Styling and Reflector Design - New Reflector Shapes for Low Beam, High Beam and Foglamps

For the automotive industry, the styling of a car is an important feature. Since the appearance of a car is strongly characterized by the headlamp, stylistic aspects have an increasing influence on the development of headlamps. At the same time, the trend goes toward reducing the constructional volume available to the headlamp and also integrating other functions such as foglamps. To fulfill all these requirements, new reflector shapes had to be created.

In this paper, different reflector concepts for low beam, high beam and foglamps are presented. They will be discussed under consideration of stylistic aspects (e.g. space for the required bulb shield, semi-clear outer lens) and technical aspects (e.g. thermal stress of plastic lenses).