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HEADLIGHTS
Know about what is Headlights ??
A headlights is a lamp, usually attached to the front
of a vehicle such as a car, with the purpose of
illuminating the road ahead during periods of low
visibility, such as night or precipitation.
The
first electric headlights were introduced in 1898 on the Columbia
Electric Car from the Electric Vehicle Company of Hartford, Connecticut,
and were optional.
The earliest headlights were fueled by acetylene
or oil.. Acetylene lamps were popular because the flame was
resistant to wind and rain. Two
factors limited the widespread use of electric
headlights: the short life of filaments in the harsh
automotive environment, and the difficulty of
producing dynamos small enough, yet powerful enough
to produce sufficient current.
A headlamp can also be mounted on a bicycle (with a
battery or small electrical generator), and most
other vehicles from airplanes to trains tend to have
headlights of their own.In 1912, Cadillac
integrated their vehicle's Delco electrical ignition
and lighting system, creating the modern vehicle
electrical system."Dipping" (low beam) headlights were introduced in
1915 by the Guide Lamp Company, but the 1917
Cadillac system allowed the light to be dipped with
a lever inside the car rather than requiring the
driver to stop and get out.
The 1924 Bilux bulb was
the first modern unit, having the light for both low
(dipped) and high (main) beams of a headlamp
emitting from a single bulb. A similar design was
introduced in 1925 by Guide Lamp called the "Duple".
In 1927, the foot-operated dimmer switch was
introduced and became standard for much of the
century. The last vehicle with a foot-operated
dimmer switch was the 1991 Ford F-Series.
The standardized 7 in
(178 mm) round sealed beam headlamp was introduced in 1940, and was soon
required for all vehicles sold in the United States.Fog lamps
were new for 1938 Cadillacs, and their 1954 "Atonics
Eye" system automated the switch between high and
low beams.
The first halogen headlamp for vehicle use was
introduced in 1962 by a consortium of European bulb
and headlamp makers. Halogen technology makes
incandescent filaments more efficient and can
produce more light than from non-halogen filaments
at the same power consumption. These halogen sealed
beams remain available, 25 years after
replaceable-bulb headlights returned to the US in
1983.
With some exceptions
from Volvo and Saab, this headlamp size format was never widely accepted
in Europe, leading to different front-end designs for each side of the
Atlantic for decades.
Australia Britain and other Commonwealth countries, as well as Japan,
also made extensive use of 7 inch sealed beams.
High-intensity discharge system was introduced in
1991's BMW 7-series. European and Japanese markets
began to prefer HID headlights, with as much as 50%
market share in those markets, but they found slow
adoption in North America. 1996's Lincoln Mark VIII
was an early American effort at HIDs, and was the
only car with DC HIDs.
Regulations and requirements
A headlamp system is
required to produce a low and a high beam, which may be achieved either
by an individual lamp for each function or by a single multifunction
lamp.Modern headlights are electrically operated,
positioned in pairs, one or two on each side of the
front of a vehicle. Low beams
(called "dipped beams" in some countries) have
stricter control of upward light, and direct most of
their light downward and either rightward (in
right-traffic countries) or leftward (in
left-traffic countries), to provide safe forward
visibility without excessive glare or backdazzle.
High beams (called
"main beams" or "full beams" or "driving beams" in
some countries) cast most of their light straight
ahead, maximizing seeing distance, but producing too
much glare for safe use when other vehicles are
present on the road. Because there is no especial
control of upward light, high beams also cause backdazzle from fog, rain and snow due to the
retroreflection of the water droplets.
Functions
High beam (main beam,
driving beam, full beam) headlights provide a bright, centre-weighted
distribution of light with no particular control of light directed
towards other road users' eyes.Low beam (dipped beam, passing beam, meeting
beam) headlights provide a distribution of light
designed to provide adequate forward and lateral
illumination with limits on light directed towards
the eyes of other road users, to control glare.
Control of glare is less
strict in the North American SAE beam standard contained in
FMVSS / CMVSS 108.
The international ECE
Regulations for filament headlights and for high-intensity discharge
headlights specify a beam with a sharp, asymmetric cutoff preventing
significant amounts of light from being cast into the eyes of drivers of
preceding or oncoming cars.
This beam is intended
for use whenever other vehicles are present ahead.
As
such, they are only suitable for use when alone on
the road, as the glare they produce will dazzle
other drivers. International ECE Regulations permit
higher-intensity high-beam headlights than are
allowed under North American regulations.
Use in daytime
Countries requiring DRL include Canada,
Colombia, Estonia, Iceland, Hungary, Latvia,
Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland, Slovenia, Sweden,
Finland and Norway.
Some countries require automobiles to be equipped
with automatic daytime running lamps (DRL), which
are intended to increase the conspicuity of vehicles
in motion during the daytime. DRL may consist of the
manual or automatic illumination of the low beams at full or reduced
intensity, or may not involve the headlights at all.
Compatibility with traffic directionality
Most low-beam headlights are specifically designed
for use on only one side of the road. Headlights for
use in left-traffic countries have low-beam
headlights that "dip to the left"; the light is
distributed with a downward/leftward bias to show
the driver the road and signs ahead without blinding
oncoming traffic. Because wrong-side-of-road
headlights blind oncoming drivers and do not adequately light the
driver's way, and blackout strips and adhesive prismatic lenses reduce
the safety performance of the headlights, most countries require all
vehicles registered or used on a permanent or semi permanent basis
within the country to be equipped with headlights designed for the
correct traffic-handedness.
Headlights for right-traffic
countries have low beams that "dip to the right",
with most of their light directed
downward/rightward. Within Europe, when driving a
vehicle with RH-traffic headlights in a LH-traffic
country or vice versa for a limited time (as for
example on vacation or in transit), it is a legal
requirement to adjust the headlights temporarily so
that the wrong-side hot spot of the beam does not
dazzle oncoming drivers.
North American vehicle owners
sometimes privately import and install
Japanese-market (JDM) headlights on their car in the
mistaken belief that the beam performance will be
better, when in fact such misapplication is quite
hazardous and usually illegal.This may be achieved by
adhering blackout strips or plastic prismatic lenses
to a designated part of the lens, but some varieties
of the projector-type headlamp can be made to
produce a proper left- or right-traffic beam by
shifting a lever or other movable element in or on
the lamp assembly.
Construction, performance, and aim
ECE low beams are
characterized by a distinct horizontal "cutoff" line at the top of the
beam. SAE low beams may or
may not have a cutoff, and if a cutoff is present,
it may be of two different general types: VOL, which
is conceptually similar to the ECE beam in that the
cutoff is located at the top of the left side of the
beam and aimed slightly below horizontal, or VOR,
which has the cutoff at the top of the right side of
the beam and aimed at the horizon. Below the line is
bright, and above is dark. On the side of the beam facing away from
oncoming traffic, this cutoff sweeps or steps upward to direct light to
road signs and pedestrians.There are two different beam pattern and headlamp
construction standards in use in the world: The ECE
standard, which is allowed or required in virtually
all industrialized countries except the United
States, and the SAE standard that is mandatory only
in the US.
ECE headlights' aim
angle is linked to headlamp mounting height. This gives vehicles with
high-mounted headlights a seeing distance advantage, at the cost of
increased glare to drivers in lower vehicles.Japan formerly had bespoke lighting
regulations similar to the US standards, but for the
left side of the road. However, Japan now adheres to
the ECE standard. The differences between the SAE
and ECE headlamp standards are primarily in the
amount of glare permitted towards other drivers on
low beam, the minimum amount of light required to be
thrown straight down the road, and the specific
locations within the beam at which minimum and
maximum light levels are specified.
Headlights must be kept in proper alignment.
Regulations for aim vary from country to country and
from beam specification to beam specification. US SAE
headlights are aimed without regard to headlamp mounting height.
Proponents of each headlamp system decry the other
as inadequate and unsafe: U.S. proponents of the SAE
system claim that the ECE low beam cutoff gives
short seeing distances and inadequate illumination
for overhead road signs, while international
proponents of the ECE system claim that the SAE
system produces too much glare. Comparative studies
have repeatedly shown that there is little or no
overall safety benefit to either SAE or ECE beams;
the two systems' acceptance and rejection by various
countries is based primarily on inertial and
philosophical grounds.This
gives all vehicles roughly equal seeing distance and all drivers roughly
equal glare
Headlights on new vehicles must produce white light,
according to both ECE and SAE standards. Previous
ECE regulations also permitted selective yellow
light, which from 1936 until 1993 was required on
all vehicles registered in France. Yellow headlights
are no longer required anywhere, but remain
permitted in France, Belgium, The Netherlands,
Switzerland, Japan, New Zealand, and some other
countries.
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