of the development of IP System® and the technological innovation it represents.
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