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01/09/2006
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Schefenacker, a European leader in the manufacture of LED tail lamps and signal lamps, says it is now “working flat out” to develop LED technologies for headlamps. And the company reports promising developments, some of which are being road tested.
Although LED technology is already on the market for daytime running lights – Schefenacker entered the front-end lighting segment with a unit for the new Audi S6 – further development is required for their use in high and low beams.
Schefenacker says its advantages in this area are optical concepts that make very efficient use of the LED light. The ‘symbiotic optics’ concept developed by Schefenacker is said to be able to exceed the 50% barrier in the optical efficiency of low beams. In comparison, the same figure for xenon light is only about 30%.
“LEDs will be an extremely interesting option for use in headlamps once the level of 60% efficiency is reached,” says Dr Dag Wagner, head of preliminary development. “Schefenacker will be getting even closer to this goal in the coming months.”
Both single-chip LEDs and multi-chip LEDs are used for light generation, while the light is distributed through lens systems, reflector systems and mixed systems using ‘symbiotic optics’.
To dissipate the heat from the LED modules, Schefenacker has developed active cooling rather than passive systems that rely on natural convection.
The Schefenacker LED headlamp team has used state-of-the-art thermal and airflow simulations to create a counterflow heat exchange method which does more than simply cool; it also ensures an optimal airflow distribution within the headlamp, which makes it possible to evenly defrost and defog the headlamp cover lenses.
New strategies for lighting up bends are also being considered. According to Dr Wagner’s team LED technology makes it possible to achieve this without mechanisms to redirect the beam. Instead, one or more modules which are permanently directed towards the curve are turned on.
This type of solution is not expected to come into use for a number of years – until the cost of the additional LEDs needed reduces to a much lower level and when LEDs with greater light output are available. In the meantime, Schefenacker is pursuing a different strategy, developing swivel systems that allow the infinitely variable rotation of a portion of the small light modules in accordance with steering angle or direction indicator setting.
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Author
Roger Bishop
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Copyright European Automotive Design.
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