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Source: Pioneer Press, St.迷你倉庫 Paul, Minn.Aug. 10--You can find them at the bottom of the reflecting pools at the World Trade Center memorial. They're also in the bedrooms of Bill Gates and Howard Stern. And they're made in the Twin Cities.Mendota Heights-based MetroSpec's LED light strips are becoming increasingly common in architectural light fixtures -- you might even have some in your home.Once used primarily for lighted digital displays like alarm clocks and microwave oven timers, LEDs -- short for light-emitting diodes -- have become practical for use as stand-alone light sources.The low power draw and long life make them a heavy favorite to dominate the lighting industry within the decade."Every 30 to 50 years, there's a transformation that happens inlighting," MetroSpec CEO Vic Holec said. "LED is the new thing, and right now it's gaining a foothold."MetroSpec's signature product, FlexRad, is a peel-and-stick flexible circuit board with LED lights every inch or so. FlexRad generally ships in reels of 200 to 300 feet. In June, the company shipped the last few feet of its 250th mile of the light strips.But you won't find FlexRad on the shelves at your local hardware store. MetroSpec only sells its lights to other manufacturers who use them in their products.MetroSpec's clients include a number of recognizable names in the commercial lighting industry, but the company won't share them publicly.What is more interesting is the company's process.Holec was inspired to get into manufacturing while he was in Switzerland on business in 2005.He was working in Osseo, Minn., at a branch of British engineering firm IMI at the time.IMI had recently acquired a small Swiss company that manufactured urinal valves.Holec was charged with evaluating the company's strengths and weaknesses.He was blown away. About the size of a house, the little factory's efficiency was in its automation."The whole production facility had, maybe, a dozen people," Holecremembered. "They were doing $20 million of business a year -- just cranking out these valves, one right after another. ... I took a lesson from this."While at IMI, Holec and three friends had begun moonlighting as technology consultants in 2002, working out of his Mendota Heights basement under the name MetroSpec.When Holec returned to the U.S. after his trip to Switzerland, he told his partners about the little valve company's operation and suggested they try to duplicate such efficiency at home. The partners decided to shift their focus to manufacturing. All that remained was to figure out what exactly they would produce.In 2006, Holec quit his job with IMI to focus on MetroSpec full time."It was definitely a leap of faith," Holec said.The company soon moved its headquarters out of his basement and into space at the University of Minnesota's U-Tech business incubator.In 2007, Holec and his partners settled on LED lighting as their specialization. The company had worked with LED lighting applications in the past and saw the potential for growth.After working out of U-Tech for about a year, the young company moved into its current headquarters in Mendota Heights.In 2008, t儲存eir first full year manufacturing FlexRad, the company's revenue reached $466,000. The following year, they brought in $2.3 million.And although the company stopped releasing its revenue information in 2012, Holec says sales have increased significantly since 2011, when they were $5.8 million.Holec attributes the company's rapid growth to its fanatical emphasis on efficiency, a trait he traces to his trip to Switzerland.Holec says that once FlexRad's raw materials are brought on the production floor, the finished product is done in only about six hours.The company's automated optical inspection system is custom-built to detect microscopic flaws in its FlexRad strips before they reach the later stages of production.Although most manufacturers would be happy with a scrap rate -- the amount of materials that are discarded due to damage or defect -- of 1 percent, Holec says MetroSpec's scrap rate is closer to .01 percent.FlexRad itself also is designed to be efficient in its use of materials. Its minimalist design was no accident."In electronics, you've got labor and you've got materials," Holec said. "Of course, the labor can be cut with automation. With materials, FlexRad uses a fraction of the copper and other materials that bigger boards do."Holec informs guests that the company's entire 13,000-square-foot headquarters is lit with a single reel of FlexRad -- about the size of a large pizza, and packaged in a similar box."A building's worth of light can be put into one of these pizza boxes," Holec said. "If those had been fluorescent bulbs, it would've been a truckload."The company's headquarters doubles as a showroom for FlexRad's potential applications. While each room is lit by the product, no two rooms have the same combination of fixtures -- some are manufactured by their clients, others are retrofitted from conventional fixtures.The architectural lighting industry -- MetroSpec's target market -- has been an early adopter of LED technology, which has boosted the company's sales significantly."Architectural lighting is usually defined as more aesthetic than functional," Holec said. "But those lines are blurring a lot with LED. What had been considered an architectural light has become more functional."The company also has been bolstered by the increased penetration of LED lighting products in the market overall.While LED's share of the general lighting market stood at about 5 percent in 2011, a 2012 study by McKinsey & Co. estimates that will increase to 70 percent by 2020."The problem has been that the cost has been too high," Holec said. "That's come down very, very rapidly. When we developed this technology, we were paying five times as much as we do now. Every six months, we're repricing with our customers."The McKinsey study bears this out, although LEDs still are as much as triple the price of a halogen bulb."We have a long way to go," Holec said.Nick Woltman can be reached at 651-228-5189.Follow him on Twitter at @nickwoltman.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.) Visit the Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.) at .twincities.com Distributed by MCT Information Services新蒲崗迷你倉