ABOUT POLAB
Swedish designer and manufacturer of LED street luminaires.
Not a market opportunity. A materials question that nobody thought was worth asking.
BACKGROUND
Aluminium had long been the standard material for outdoor luminaires. There are sound reasons for this: the material conducts heat efficiently, is well understood by engineers, and is relatively straightforward to process at scale.
But in exposed environments — harbours, coastlines, industrial facilities — we kept seeing the same pattern. Corrosion. Salt ingress. Surface treatments cracking. Gaskets failing to seal. UV radiation attacking the material year after year.
LED technology kept improving. But in many installations, it was still the luminaire housing that failed first.
That raised a question we could not leave alone: why do we build luminaires expected to perform for decades, but make them dependent on a housing that ages faster than the electronics inside?
THE IDEA THAT WOULDN'T WORK
When we began investigating SMC composite as an alternative material, the response from the industry was almost always the same.
SMC composite conducts heat considerably less effectively than aluminium. In an LED luminaire, thermal management is critical — without adequate cooling, components run too hot, service life drops, and in the worst case the luminaire fails entirely. The material had long been used in infrastructure and marine environments, but for LED luminaires, the combination was considered wrong.
“It won't work.”
It was not an irrational conclusion. It was correct, based on how the industry solved the problem using existing materials and existing design principles.
But it was not a conclusion we accepted.
DEVELOPMENT
Lennart and Anders Sundström began experimenting.
Not with a single model — but with a series of designs, geometries, and material combinations. The goal was not to prove anyone wrong. The goal was to establish whether the problem could actually be solved through a different design philosophy.
Early prototypes did not perform adequately. That was expected. From each test we learned something about how internal geometry, airflow, and material combinations affected temperature. Each iteration added understanding that the previous one had not.
The collaboration with Signify provided access to controlled laboratory testing and component platforms that had undergone thousands of hours of validation. That gave us reference points to measure against — and gradually, results began to move in the right direction.
During the process, an additional opportunity was identified that further strengthened the product: integrating wireless controls directly into the luminaire housing, without a separate unit or additional cabling.
TECHNICAL PARTNER
Signify
Component platforms, laboratory testing, and technical expertise during the design verification of VALDUR.
CONTROLS TECHNOLOGY
LumenRadio — AirGlow
Wireless controls and presence detection integrated directly into the luminaire housing — no separate control unit required.
STRATEGY & MANUFACTURING
Manufacturing in Sweden meant we could never compete on price. We knew that from the outset. The majority of the world's luminaires are produced in low-cost countries, and on a competitive market that is a structural disadvantage that cannot simply be matched.
If VALDUR was to have a place in the market, it needed to be better.
Not cheaper.
That meant a deliberate decision to compete on material choice, construction quality, serviceability, and long-term cost of ownership — rather than on purchase price.
Manufactured in Sweden
The housing is moulded in Ljungby. Final assembly, configuration, and quality control take place in Fristad, outside Borås. This keeps short distances between development, production, and customer — and allows us to continue developing the product close to the environments where it is used.
MOULDING — SMC COMPOSITE
EXPERIENCE BEHIND THE COMPANY
Three generations in the industry.
POLAB's experience extends further back than the VALDUR project itself. The family's industrial roots can be traced to Hans Sundström, who between 1974 and 1999 built and led Sundström Safety — a company manufacturing respiratory protection and personal protective equipment for demanding industrial environments.
Hans's roles as Marketing Director, Deputy Managing Director, Managing Director, and co-owner gave him deep experience of what it takes to bring a quality product to an international market: long product cycles, high performance requirements, and customers operating in environments where luminaire failure carries serious consequences.
It was that experience — not capital or connections — that placed his sons Lennart and Anders Sundström in a position to take on a project that most had dismissed as unsolvable.
FOUNDERS
Lennart and Anders Sundström
The brothers behind the VALDUR project. The company operates from Fristad, Västra Götaland.
OWNERSHIP
The ownership group also brings experience from entrepreneurship, investment, and business development through Öjvind Norberg and Karl Åberg.
FROM PROTOTYPE TO INSTALLATION
What began as a technical idea is today installed in municipal, industrial, and coastal environments. Installations exist both within Sweden and beyond its borders.
A pattern we have noted: customers who have installed VALDUR once tend to order again. Not because we offer something unique, but because the luminaire continues to perform in environments where other products have not. That is the best confirmation we know.
Municipal
road lighting
Industrial
process environments
Coastal
marine environments
THE SAME OBJECTIVE AS FROM THE START
We are not trying to build the world's most complex luminaire.
To build lighting where material choice, service life, and long-term cost of ownership are allowed to outweigh short-term compromises.