Structured design method for automotive lamp reflectors

Marten Sikkens; Peter Nuyens

doi:10.1117/12.503460

3 November 2003 Structured design method for automotive lamp reflectors

Marten Sikkens, Peter Nuyens

Proceedings Volume 5173, Current Developments in Lens Design and Optical Engineering IV; 517306 (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.503460
Event: Optical Science and Technology, SPIE's 48th Annual Meeting, 2003, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The design of critical automotive lamp reflectors, e.g. headlamps and fog lamps, is dominated by trial-and-error methods and rules-of-thumb, supported by optical ray-tracing tools like ASAP etc. In many cases these reflectors are designed by aiming small sections to construct the required illumination distribution, which is a time-consuming task and in which case it is very difficult to maintain a continuous reflector surface. The design method presented here is a more structured approach in which the total available front surface is divided in a few relatively large sections, each section designated to produce a certain part of the required light distribution. An optimizing algorithm is used to optimize the separate polynomial reflector sections in combination with a specific burner. In the final step, the separate sections are put together to form a more-or-less continuous reflector surface. Some iteration afterwards is still required because the intersection lines of the polynomial surfaces will generally change the original section boundaries. The design of a front fog reflector lamp is used as a carrier to demonstrate the approach. Three reflector sections are used to design a high-efficiency fog lamp. The light distribution has an excellent horizontal cut-off that basically meets the SAE requirements.

Citation Download Citation

Marten Sikkens and Peter Nuyens "Structured design method for automotive lamp reflectors", Proc. SPIE 5173, Current Developments in Lens Design and Optical Engineering IV, 517306 (3 November 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.503460

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