Technology
Nature
The passion for light and our innate propensity
to innovate, to look for fresh, unanticipated, and
unexpected solutions, can be said to be two
constants in our history. SIMES has always produced
waterproof electrical equipment. We are experts
in outdoor lighting and only exclusively produce
waterproof lighting fixtures. Everyone who looks at
our products can immediately recognise the results
of our research, the desire to place light quality at
the centre of the design, and the understanding
that the strength, beauty, and uniqueness of our
work lies not only in the products themselves but
also in the illumination they enable, in the options
and opportunities they present in the contexts in
which they are used, and in the potential to directly
create architecture with and from light.
Indeed, innovation. It is difficult to specify,
guarantee, and sustain. Will we always be able
to innovate is a question we ask ourselves all the
time. Then one understands how life teaches that
each innovation inspires the next innovation; it is a
flow, a continuous process, which feeds on its very
nature, a nature which profoundly defines our DNA,
made up of a robust awareness and at the same
time an ability to look beyond what currently exists.
The dream
IP System® was the result of a visionary notion that
I had for many years and that slowly began to take
shape in a dream. In a way, it was a tribute to the
interior lighting sector, where businesses have long
offered systems, rails, on which products could be
placed as you wanted, and different sorts of spot
lights. And for years, I questioned not only whether
it was possible, but also how a system, such as an
outdoor rail, might be practical. And “no” has been
the response for more than three decades.
The challenge
A luminous silicone strip. Here is the intuition: the
silicone strip is actually an electrified gasket. We
would have had our own waterproof system if we
had been able to “collect” electricity using this
premise at any location along the strip. When I
presented this concept to my technical team, the
outcome was, shall we say, quite significant: There
was complete silence in the office for five minutes,
which felt to everyone like five years. Until the head
of the engineering department said, “Yes, it might
be conceivable. But, we must create a needle
system that can pierce the strip’. The idea, or
vision, was that this needle system might capture
the energy by piercing the silicone and then find
itself already wrapped in the material, safe from
the water. The prototype, created in just three days
in a truly handcrafted manner, was the subject of
a frenzied race with staple fragments, resin, and
Loctite. The first test, which involved intercepting
the copper component by penetrating the silicone
strip, was successful: we had our idea.
“I understood how life
teaches that each innovation
inspires the next innovation;
it is a flow, a continuous
process, which feeds on its
very nature, a nature which
profoundly defines our DNA.”
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