Significant order from CERN for more than 400 km of wire
Luma Metall
Luma Metall in Kalmar has developed into a specialist in the plating of fine and ultrafine wire in tungsten and molybdenum, two materials traditionally used for filaments in light bulbs. From being Sweden’s most well-known brand of incandescent lamps, Luma is now a high-tech supplier of fine wire products and precious metal plating technologies to research facilities and industry.
In 2019 Luma received a significant order from CERN for more than 400 km of wire, to be used in the upgrade of a detector in the Atlas experiment at CERN. The material that Luma is supplying consists of 50-micron (= 0.05 mm) base tungsten wire on which a gold plating is added (about 0.35-micron pure gold).
“The real challenge is to adapt to different needs that we don’t even know about today.”
Luma has been working with CERN since 1985, when the collaboration started with the Opal Project. Luma is constantly in contact with researchers working for CERN worldwide, often at local research institutes or universities.
Luma Metall is engaged in both production and state-of-the-art research and technology development. Ulrich Stöhr, Sales and Marketing Manager explains:
“We’re a production and research company.
We collaborate and conduct research together with our clients, with research institutes and with universities. This makes us quite unique for a
company of our size, with around 25 employees.”
The significant order to CERN is delivered, but the years of collaboration and the important
contacts have led to new and regular smaller
contracts with CERN. Luma also delivers to ESS and has established contacts with DESY in Hamburg.
Future challenges for Luma Metall include expanding its operations. This will involve
investments in new technology, machinery and more highly qualified recruitments, especially in material sciences and chemistry.
“We’re now relatively unique in our area,
sometimes even ‘single source’, but our
competitors are not sleeping. There are now more players, not least from Asia. In order to grow, and that’s our ambition, we must both focus and become even better at what we do today, and broaden our activities. The real challenge is to adapt to different needs that we don’t even know about today”, explains Ulrich Stöhr.
Publishing year 2020
Last edited 2020