2012 Taipei AMPA Innovation Awards Cite Seven Winners

The Innovation Awards is a key activity associated with the annual Taipei International Auto Parts & Accessories Show (Taipei AMPA) and Taipei International Automobile Electronics Show (AutoTronics Taipei), a 2-in-1 show that is one of the world's most important trade fairs for the automotive components industry.

According to Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), which organizes both the shows and the awards contest, the 2012 AMPA Innovation Awards received dozens of entries from which seven winners—three for the "Auto Parts" and four for the "Auto Accessory" categories—were chosen by industry experts.

While most auto parts makers in Taiwan fill aftermarket parts orders as contractors, a small group has the capacity to see potential in current innovation, trends to improve on existing technology. These are the creative minds who vie for attention in the Innovation Awards, with products that enhance comfort, convenience, styling, and function of vehicles.

The jury bases their decisions on four criteria: Innovation (40% of score), Energy Efficiency (20%), Safety (20%), and Marketability (20%); while products which have been cited by major international design awards as the iF Product Design Award and Red Dot Design Award of Germany, G-Mark of Japan or Industrial Design Excellence Award (IDEA) of the United States may have advantage in scoring.

Winners of 2012 Taipei AMPA Innovation Awards
Category	Winner	Product
Auto Parts	Big Time Auto Parts Mfg. Co., Ltd.	LED Tail Lamp
	Sirius Light Technology Co., Ltd.	NS-4305L Ø90mm LED Low Beam Headlamp
	Power Circling Co., Ltd.	Brushless DC Centrifugal Blower
Auto Accessories	Just Auto Lighting Technology Co., Ltd.	2 in 1 LED Fog Lamp & Daytime Running Lamp
	C.E.F.Co., Ltd	Digital Techograph with GPS/FPRS
	Adronic Instrument Manufacture Co., Ltd.	2 Way 360°Rotation Articulation Inspection Video Scope
	Red Heart Enterprise Co.	The Love and Free Welfare Seats
Source: TAITRA

Summary of Winners

Auto Parts

Big Time's All-in-one LED Tail Lamp

Big Time Auto Parts Mfg. Co., Ltd. wins with its LED tail lamp using a RYW LED module that is the single light source for the passing, brake, back-up and turn-signal light to be an all-in-one lamp.

With the single light-source design, the company claims the new all-in-one LED tail lamp is more energy efficient than traditional light bulbs, as well as saving tooling and production costs and raising assembly efficiency.

With extra durability, waterproof function and vibration-resistance, the all-in-one lamp, says Big Time, emits maximized light coverage for each function to enhance signaling effect.

Big Time aims to sell the new LED tail lamp globally. Besides being patented in Taiwan, China, Germany and the U.S., the lamp also won the Global Media Awards at the 2011 Specialty Equipment Market Association show in Las Vegas.

Sirius' LED Low Beam Headlamp
Tapping the latest light source of LED, Sirius Light Technology Co., Ltd. develops a winner with the NS-4305L Ø90mm LED low beam headlamp to successfully differentiate itself from traditional halogen counterparts.

This low-beam headlamp is unique with a cutting-edge lens configuration that produces a precision beam pattern with the high-power LED that maximizes illumination of the road ahead, enabling the unit to be invention and design patented in various nations.

According to Sirius, the new headlamp helps to reduce vehicle running cost by consuming only one-third the power of traditional halogen-bulb counterparts, so less fuel is needed to generate electricity, coupled with the well-known durability of the LED bulb that outlasts halogen bulbs.

The seal unit of the headlamp is ECE IP67-approved to further ensure reliability, says Sirius, and the lamp is designed to meet DIY demand in the aftermarket, so drivers can easily install the lamp without professional help.

Power Circling's Brushless DC Centrifugal Blower

Power Circling Co., Ltd. claims that its award-winning brushless DC centrifugal blower has many advantages. First, air circulates through the motor to lead to lower temperature rise as well as better durability (10 times longer or about 20,000 hours product life compared to traditional brush-type motors). Second, the blower has variable RPM control and low noise. Third, the blower is highly efficient to save more than 15% power compared to counterparts. Fourth, the blower current can reach up to 15A to be the highest among same-class products. Fifth, the unit is eco-friendly, running without carbon, lead and electro-magnetic pollution, as well as being maintenance-free. Sixth, it is fully designed and manufactured in Taiwan.

The blower is also protected against reverse polarity, soft start, overload, locked-rotor, and over-heating, and can be customized to protect against dry-running, over-voltage, lower voltage and over-heating.

Power Circling claims that the versatile DC 12V/24V blower, which has four patents in Taiwan, is suitable for electric vehicles, boats, and server motors; and it is especially suitable for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles and battery electric vehicles due to compact dimensions and lightweight.

Auto Accessory

Just Auto's 2-in-1 LED Fog Lamp & Daytime Running Lamp

Just Auto Lighting Technology Co., Ltd. has a winner in the two-in-one LED fog lamp & daytime running lamp, which involved challenging design to achieve effective optics in an LED fog lamp, especially having to also build into tight space a daytime running lamp.

The design of the unit stretched the maker's capacity for requirements, as a fog lamp and DRL are totally different, Just Auto says. The solution is mounting two LED modules in the two optical areas of the two-in-one lamp, including a single high-power LED for the fog lamp and two LEDs for the DRL.

Besides the fact that the LEDs last about 10 times longer than traditional filament counterparts, the company says that using LEDs is far more energy-efficient, with the fog lamp burning 6.1W and DRL 4.5W versus 55W for traditional counterparts, hence saving about 89% and 92% energy, respectively. The company overcame many difficulties in designing heat-dissipation architecture and optics for the two-in-one lamp.

The compact 7cm diameter of the lamp makes installation easy just about anywhere, while the LEDs are energy-saving, very durable, and capable of high color temperature or brightness, which are marketable features.

C.E.F.'s Digital Techograph with GPS/FPRS
C.E.F. Co., Ltd. offers a winning product that helps to record all kinds of vehicle conditions and more, with the CEF TM5000S digital techograph being equipped with GPS/FPRS.

According to the maker, the TM5000S has many advantages, including easy DIY installation, versatility to record speed, distance, time, engine RPM, location (latitude, longitude and altitude), course angle, mileage, braking and other related data, and instant relaying of such data to the control center via GPS and GPRS. Also, it monitors vehicle status with a display, while the IDC Cloud Technology enables collaboration with Internet Data Center System, allowing the control center to, via the Internet, quickly store and retrieve data to monitor vehicle status.

C.E.F. stresses that the techograph has some special features: Speeding warning, SOS button to notify the control center, GPS tracking, 24-hour power supply with built-in battery, and extended functions.

Adronic's 2 Way 360° Rotation Articulated Inspection Video Scope

Adronic Instrument Manufacture Co., Ltd. has developed a winner with its Two-Way 360-degree Rotation Articulated Inspection Video Scope, which has a brand-new, innovative mechanism allowing the probe to rotate 360 degrees and bend up to 180 degrees left or right. With one-handed operation, the scope has the steel control wire inside that is stable and will not cause short circuit, the firm claims.

The company says that the scope, with advanced electronics technology, improves speed and efficiency of inspections to allow seeing side view without accessories. With the ingression-protection level of the probe being IP 57, the entire device is certified by CE and FCC.

According to Adronic, conventional scopes bend between 90 to 130 degrees, which is insufficient for many professional users to see all that is needed. No other industrial probe can bend 180 degrees, so Adronic's 360° rotation articulated video scope is in a league of its own to be ahead of competitors.

Red Heart's Love and Free Welfare Seat

Red Heart Enterprise Co., Ltd., continuing to make life easier for seniors and handicapped, has developed a winning Love and Free Welfare Seat, whose practical functions belie its slightly confusing name. This product enables easier entry, exit of vehicles by handicapped and seniors.

The company says that the Love and Free Welfare Seat is based on a specially designed mechanism installed in a car's original seat to rotate the seat near the door, enabling a user to easily back into a seat and enter a vehicle, as well as overcoming the problem of a steering wheel preventing a seat from rotating. Able to be installed in the driver, front passenger or rear passenger seats, the unit adds no weight to a vehicle and works without power.