Signify Expands Lighting Control System, Adds Production Line in Mexico
April 11, 2019 
Signify, the manufacturer of Philips Horticulture LED Solutions, has expanded its GrowWise Control System to fit seamlessly with conventional climate control and greenhouse management systems and make it easier to operate. The system, which was introduced in 2018, allows growers and researchers to easily create and run custom LED light recipes to meet the needs of specific crops to improve quality, productivity, and efficiency. It works with dynamic modules in the Philips GreenPower LED range.
“Since we introduced the GrowWise Control System a year ago, growers have embraced this solution,” says Udo van Slooten, Business Leader Horticulture at Signify. “It meets the needs of a broad range of growers, from greenhouse growers and vertical farmers to researchers, who are looking for more flexible ways of applying their grow lights to improve crop results and operational efficiency.”
More Control Over Every Plant
With the GrowWise Control System, growers can give all the plants in their facility exactly what they need and when they need it, enhancing cultivation with a single LED system. A light recipe provides the settings for the light spectrum, intensity, illumination moment, and uniformity. The GrowWise Control System allows growers to create their own time-based recipes. Using a recipe, a grower can steer specific plant characteristics, from compactness, color intensity, and branch development to flowering and more to improve results. One light recipe might enhance the red coloration of lettuce, for example, while another might be used to stimulate stretching or compactness.
The GrowWise Control System can mix a variety of colors as well as the light duration and intensity. The system is designed to work with current and future Philips GreenPower LED lighting modules.
New Production Line in Mexico
Signify has also announced that it is adding an LED production line to its current plant in Carmago, Mexico, a move that will significantly reduce delivery times for North American growers.
Previously, Philips GreenPower LEDs had only been manufactured in Sucha Beskidzka, Poland.
“We are very excited that we can enhance our support to customers in North America by reducing their delivery times,” van Slooten says. “We see very strong demand for horticultural LEDs as customers increasingly understand the benefits: improved predictability, higher quality product, and higher yields. Particularly the strong increase in number of customers in the fruit, vegetables, floriculture, and cannabis segments in the last two years, meant that we needed to make steps to deliver faster to this important market.”
Currently, products are manufactured in Europe and then transported to North America by boat. The products that are manufactured in Mexico will be transported directly to customers in North America, resulting in fewer delays and making shipments more reliable. Signify will continue to produce Philips GreenPower LEDs in Europe to service growers in other parts of the world.
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