Osram Sylvania is the North American lighting operation of Osram GmbH, the second largest lighting and materials enterprise in the world. It is part of the Siemens family of companies with over 35,000 employees worldwide.
Under the Sylvania and Osram brand names, the company makes and sells a wide range of lighting products, precision materials and components. Its customers in more than 100 countries include business and major industries such as aerospace, automotive, computer mining, machine-tool and retail.
The group has several areas of operation including general lighting, automotive lighting, precision materials, electronic control systems and photo-optic. It also has a broad line of consumer electronics including TVs, Phones, computer monitors and Security Systems. These are served by its 22 manufacturing plants, one equipment assembly operation and 12 research and development laboratories in the Unites States. The Worldwide headquarters is in Munich, while the American HQ is in Danvers, Mass, near Boston.
Sylvania has an impressive commitment to initiatives which reduce the impact on the environment. It has led the way in reducing heavy metals used in lamps, such as mercury and lead saving hundreds of tons of waste over the last decade.
One of the most exciting innovations being developed by Osram Sylvania engineers is a new way to produce light without filaments or electrodes. This has far-reaching implications for the lighting industry, as it is the gradual decay of the filament and electrodes that limit the life of all kinds of lamps including incandescent, halogen, fluorescent and HID. This new technology is being hailed as a breakthrough and holds out the promise of a lamp with high quality light output, colour rendering and energy efficiency, with a life of 100,000 hours which could equate to 25 years between replacements.