3M Wins Energy Star Award Sep 23, 2009

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3M’s Optical Systems Division received the Alliance to Save Energy’s "Innovative Star of Energy Efficiency" Award for its Vikuiti£ dual brightness enhancement films for LCD TVs and monitors. The award recognizes an emerging technology or service that has the potential to transform a sector of the energy efficiency market but which, given the early stage of the innovation, has yet to generate proven savings.

3M’s Vikuiti Dual Brightness Enhancement Film (DFEF), a reflective polarizer, is a multi-layer film that recycles light normally absorbed by the polarizer inside LCD TVs and monitors. Recycling this light reportedly maximizes the brightness of LCDs and reduces the number of watts required to operate TVs and monitors.

Using the Vikuiti DBEF film reportedly allows manufacturers to eliminate two or more bulbs in the backlight assembly of LCD monitors and TVs, increasing overall energy efficiency of the devices as much as 32 percent. Vikuiti DBEF has the potential to save as much as 101.7 billion kWh of energy in LCD TV’s sold between 2006 and 2011.

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