Performance oriented Requirements  for Front Lighting  

Dr. RainerNeumann

Varroc Lighting Systems GmbH, Germany

Contact email address:rneuman8@varroclighting.com

Abstract—The need to have reliable and good performingheadlamps during night driving in an automotive vehicle is getting more andmore important as the traffic conditions are changing rapidly. More vehicles onthe road, more complex tasks have to be fulfilled and all kind of road usersneed to be detected and have to be visible to avoid accidents and fatalities.Therefore the long time valid requirements in the ECE regulation, which arebased on the first halogen light sources introduced in the 60’s are not anymorethe benchmark. When we look into the development of headlamp technology in thelast decades we have achieved a much higher standard which need to be adaptedinto the new vehicle demands. Hereby the definition of a new regulation in ECEneeds to be based on the real light distribution on the road and not anymore bydefinition of the light volume of the light, which is emitted by the lightsource. Moreover, the task to simplify the regulations in the next years leadsdirectly to the idea to introduce performance oriented requirements and leavethe type of light source and means to produce this light open for themanufacturer. The paper describes this approach with a first proposal. Theopportunities of today have to be taken into account, but also the globalmarket aspects, where we do see different adaptation of innovative technologyin different timelines. The first priority remains to improve safety andreliability in lighting devices for the future.

Keywords:  Headlamp Systems,Safety, Legislation, Light Performance