Early-1990s NAFA CoolBeam 100W

The CoolBeam 100W shown here was made in the late 1990s by Toshiba of Japan as an economical alternative to dichroic-reflector PAR38 lamps. In order to reduce the forward infrared output of the lamp, the Japanese developed a clever engineering solution: a heat-absorbing front plate made of a special borosilicate glass material with cobalt, iron and nickel dopants, formulated for an optimum broad-band absorption of near infrared radiation. This plate is also coated on the outside with a thick layer of indium-tin oxide, ITO, the semi-conductor material used as an IR-reflector in low-pressure sodium lamps. The main reflector remained coated with aluminum.

Interestingly the glass plate appears to contain neodymium as well, a dopant which is not present in the standard variant of the lamp sold in Japan. This additive is a strong absorbent of yellow-orange light (beside some narrow bands in the near infrared), which results in a higher light color temperature and in more saturated primary colors, optical characteristics that are used to great effect in the illumination of foodstuff (bread, meat, vegetables).

Toshiba introduced this particular lamp around 1987‒89, following the company’s reflector lamp upgrade in the mid-1980s with new pressed-glass tooling and improved vacuum coating equipment. This coincided with the retail lighting boom of the 1980s which called for specialized light sources with e.g. improved beam characteristics, reduced heat output, etc. While the CoolBeam PAR lamp was made at Toshiba’s Kanuma plant (Tochigi prefecture), the company’s main lamp-manufacturing base, it was distributed in northern Europe by NAFA, a lighting equipment distributor established in the Benelux in the late 1980s. That company focused on high-quality retail lighting applications (high CRI, low UV, etc.) and traded rebranded OEM-produced high-end incandescent and discharge lamps. Sometimes they even specified certain unique characteristics for their lamps, and that may be the reason for the presence of neodymium in the present lamp. NAFA eventually ceased operations in the early 2000s (there were unrelated brand successors in Switzerland and Germany). Toshiba kept on producing CoolBeam PAR lamps, both in standard (shown here) and halogen types. Due to its lesser efficacy, the former type was eventually phased out just before the mid-2000s (still with the design shown here, minus neodymium).